NEȾOLṈEW̱ ‘one mind, one people’: Indigenous Language Research Network

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Adult Indigenous contributions to reviving languages in British Columbia through Mentor-Apprentice style learning: Assessment Tool
(Netolnew, 2018) McIvor, Onowa; Jacobs, Peter
The assessment tool (at) fills a gap in adult Indigenous language learning (aIll) by expanding on existing models, accounting for the unique learning context of aIll, and incorporating project participants’ feedback and input.
Adult Indigenous contributions to reviving languages in British Columbia through Mentor-Apprentice style learning: Executive Summary
(NEȾOLṈEW̱, 2018) McIvor, Onowa; Jacobs, Peter
Our joint research project studied adult Indigenous language learning in British Columbia through the popular Mentor-Apprentice Program (MAP) method. Increasingly, adult Indigenous language learners are identified as the “missing generation” who hold great potential to contribute to the revival of Indigenous languages and act as the middle ground between Elders, children, and youth in their communities. The research project aimed to document the successes and challenges of MAP in the BC context. Over a three-year period, we interviewed over 60 participants, including current and past apprentices, current and past language mentors, and administrators.
Adult Indigenous language learning in Western Canada: What is holding us back?
(Linus Learning, 2015) McIvor, Onowa
Adult language learners are often overlooked as serious contributors to the overall revival of Indigenous languages. This paper focuses on this “missing generation”, those who are striving to (re)gain their ancestral language(s) in their adult life. The findings that emerged from a self-study of one urban adult Indigenous language learner allow the following questions to be more broadly addressed: What do we know about adult Indigenous language learning? Are some learning and teaching methods more promising than others? What conditions must exist for successful adult language acquisition? What is holding us back? What are the common barriers and challenges for adult language learners? How do we overcome the common barriers and challenges to successfully achieve language proficiency? The following paper addresses these questions in an exploration of adult Indigenous language learning in Western Canada using research journal excerpts from my autoethnographic study as well as an exploration of relevant literature.
Assessment tool research report
(NEȾOLṈEW̱, 2025-06) McIvor, Onowa; Creed, Myles
The NEȾOLṈEW̱ Language Learning Assessment Tool was developed in 2016 as part of the original NEȾOLṈEW̱ Research Partnership, which focused on the mentor-apprentice program. In the second phase of the NEȾOLṈEW̱ Assessment Project (2023-2025), we sought to understand how assessment tools can support language learning, how this tool has been used, and how it could be improved.
Assessment tool research report summary
(NEȾOLṈEW̱, 2025-06) McIvor, Onowa; Creed, Myles
The NEȾOLṈEW̱ Language Learning Assessment Tool was developed in 2016 as part of the original NEȾOLṈEW̱ Research Partnership, which focused on the mentor-apprentice program. In the second phase of the NEȾOLṈEW̱ Assessment Project (2023-2025), we sought to understand how assessment tools can support language learning, how this tool has been used, and how it could be improved.
Back to the Future: Recreating Natural Indigenous Language Learning Environments Through Language Nest Early Childhood Immersion Programs
(The International Journal of Holistic Early Learning and Development, 2016) McIvor, Onowa; Parker, Aliana
For a language to have a stable future, children need to be learning it. Immersion for young children is the best method for rapid language regeneration as it can produce new proficient speakers within a few years. Although early childhood language immersion programs, commonly known as language nests, have been recognized internationally as the most successful means available today for language revitalization, this method is not yet well subscribed to in Indigenous Canada. This paper provides a picture of early childhood Indigenous immersion language programming and presents it as one viable solution to the challenge of Indigenous language loss in Canada. In addition, it is hoped that this paper can be a starting point for Indigenous community members interested in immersion early childhood approaches to their children’s health, identity development, and overall wellbeing.
Beyond bilingualism: Indigenous languages’ place in the lands now called Kanata [Keynote address]
(Canadian Centre for Studies and Research on Bilingualism and Language Planning (CCERBAL), 2021-04-29) McIvor, Onowa
The road to the creation of language policy in Canada doomed Indigenous languages from the beginning, ignored from the time of Confederation in 1867 (Derwing and Munro, 2007). “Canada has been officially bilingual since its founding” notes Gourd (2007, p. 122). Colonial attitudes towards Indigenous people denied their involvement when language policy was being determined in Canada. The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism established in 1963, through both title and intention pre-determined the outcomes in relation to Indigenous languages as its focus was limited to the “two founding races” (Innis, 1973, Foreword). From this basis of cultural and linguistic imperialism, Indigenous languages were treated as if they did not exist. Hague & Patrick (2014) explain, “indigenous language interests continued to be marginalised in policy priorities shaped by the Canadian state's colonialist and racist underpinnings…. [and] little place for indigenous languages was recognised by those with the power to shape Canadian policy” (p. 28). After more than a century of exclusion, following decades of Indigenous advocacy efforts, the Government of Canada passed an Act Respecting Indigenous Languages (Bill C-91, 2019). Now, adequate implementation and long-term, stable funding for Indigenous language education to ensure language survival is needed. With adequate resources – and efforts of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people – Indigenous languages could be restored within three generations. A national project led by Indigenous language champions, educators, scholars, and non-Indigenous allies from across Canada came together in 2016 to engage in positive action through a federally-funded, Indigenous-led language revitalization research project, entitled NEȾOLṈEW (one mind-one people). The name signifies the spirit of collaboration and unity towards the goal of Indigenous language revitalization and maintenance, embracing the diversity of languages across distinctive Indigenous communities and cultures. The overall goals of the project are to document successful language programs, strengthen leadership capacity, share knowledge, and create political pressure for federal, provincial and territorial action that provides meaningful support for Indigenous language retention, revitalization and recovery. This collaborative agenda across language groups and communities, together with settler-allies, is critical in the continuation and revival of Indigenous languages. These languages are “part of our shared heritage as Canadians” (FPCC, 2014) and therefore our shared futures and shared responsibility too. Together we must take a stand to restore Indigenous languages, the original of these lands, a place where languages should thrive alongside, not instead of each other.
Beyond the classroom: The impact of a required Indigenous education course in the lives of pre-service teachers
(Promising Practices in Indigenous Teacher Education, 2018) Rodríguez de France, Maria del Carmen; Scully, Alexa; McIvor, Onowa
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC, 2015) released in June 2015 marked a pivotal moment in the history of education in Canada. The report included 94 calls ‘Calls to action’ that stressed the importance of addressing the many injustices committed against Indigenous1 peoples attending residential schools between 1876 and 1996. In these calls the need for federal, provincial, territorial and Aboriginal governments to play a key role in developing education for reconciliation was highlighted. In particular, Call 62i recommended that educators work to develop ‘age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students’ (p. 11). Similarly, Call 62ii states that the provincial and territorial governments, who are responsible for education, need to ‘provide the necessary funding to postsecondary institutions to educate teachers on how to integrate Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods into classrooms’ (p.11). This chapter will describe how three instructors, working in two post-secondary Canadian institutions, have worked to introduce required courses in Indigenous education with an aim towards shifting the minds and hearts of pre-service teachers in becoming more culturally aware, responsive, and inclusive to the learning aspirations and experiences of Indigenous peoples in Canada.
Canada’s big chill: Indigenous languages in education
(Sense Publishers, 2013) Ball, Jessica; McIvor, Onowa
wihtaskamihk kîkâc kahkiyaw nîhîyaw pîkiskwîwina î namatîpayiwa wiya môniyâw onîkânîwak kayâs kâkiy sihcikîcik ka nakinahkwâw nîhiyaw osihcikîwina. atawiya anohc kanâta askiy kâpimipayihtâcik î tipahamok nîhiyaw awâsisak kakisinâmâkosicik mîna apisis î tipahamok mîna ta kakwiy miciminamâ nîhiyawîwin. namoya mâka mitoni tapwîy kontayiwâk î nîsohkamâkawinaw ka miciminamâ nipîkiskwîwinân. pako kwayas ka sihcikiy kîspin tâpwiy kâ kakwiy miciminamâ nîhîyawîwin îkwa tapwiy kwayas ka kiskinâhamowâyâ kicowâsim’sinân. ôma masinayikanis îwihcikâtîw tânihki kîkâc kâ namatîpayicik nipîkiskwîwinân îkwa takahki sihcikîwina mîna misowiy kâ apicihtâcik ka pasikwînahkwâw nîhiyawîwin nanântawisi. (Translated into Nîhîyawîwin (Northern Cree) [crk], a language of Canada, by Art Napoleon) Canada’s Indigenous languages are at risk of extinction because of government policies that have actively opposed or neglected them. A few positive steps by government include investments in Aboriginal Head Start, a culturally based early childhood program, as well as a federal Aboriginal Languages Initiative. Overall, however, government and public schools have yet to demonstrate serious support for Indigenous language revitalization. Language-in-education policies must address the historically and legislatively created needs of Indigenous Peoples to increase the number of Indigenous language speakers and honor the right of Indigenous children to be educated in their language and according to their heritage, with culturally meaningful curricula, cultural safety, and dignity. This chapter describes how Canada arrived at a state of Indigenous language devastation, then explores some promising developments in community-driven heritage language teaching, and finally presents an ecologically comprehensive strategy for Indigenous language revitalization that draws on and goes beyond the roles of formal schooling. It’s been a cold 130 years for Canada’s first languages, and the thaw is still awaited. (Fettes & Norton, 2000: 29)
Claiming Space: An Autoethnographic Study of Indigenous Graduate Students Engaged in Language Reclamation
(International Journal of Multicultural Education, 2015) Chew, Kari A. B.; Greendeer, Nitana Hicks; Keliiaa, Caitlin
This article explores the critical role of an emerging generation of Indigenous scholars and activists in ensuring the continuity of their endangered heritage languages. Using collaborative autoethnography as a research method, the authors present personal accounts of their pursuit of language reclamation through graduate degree programs. These accounts speak to the importance of access to Indigenous languages and the necessity of space at universities to engage in language reclamation. The authors view higher education as a tool—though one that must be improved—to support Indigenous language reclamation efforts.
"Culture" as HIV Prevention: Indigenous Youth Speak Up!
(Gateways: International International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, 2014) Wilson, Ciann; Oliver, Vanessa; Flicker, Sarah; Prentice, Tracey; Jackson, Randy; Larkin, June; Restoule, Jean-Paul; Mitchell, Claudia
One rainy spring evening, our research team was preparing for a community report-back session on the Taking Action community-based participatory action research project in Kahnawà:ke, a Mohawk reserve located near Montreal. We presented our major research findings by showcasing several of the arts-based products (e.g. murals, paintings, hip hop songs and videos) produced by youth participants during the project, linking structural inequity to HIV vulnerability (Flicker 2012; Flicker et al. 2014a, b). The event culminated in a conversation with the audience on the issues raised in the project. During the discussion, one man asked: ‘Why are Aboriginal youth into hip hop, wearing baggy clothes and acting Black?’ Many of the youth present were frustrated by the question. They tried to explain that Indigenous cultures are not static; rather they are fluid and change over time. They felt that expression through hip hop and ‘new’ forms of art were mediums as powerful as drumming circles or pow-wows for conveying their health promotion messages to their peers. One of the adults in the room chimed in, stating, ‘Ya, I do photography. That is not often seen as a traditional Aboriginal art form, but what does it mean to be “authentically” Aboriginal?’ Not completely sure if he was satisfied with the answers he had received, the man sat back in his seat mulling over the responses. The discussions in this community exemplify the challenges between representations of Indigenous identity and traditional and contemporary Indigenous cultures. They highlight the ways in which Indigenous identity is often thought to be synonymous with ‘static’, ‘primitive’ and ‘unchanging’ traditions that are often juxtaposed with ‘contemporary’ practices (King 2011). This vignette also demonstrates how Indigenous identity expression has taken on political, historical, racial and nationalist signification and remains a site of much tension, both within and outside Indigenous communities in Canada. In this article, we explore (a) the ways Indigenous youth involved in an HIV intervention take up and reclaim their cultures as a project of defining self, and (b) the way Indigenous culture can be used as a tool for resistance, HIV prevention, and health promotion more generally. Here, we draw on Simpson’s (2011) definition of culture as a series of interrelated processes (e.g. activities, ceremonies) that engage our full beings and require our full presence (mental, physical, spiritual, etc.) in order to survive, live full lives and grow.
Enacting Indigenous Language and Cultural Reclamation across Geographies and Positionalities
(Transmotion, 2019) Chew, Kari A. B.; Anthony-Stevens, Vanessa; LeClair-Diaz, Amanda; Nicholas, Sheilah E.; Sobotta, Angel; Stevens, Philip
In globalizing landscapes, Indigenous ways of knowing and being persist in their connectedness to specific geographies, even as they are transformed by migrations, both forced and voluntary, and dynamic exchanges. This paper presents narratives of Indigenous and ally scholars which explore what it means to enact language and culture reclamation from a place of hope—by Indigenous peoples, for Indigenous communities—and in connection with distinct historical, political, and geographic sites. By naming the identities the authors represent—Chickasaw, Nez Perce, Eastern Shoshone/Northern Arapaho, Hopi, San Carlos Apache and Euro-American—we use a framework of hope to counter damaging assumptions of homogeneity of Indigenous communities while also searching for common themes to advance an agenda of decolonization across positionalities. Understanding that Indigenous sovereignties are built on “contingency with the beliefs, and understandings of the past” (Grande 250), we interrupt settler-colonial narratives which portray Indigenous languages and cultures as deficient and vanishing. Further, through narratives, we explore how disciplines such as linguistics, anthropology, education, and cultural studies can be interwoven to highlight experiences of identity reconciliation, spirituality through language revitalization, and storytelling as narrative reclamation. A critical culturally sustaining/revitalizing pedagogy unifies the narratives and provides a framework for attending to “asymmetrical power relations and legacies of colonization” (McCarty and Lee 8). In this way, Indigenous narratives of persistence and optimism find relevance in the global and local here and now while emphasizing the relevancy of hope as a rooted practice of relationality in Indigenous language and cultural education. Sharing narratives of hope acknowledges the experience of colonization, while privileging the hope in Indigenous knowledge as a return to the community and generator of new narratives.
Engaging, connecting, and mobilizing Indigenous language learning leaders, supporters, and researchers through an online sharing space: NILLA (NEȾOLṈEW Indigenous Language Learning Atlas) [Position Paper]
(NEȾOLṈEW, 2019-03) McIvor, Onowa
This paper reports the outcomes from two community engagement events with Indigenous partners and allies, on a) the development of NILLA, and b) more broadly our position on strengthening research by and with Indigenous people.
An exploration of the effects of mentor-apprentice programs on mentors' and apprentices' wellbeing
(International Journal of Indigenous Health, 2017) Jenni, Barbara; Anisman, Adar; McIvor, Onowa; Jacobs, Peter
Increasingly, adult Indigenous language learners are being identified as the “missing generation” of learners who hold great potential to contribute to the revival of Indigenous languages by acting as the middle ground between Elders, children, and youth within their communities. Our research project NEȾOLṈEW̱ “one mind, one people” studied adult Indigenous language learning through the popular Mentor-Apprentice Program method. Over a 2-year period, our team conducted interviews and focus groups with participants involved in a Mentor-Apprentice type program in British Columbia, Canada. While our primary interest was to document the successes and challenges of the Mentor-Apprentice Program method for adult Indigenous language learning, we also included interview questions that gave participants an opportunity to share how participating in such a program affected them. During data analysis, we noticed repeating comments from participants about how their involvement with a Mentor-Apprentice Program impacted their own and their community’s wellbeing; 6 exploratory themes were identified. Although studies have reported protective effects of Indigenous language use on health, health-related outcomes of language revitalization efforts remain underexplored. In addition to discussing the exploratory themes that arose from the study, our paper also proposes that these themes can inform future research in investigating the links between language revitalization and wellbeing.
Family at the Heart of Chickasaw Language Reclamation
(American Indian Quarterly, 2015) Chew, Kari A. B.
Located in south- central Oklahoma, the Chickasaw Nation faces unprecedented language loss. Because of colonization and forced assimilation, the intergenerational transmission of the Chickasaw language—Chikashshanompa’—has been interrupted in families, leading to devastating and rapid language decline. In 1994 there were an estimated one thousand Chikashshanompa’ speakers. Currently, there are about seventy remaining speakers, all of whom are elders. While a small but increasing number of second-language learners speak the language at a level of conversational fluency, new generations do not speak Chikashshanompa’ as a first language. As a result, community members are growing increasingly aware of the urgency surrounding language loss and the necessity for language reclamation. Currently, a small group of dedicated Chickasaw citizens and allies are working to restore Chikashshanompa’ as a healthy and vibrant language of the community. Significantly, family has emerged as being at the heart of their efforts.
Gathering of minds: Innovative Indigenous adult language learning in Canada and the US
(KW Media Productions, 2023) McIvor, Onowa
Growing the fire within: Creating new adult speakers of Indigenous languages [Video]
(2020-10-30) Chew, Kari A. B.; Manatowa-Bailey, J.; Lukaniec, M.; McIvor, Onowa; Linn, M.
Indigenous peoples have worked for decades to revitalize their languages. Much of the focus has been on children, but also critical are programs for the “missing generations” of adults who did not grow up with their Indigenous languages. This video discusses How can we support Indigenous adults who are becoming new speakers of their languages?
Growing the fire within: Exploring innovative and successful adult language learning methods in Indigenous communities in Canada and the US
(NEȾOLṈEW̱, 2021) Chew, Kari A. B.; Manatowa-Bailey, Jacob; Lukaniec, Megan; McIvor, Onowa; Linn, Mary
Hear Our Languages, Hear Our Voices: Storywork as Theory and Praxis in Indigenous-Language Reclamation
(Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2018) McCarty, Teresa L.; Nicholas, Sheilah E.; Chew, Kari A. B.; Diaz, Natalie G.; Leonard, Wesley Y.; White, Louellyn
Storywork provides an epistemic, pedagogical, and methodological lens through which to examine Indigenous language reclamation in practice. We theorize the meaning of language reclamation in diverse Indigenous communities based on firsthand narratives of Chickasaw, Mojave, Miami, Hopi, Mohawk, Navajo, and Native Hawaiian language reclamation. Language reclamation is not about preserving the abstract entity “language,” but is rather about voice, which encapsulates personal and communal agency and the expression of Indigenous identities, belonging, and responsibility to self and community. Storywork – firsthand narratives through which language reclamation is simultaneously described and practiced – shows that language reclamation simultaneously refuses the dispossession of Indigenous ways of knowing and refuses past, present, and future generations in projects of cultural continuance. Centering Indigenous experiences sheds light on Indigenous community concerns and offers larger lessons on the role of language in well-being, sustainable diversity, and social justice.
How is COVID19 Impacting Indigenous Language Revitalization?
(NEȾOLṈEW̱, 2020) Chew, Kari A. B.
A team of NEȾOLṈEW̱ researchers is storying the impacts of COVID-19 on Indigenous language revitalization (ILR). The pandemic that hit in March of 2020 was potentially detrimental to the great efforts from Indigenous communities, organizations, and individuals to reclaiming their languages. ILR is relational and territorially based and the majority of language work is face-to-face and therefore had to halt immediately for the safety of speakers, learners, and communities. Many did what Indigenous peoples have always done in the face of danger and adversity: adapt. Our research looked at what shifts Indigenous language learners, teachers, and speakers were making in their language work during the pandemic. This video reports findings of an analysis of social media posts from across Canada and the U.S. dated March through July 2020.

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