“Civilization” through Speech: The Role of Language in Instituting and

Resisting Canadian Colonialism

Katelynn Folkerts

10007087

DEVS 220

Global Development Studies

Assignment: Final Essay

11-30-2013

According to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Constitution Act of

1982, Canada is legally a bilingual country with two official languages: English and French.

These languages are “the official languages of Canada and have equal rights and privileges as to

their use in all institutions of the Parliament and government of Canada.” What this statement –

and the entire Act for that matter – does not recognize is that somewhere between 300 and 500

Indigenous languages were alive and well in use before any French or English speaker set foot in

what are now known as the United States and Canada (McCarty et. al 2006: 29). It does not

recognize that today over 200 of those languages are still in existence though they continue to

face major threats to their strength and vitality (Krauss 1998). Embodied in this constitution is

one of the most powerful ways that colonial powers seek to dominate colonized peoples: through

the erosion and displacement of their language. Language is a means of communication; of the

socializing children; and of organizing society. Perhaps most importantly, language is vital to the

strength, vitality, and often existence of the culture it represents. This is especially true for

Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Aboriginal languages have been described as the tangible

embodiment Aboriginal identity, denoting distinct value systems; knowledge systems; and

relationships with people, nature and ancestors. They are, in essence the representation of a

distinct way of viewing and interacting with the world. This is perhaps why Aboriginal

languages have been directly and indirectly attacked throughout European colonialism of this

land. If the ultimate goal of colonization is to erase or subsume subject peoples, targeting one of

the major pillars their identity is bound to be a preferred strategy. Policies and legislation enacted

through Canadian colonial history have resulted in the endangered status of most Aboriginal

languages in Canada today, with only a handful experiencing any meaningful growth (Statistics

Canada 2011). This, in turn poses direct threats to the health and continuity of Aboriginal

cultures, identities and communities. This essay will draw on an anti-colonial discursive

framework to contend that though the cultural significance of Aboriginal languages has made

them a primary target in the colonial project of forced assimilation, they can also be seen as

providing the grounds for an important site of decolonization and resistance to mainstream

colonial society, and for the continued restoration of the integrity and validity of Aboriginal

identity.

The argument shall be structured as follows: I begin by outlining the importance of

Aboriginal languages as embodying the essence of Aboriginal culture and identity. This will lead

to an examination of the broad goals of colonialism in order to illustrate how language

oppression can be seen as a major strategy of fulfilling such goals. I then provide a concrete

historical example of the motivations and methods used to attempt to eradicate Aboriginal

languages, as well as their effects. Finally, I conclude with an examination of the ways in which

several thinkers have put forth the idea of language use as a site for decolonization and

resistance, as a means of strengthening and promoting Aboriginal values, knowledge, lifestyles

and worldviews.

In order to understand why targeting Aboriginal languages is essential to the project of

assimilation and erasure of Aboriginal identity; as well as an opportunity for decolonization, it is

vital to understand the nature and importance of these languages to the people who use them. I

will attempt to covey this using a holistic model of understanding, elaborating on the spiritual,

emotional, cognitive and physical dimensions of Aboriginal languages. Though I present them

individually, let it be understood that each of these dimensions is interrelated with the others, and

together form a “living” and dynamic language which represents the very essence of Aboriginal

culture and identity. First, Aboriginal languages inhabit a spiritual dimension, embodying

spiritual relationships between people, nature, ancestors, and the Creator. The Assembly of First

Nations’ National Language Strategy (2007: 3) states that “languages are a gift from the Creator

which carry with them unique and irreplaceable values and spiritual beliefs that allow speakers to

relate with their ancestors and to take part in sacred ceremonies.” Speaking in Aboriginal

languages allows for connection with one’s ancestors as their words, knowledge, and stories can

transcend time to enrich the lives of their descendants. For Dr. Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley,

“when we use our own native language, we go into the thought world of our ancestors, including

their language and thought systems” (NWT Literacy Council 9). Aboriginal languages thus form

an integral component of Aboriginal identity and culture as they represent a unique source of

spiritual connection, communication and knowledge, including receiving stories, revelations and

instructions which help people live their lives together and with nature.

This spiritual dimension is inherently connected to the physical dimension of Aboriginal

languages. As part of their being a gift from the Creator, Aboriginal languages describe how

interactions between humans and the natural world take place. A Mikmaq story as recounted by

Battiste (1998:17) illustrates how instructions from the Creator were given to the Mikmaq people

to teach them how to survive with the land, hunting, fishing, using animal skins and plants. She

relates how, “our Creator taught us all that is wise and good and, then, gave us a language that

we could pass this knowledge to our children so that they might be able to survive and flourish”

(Battiste 1998:17). Thus spirit knowledge translates into knowledge concerning the physical

world. Words, phrases and stories were shaped by a long relationship with the particular

ecological environment that they are used. Distinctly verb, rather than noun-based, Aboriginal

languages describe natural processes in a manner that emphasizes fluidity, reciprocity,

replenishment and respect (Little Bear 2000:78-79; Battiste 2011:284). Plants, animals and other

natural matter are all considered animate, having their own spirits; and thus also worthy of

respect (Little Bear 2000:78). In this way, Aboriginal languages are vital to Aboriginal culture

and identity as they embody a particular relationship with the physical world which defined

interactions between humans and the land in a way which would assist them in surviving within

ecological processes rather than subjecting nature to human domination (Battiste 2011:202).

In this way we also see how Aboriginal languages also carry an emotional dimension of

relational attachment, articulating and attaching specific relationships between the spiritual

realm, the land and Aboriginal people themselves. According to Dakota elder Eli Taylor,

“Our native language embodies a value system about how we ought to live and relate to

each other. It gives a name to relations among kin, to roles and responsibilities among

family members, to ties with the broader clan group. There are no English words for

these relationships” (Fettes 1998:118).

Aboriginal languages are thus vital to family and community cohesion, as well as to the strength

of Aboriginal nations as distinct cultural identities. For many, they are the “ultimate symbol of

culture and collective identity” (Norris 2010:8). They embody certain relationships and allow

them to be shared between people and passed down from generation to generation. In this way,

Aboriginal languages are vital to the continuation of culture and identity as they form concrete

ties between Aboriginal people themselves.

All of these three dimensions (spiritual, physical and emotional), are reflected in the

cognitive dimension of Aboriginal languages. Embedded within Aboriginal languages are

spiritual, physical, and interpersonal knowledges. These “complementary modes of knowing

have been continually transmitted through the oral tradition” as a means of creating a shared

conception of how the world works and how to act within it (Battiste 1998:18). Cultural

knowledge is therefore both contained and shared through Aboriginal languages, marking an

important basis for Aboriginal ways of living and relating. In this way, we see how Aboriginal

languages are vital to Aboriginal identity and culture. They represent a spiritual connection with

the Creator and ancestors which imparts spiritual knowledge concerning physical survival and

interpersonal relationships. They embody a particular relationship with nature, which is

markedly distinct from Western notions of domination and control of the physical world.

Aboriginal languages also attach emotional relationships among people, families and larger

communities. They thus represent distinct ways of knowing in all these dimensions which form a

worldview that is “holistic and cyclical or repetitive, generalist, process-oriented, and firmly

grounded in a particular place” (Little Bear 2000:78). Their ultimate importance is well

summarized in a statement made by William Harjo Lonefight (in McCarty et. al 2006:28):

“When people spoke Dakota, they understood where they belonged in relation to other people, to

the natural world, and to the spiritual world.” Examining the spiritual, physical, emotional and

cognitive dimensions of Aboriginal languages helps us to understand how they fundamentally

embody Aboriginal culture and also allow for it to be transmitted from one generation to another.

Because Aboriginal languages are so central to Aboriginal culture and its continuity, they

have presented a significant target for colonial interventions. Given the broad goals of

colonialism, it is not difficult to determine why. First, European colonialism relied on the

expropriation of land and resources from Aboriginal people. This depended on the representation

of the land as “empty” and awaiting productive transformation by incoming settlers. It was thus

necessary to deny the existence of an Aboriginal identity, or else gradually subsume it within a

new, homogenous “Canadian” identity. Targeting Aboriginal languages would provide one way

to erase the identity of Aboriginal people occupying the land. Second, as colonialism

progressed, Aboriginal culture came to be seen more and more as a barrier to their “civilization”

– based on Western European ideals of modernity and progress as well as a capitalist work ethic.

Their lack of these “industrial” values was preventing their successful incorporation into

mainstream Canadian society (Department of Indian Affairs 1895:23). Thus the replacement of

Aboriginal languages with European languages of English and French can be seen as a necessary

part of transforming the “primitive” values embedded within Aboriginal languages which

prevented social progress. This objective is best illustrated in the person of Superintendent of

Indian Affairs Duncan Cambell Scott, who believed that “‘progress’ meant the disappearance of

a distinctive Native culture and the total absorption of native peoples into the general population

of Canada” (Salem-Wiseman 1996:139). It follows that the suppression of Aboriginal languages

was central to the goal of erasing of Aboriginal identity and culture in order to build the

homogenous, civilized nation-state of Canada. This was largely seen in policies and legislation

which both directly and indirectly undermined Aboriginal language use. This is perhaps best

exemplified in education policy.

The residential schooling of Aboriginal children is an immensely important subject which

is related to nearly every aspect of colonialism. Though the effects residential schools on

Aboriginal societies are egregious, far reaching and immense, this section will focus solely on

language and how education is an example of how colonial policies specifically targeted

language in order to undermine Aboriginal identity. This is not to say that this is the only manner

in which education policies affected Aboriginal identity or even that language was the most

important factor; it is simply to examine the motivations behind colonial language suppression

and provide an example of a means by which this occurred. The purpose of residential schools

was ultimately to resocialize Aboriginal children (RCAP 1996). Because Aboriginal culture and

identity was seen as prohibiting their successful incorporation into mainstream Canadian society,

their main objective was to remove children from their culture and implant a new, “civilized”

identity. According to Duncan Campbell Scott, they aimed to “kill the Indian in the child” in

order to “get rid of the Indian problem” (Mennonite Church of Canada 2010:2).

One of the most important ways that this goal was pursued was in forbidding attendees to

speak their Aboriginal languages, instead forcing them to use the colonizer’s languages of

English and French. Officials and educators recognized the vital role Aboriginal languages

played in connecting Aboriginal youth to their peers, their families, their histories and, ultimately

their culture. Erasing Aboriginal languages thus became major tool used in supplanting these

relationships and worldviews with new values and a new identity. Through an examination of

official period documents concerning education we can identify this strategy quite plainly. The

1895 Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs states:

To a certain stage in an Indian's advancement there exists but little doubt that he should

be kept in communities; but as soon as that stage is reached, and it should be at an early

period, be should be brought to compete with his fellow whites; but in order that this may

be done effectually be must be taught the English language. So long as he keeps his

native tongue, so long will he remain a community apart.

If the Indian has not had, with his white neighbours, the same chance to acquire industrial

knowledge, he cannot be blamed for not having these qualities equally with us, and for all

we do for him we must from the first consider the English language quality, for without it

he is permanently disabled, and from what Indians have I said to me and from requests

made by them, it is evident that they are beginning to recognize the force of this

themselves. With this end in view the children in all the industrial and boarding

schools are taught in the English language exclusively.1

Of late years there has been a pretty well recognized and rational policy, and it seems

most desirable that it should be carried into execution with as much vigour as possible, so

that the results anticipated from it may be reached as speedily as possible (1895:xxii-

xxiii).

In this passage we can identify a number of themes that are helpful to our analysis of the

importance of language to the colonial project. First, the overarching goal of assimilation is

1 Sentence in bold for emphasis; not so in original text. See Appendix.

clearly stated. The aim of policy makers at the time was ultimately to subsume Aboriginal people

into the larger mainstream society, so that they would no longer remain “a community apart.”

Second, this assimilation was to occur so that Aboriginal people could make the necessary

cultural changes needed to compete and succeed in white Canadian society. They were required

to replace Aboriginal values which were apparently “prejudiced against labour” (Department of

Indian Affairs 1895:23) with industrial values which would allow them to compete in a

commercialized society. Finally the theme of targeting language as a means of achieving such

goals is clearly stated. According to this passage, policy makers of the time saw learning the

English language as a way in which these industrial values could be instilled in Aboriginal

children. This would essentially have the effect of replacing the holistic spiritual, physical,

emotional and cognitive knowledges embedded within Aboriginal languages with colonial

“industrial knowledge.”

This policy would be put into concrete practice in the residential school system. Neegan

(2005:6) contends that “Aboriginal languages were the first targets of the operators of residential

schools;” while Denis (2007:1073) describes the “slaying” of Aboriginal languages through the

severe shaming and punishment that came with using a native language. According to residential

school principal E. F. Wilson of the Shingwauk School in Ontario, “We make a great point of the

boys talking English, as for their advancement in civilization, this is, of all things, the most

necessary” (Legacy of Hope Foundation 2009:2). In this way, we see that the overarching goals

of colonialism – assimilation, civilization and eradication of Aboriginal culture and identity –

were all addressed in targeting language. Furthermore, it is recognized that this policy was

successful to a large extent. Today many Aboriginal languages in Canada face extinction as a

result of language loss and belief in the inferiority of Aboriginal languages as a result of

residential schooling (Neegan 2005:7).

In conclusion, the examination of this policy and its practice in residential schools has

helped identify the motivations behind the suppression of Aboriginal languages, as well as

provided an example of one of the ways this was accomplished. Ultimately, we can view

language can be seen as discursive space within which reality can only be articulated and even

conceived of in certain ways (Foucault 1972). Colonialism proceeded by attempting to use

European languages to force Aboriginal people to adopt their conceptions of reality, which

included “industrial” values and the denial of Aboriginal culture and identity. However, though

Aboriginal languages have been discredited and labelled inferior, they can arguably be seen as an

important site for decolonization through the recovery of Aboriginal knowledges, values and

worldviews. Fanon describes colonized people as “every people in whose soul an inferiority

complex has been created by the death and burial of its local culture originality… [who] finds

itself face to face with the language of the civilizing nation; that is, with the culture of the mother

country” (Fanon 2008 :105). If this is true, what is needed is a drastic break from the language,

and therefore the culture of the colonial country. For Mowhawk professor Taiaiake Alfred,

language is a form of power, and Aboriginal people “must recover ways of knowing and relating

from outside the mental and ideational framework of colonialism by regenerating themselves in a

conceptual universe formed through Indigenous languages” (Alfred 2005:613). This brings us

back to the unique worldview embodied in the spiritual, physical, emotional and cognitive

dimensions of Aboriginal languages. Returning to this mindset would assist in de-internalizing

the colonial values imposed through the forced use of European languages; provide a new lens

through which to view the world; and give a framework for different ways of relating and

interacting with humans and nature. Not only would it reaffirm and revitalize Aboriginal

cultures, but it would strengthen channels of cultural continuity contributing to stronger and

healthier communities. In this way, language revitalization represents a foundation of decolonial

resistance which can be used to empower Aboriginal communities to challenge the colonial

order.

This is by no means a straightforward or simple task. In addition to the historical attacks

on Aboriginal languages, they continually face the challenges posed by exposure to dominant

European languages and well as their lack of use in education, government and the workplace.

Currently only a handful of Aboriginal languages (mainly Inuit, Cree, and Ojibway) are able to

maintain a significant population of speakers, while the others experience major declines in use

and continuity (Norris 2004:4; Norris 1998:39-40; RCAP 1996). Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal

allies will need to engage in meaningful partnerships to continue to research and resist the ways

that language imperialism has been essential to the project of colonization and has become an

integral underpinning of mainstream Canadian society. Arguably, both Aboriginal and non-

Aboriginal communities would benefit from the re-emphasis of balance between the spiritual,

physical, emotional and cognitive realms. This has already begun to take place through the work

of scholars such as Marie Battiste (1998; 2011), who interrogate the ways in which Canada’s

educational system has served as a form of “cognitive imperialism” which discredits competing

values and ways of knowing (Battiste 2011:198). Efforts can then be directed to determining

concrete strategies of subverting the domination of the colonial languages in order to decolonize

the way we think and view reality. Despite the challenges faced by breaks in transmission and

constant pressure from mainstream languages, there is hope for this, for;

The spirit and socialization of aboriginal languages are still embedded in succeeding

generations. Aboriginal languages have a spirit of a soul that can be known through the

people themselves, and renewing and rebuilding from within the peoples itself is itself the

process of coming to know (Battiste 2011:284).

Our task is to create a space for the revitalizing of Aboriginal knowledge and ways of being as

well as for their continued development. In this way, we can engage in meaningful acts of

decolonization of both ourselves and the societies to which we belong, and resist the colonial

constructs that have come to dominate the way we speak, think, dream and imagine.

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Appendix

Source : Canada. Department of Indian Affairs. Dominion of Canada Annual Report of the

Department of Indian Affairs for the Year Ended 30th June 1895. 29 Vol. Ottawa:

Department of Indian Affairs, 1895. Web. 30 Nov. 2013