By Rori Bennett – Junior Reporter
On Wednesday, June 5, the Walpole Island Community Centre hosted a banquet in honor of ‘Indigenous Language Week’.
Guest speaker Na’ilima Gaison shared ‘The Hawaiian Language: A Revitalization story’ with those in attendance.
Dinner was served by volunteers, to families of Bkejwanong.
“I help to coordinate this language presentation to help to raise awareness, in relation to the state of our Indigenous language,” the event coordinator Minogiizhgad, told the Sydenham Current.
“I had the opportunity to visit Hawaii to visit some schools on the large island, and the people there were very hospitable. They shared with me the progress that they had made over the past 35 years.”
At this banquet, guests watched a presentation about the success and growth of the knowledge of the Hawaiian language in Hawaii.
It was given to show some of the ways to grow Indigenous languages in this area, as well as across Canada and the United States.
“I was aware of some of the successes that Hawaii had made with their language revitalization,” Minogiizhgad said.
“That is why I wanted to go there. Even though they are out in the middle of the Pacific, they had experienced a lot of the same things that we are in Canada and the United States with our Indigenous languages, and how it has to come to the languages being known how they are.”
This event was produced by members of the Bkejwanong Walpole Island First Nations community.
Here are some photos from this event:
