‘This is not reconciliation’: Federal funding drops for Indigenous language revitalization
Why It Matters
Indigenous languages are facing extinction due to colonization, and many communities are trying to revitalize their languages and create more fluent speakers.
Salia Joseph can count on two hands how many people fluently speak her language, Squamish.
“Squamish doesn’t have any first language speakers left, meaning people who grew up speaking Squamish first and then learn English later as a second language,” said Joseph, executive director of Sníchim Foundation, a north Vancouver non-profit focused on language revitalization.
Squamish is a Coast Salish language spoken by the Squamish people. According to Statistics Canada data from 2021, only 25 people in Canada said they could speak the language. The data does not say if those who speak the language do so fluently.
The stakes are high. Time and funding are the two most significant resources needed to revitalize Squamish and dozens of endangered Indigenous languages nationwide.
Many are willing to dedicate time to learning their language, but Joseph said this goal is difficult without funding.
Despite the growing need and urgency, the federal government allocated nearly 58 per cent less money in the 2025 budget for Indigenous language revitalization than in previous years. The federal government allocated $225 million over five years for Indigenous language programs across the country. Starting in 2024-25, $45 million will be allocated per year. British Columbia will receive a portion of that amount based on a funding formula.
“Our languages are incredibly important windows into who we are. So, funding cuts across the board that threaten how we do our work—it is cultural decimation in terms of what it means to stop this work,” Joseph said.
The challenges may vary from community to community, but she said a lack of consistent funding for language revitalization ties them all together.
British Columbia has the greatest diversity of Indigenous languages, with 36 unique languages and 59 dialects spoken across the province. According to the First Peoples’ Cultural Council, which serves more than 200 First Nations in the province, all are at risk of extinction.
The FPCC said there was a 20 per cent increase in the number of people learning their language between 2018 and 2022.
True reconciliation requires adequate funding: Indigenous communities
“When we started out, there wasn’t that much funding specifically for language. So we had to kind of bend ourselves into different boxes to become applicable for certain funding and to try and do as much as we could,” Joseph said.
Funding streams are so specific that finding money for Sníchim’s work is challenging, she said. Most of the non-profit’s funding comes from the FPCC.
However, Joseph added that the issue has received more attention because Indigenous communities insist on its importance.
“Any type of reconciliation, any type of growth and relationship, has to come from supporting people to get back what was taken from them, whether that’s culture or language, or land,” Joseph said.
Many Indigenous people were punished for speaking their languages in residential schools, and generations grew up unable to speak their language.
“It’s incredibly important for a colonial state to invest in language revitalization in order to have any type of repair, reconciliation that’s actually meaningful and grounded in what communities are saying that they need,” Joseph said.
She isn’t alone in her disappointment with federal funding drops.
Carla Lewis, chair of the First Peoples’ Cultural Council, said in a news release that language revitalization needs “long-term, sustainable funding now.”
“Generations of oppressive and assimilationist federal and provincial policies have aimed to wipe out First Nations languages. Through dedication and hard work, our people have fought for language rights to keep our languages alive,” Lewis said.
“We can’t over-emphasize the urgency of the situation and we can’t wait another five years to get the funding needed to breathe life into our languages that were stolen from us. We need long-term, sustainable funding now. We need sufficient funding for each and every language across Canada.
“We are beyond frustrated at being expected to do this urgent work with insufficient resources. This is not reconciliation.”
Last year, FPCC received $40.3 million in federal funding for 2023/2024. Based on the budget and funding formula, FPCC said they will receive about half that amount in 2024/2025.
The FPCC said it is working with the B.C. Assembly of First Nations and the National Assembly of First Nations to advocate for more federal funding.
Language revitalization is vital to belonging, wellbeing
Less than one per cent of overall charitable spending goes towards Indigenous initiatives, said Jennie Long of Emergent Fundraising, which works with the Sníchim Foundation.
“Within that, language can be overlooked, which is such a shame because it is such a core piece of identity,” she said.
Not only is language important to one’s sense of identity, but it is also vital to a sense of belonging, health and wellbeing.
Studies show communities in which youth speak or learn their Indigenous language have lower rates of youth suicide.
Adequate funding is the only way people can dedicate themselves to the foundation’s nine-month language immersion program, become fluent speakers, and then also be able to teach others, said Joseph
“We can have somebody take that program with zero Squamish and come out conversational,” she added.
Many people want to contribute to this work but cannot afford to, she said, adding funding incentivizes people to do the work and makes it possible.
If they lose funding, they must cut back hours or let people go.
“You have people who are the children of residential school survivors, who didn’t get to grow up learning their language because their grandparents and parents’ generation were beaten for speaking it. So these people are so dedicated and driven, and this isn’t just something that pays the bills,” she said.
“This is their culture. This is their children’s future access to their land to their ancestral language.”
“There’s so much that colonialism has taken from us, but language revitalization and knowing that we have no more first language speakers left, knowing that we came so close to losing our language but watching it grow, watching it spread and breathing life into it. It feels like that is evidence of what they could not take from us.”
According to Foundation for Endangered Languages Canada, 32 other Indigenous language revitalization programs like the Sníchim Foundation exist nationwide.
-With files From Gabe Oatley
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