The University of Guelph will be offering a course teaching the Ojibwa (Anishinaabemowin) language in the Fall of 2019.
This is a direct response to the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission says Sandra Parmegiani, acting director of the School of Languages and Literatures (SOLAL).
The specific Ojibwa language was chosen by the University because of its connection to Guelph.
“Two years ago, SOLAL looked at which Indigenous languages were currently taught in Southern Ontario and more specifically in the Guelph/Kitchener-Waterloo/Hamilton area. It emerged that Anishinaabemowin is a language that would serve the Guelph area very well and would be embraced by the local community,” says Parmegiani.
“The University of Guelph and the School of Languages and Literatures are aware of the role the institution can play in the preservation and promotion of Indigenous languages.”
The City of Guelph officially recognizes that the residents of Guelph live on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation of the Anishinaabek Peoples from whom the British purchased the land in 1784 on their website.
Their recognition is also reflected in the territorial acknowledgments implemented in 2016 before every council meeting as a step towards reconciliation.
This tradition is seen in various events in Guelph that acknowledges the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation of the Anishinaabek, that “Guelph is situated on treaty land that is steeped in rich indigenous history and home to many First Nations, Inuit and Métis people,” and that the city has a “responsibility for the stewardship of the land on which we live and work.”
“By offering the first Anishinaabemowin course, the University of Guelph directly responds to the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” says Parmegiani.
She says the re-appropriation of Indigenous languages is the first step towards an identitarian healing process for Indigenous communities and by learning an Indigenous language, one is able to express a view of the self and an interpretation of the world that are otherwise lost.
“Such re-appropriation is vital for indigenous communities,” says Parmegiani.
“We have to act quickly if we want to preserve at least some Indigenous languages currently under threat of extinction, and the University of Guelph intends to play its part in this process.”
Parmegiani reiterated the words of vice-president Charlotte Yates at the U of G that the university has a “responsibility to collaborate with the Indigenous community in safeguarding and rejuvenating languages that are part of our national heritage and vitally important to Indigenous culture.”
