Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute
| Founder(s) | Heather Blair Donna Paskemin Sally Rice Priscilla Settee Edie Hyggenat |
|---|---|
| Established | 1999 |
| Mission | Indigenous language revitalization in Western Canada |
| Focus | "linguistics, endangered indigenous language documentation and revitalization, language and literacy learning, second language teaching and curriculum development, and language policy and planning" |
| Key people | Advisory council Donna Paskemin Heather Blair Sally Rice Mary Cardinal Collins Priscilla Settee, Edie Hyggenat Brenda Ahenakew Dolores Sand Sam Robinson |
| Location | Edmonton, Canada |
| Website | http://www.cilldi.ualberta.ca |
Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute (CILLDI) - an intensive annual "summer school for Indigenous language activists, speakers, linguists, and teachers" - hosted at the University of Alberta, Edmonton - is a "multicultural, cross-linguistic, interdisciplinary, inter-regional, inter-generational" initiative. CILLDI was established in 1999 with one Cree language course offered by Cree speaker Donna Paskemin. By 2016 over 600 CILLDI students representing nearly 30 Canadian Indigenous languages had participated in the program and it had become the "most national (and international) of similar language revitalization programs in Canada aimed at the promotion of First Peoples languages." CILLDI - a joint venture between the University of Alberta and the University of Saskatchewan - responds to "different sociolinguistic situations in language communities under threat" and includes three faculties at the University of Alberta in Edmonton - Arts, Education, and Native Studies. CILLDI provides practical training to students which is "directly implemented back in the community." Initiatives like CILLDI were formed against the backdrop of a projection of a catastrophic and rapid decline of languages in the twenty-first century.
"There are more than 60 Aboriginal languages in Canada. With the exception of Cree, Ojibway and Inuktitut, all Canadian Indigenous languages are endangered, many critically so. Indigenous communities, colleges and universities are working to preserve — and in some cases, restore — these languages, but so far there has been no national initiative dedicated to Indigenous language sustainability in Canada."
In both Saskatchewan and Manitoba there was an interest in "Indigenous language and bilingual program development" in the mid-1970s. The 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal People report drew widespread attention to the plight of Canada’s Indigenous languages. The World Indigenous Peoples Conference-Education (WIPCE) was held in 1999.
According to the 2006 Canadian census "only 12.4% of Indigenous children aged 0-4 [were] learning an Indigenous language at home; another 5% [were] acquiring one as an additional language." By 2007 "The forecast for preserving and revitalizing Canada’s Indigenous languages was gloomy.
CILLDE was established in 1999 by a collective of language advocates and educators including Donna Paskemin, Heather Blair, and Sally Rice; the first CILLDI summer institute was held on the Onion Lake First Nation, Saskatchewan and offered one course entitled "Expanding Cree Language and Literacy" with fifteen students from Alberta and Saskatchewan. in July 2000. CILLDE, an "indigenous educator training institute" was modeled after its American counterpart - the American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI) - which itself was co-founded by language activist, Lucille Watahomigie and Leanne Hinton and is now based at the University of Arizona in Tucson.Freda Ahenakew, CM SOM (1932 – 2011) a Cree linguist and recipient of the Order of Canada of Cree descent was the honoured guest. Ahenakew's work and that of Dr. Verna Kirkness, a Cree scholar and language advocate, is acknowledged as catalytic in the formation of CILLDI. Donna Paskemin – who had worked in 1981 at the Saskatchewan Indian Languages Institute (SILI) under the direction of Dr Freda Ahenakew – was the instructor for the Cree immersion course.
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