Culture is lived, language gives it life
Date
2016-08-24
Authors
Brown, Joan
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Abstract
The overall goal of this paper is to explore the various learning strategies of our Ancestors with one purpose in mind, to find a way to strengthen our hul’q’umi’num’ revitalization efforts. Particularly, the research considers hul’q’umi’num’ in the context of a much larger system, that is, its relationship to the land, the culture and its people.
It is my idea that studying language within this cultural context and relating language recovery strategies to canoe ceremonial practices and experiences will reveal a preferred Coast Salish learning sequence, necessary values and the essential attitudes required for reclaiming an Indigenous language. In essence, it will teach us how to live and learn from a supernatural being like hul’q’umi’num’.
What I have come to realize is that this canoe learning model, a gift from the Elders, has been left to help us understand that learning progresses through a sacred process that is reliant on two domains. To be exact our learning model is entrenched in two separate but mutually supporting worlds; a spiritual world and a physical world. I argue that defining these unique learning techniques will reveal a natural learning sequence and a natural learning framework that ultimately, will assist language teachers in developing lessons from a Coast Salish perspective.
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Language Revitalization