To use technology and community participation to Modernize, Expand, Revitalize and Localize (MERL) Indigenous languages in Canada, and to help our First Nations, Metis, and Inuit (FNMI) communities produce more language speakers tomorrow, than exist today.
The task in its simplest form is to create programs and products to help motivated individuals spend twenty hours per week for three years to attain fluency.
Our vision is to produce more speakers today than existed yesterday.
Our goal is to reverse the tide of language loss.
Our mission is to help with language vitality so the Elders can spend time passing on culture.
This is our dream.
To use technology and community participation to Modernize, Expand, Revitalize and Localize (MERL) Indigenous languages in Canada, and to help our First Nations, Metis, and Inuit (FNMI) communities produce more language speakers tomorrow, than exist today.
Elders are tasked culturally with the responsibility to pass on knowledge. They are the most knowledgeable teachers trained by the community for several years so the culture can be passed on to the next Seven Generations. The residential school system upset, actually truncated, this umbilical cord in time, leaving it in need of repair.
The solution to language loss hasn’t been figured out yet in the sense that speakers are being removed faster than they can be replaced. We need to create an atmosphere for language growth and proliferation. The ownership for this, however, needs to stay with the Native people as a collective to work at solving this problem. SayITFirst comes in as a support mechanism for strong members of the Native communities, to help them realize their dream. We offer different tools and strategies that may assist Native people in achieving their goal of language fluency in future generations.
Indigitization
The methodology applied is simple – help children and those interested in reclaiming their language to use technology to scale the access, to collectively harness the vast knowledge held by all people into one location for use in the school systems. The idea is simply to create tools, used by the education system, parents and communities to reach a level of 20 hours per week for a three year period to achieve an acceptable level of fluency in the Native language. Just creating archives is not good enough; the tools developed have use in mind, that way content gets developed.
History
SayITFirst Inc. was incorporated in 2009 for the sole purpose of using technology and community participation to Modernize, Expand, Revitalize and Localize (MERL) Indigenous languages in Canada.
SayITFirst has consulted to Microsoft Canada Co. for their Education and Indigenous Solution Strategy, as well as to the New Brunswick Department of Education, Office of First Nation Perspective, Rainy River District School Board, with its associated First Nations, and The Three Nations group in New Brunswick. This project currently services the Maliseet, Mi’Kmaw, and Ojibwe language groups.
SayITFirst is currently working closely with FNEII and the Rainy River District First Nations; it also previously sat on the New Brunswick Department of Education’s Steering Committee for its 21st Century Schools strategy.
Initially, there were only a handful of Elders and language speakers who were willing and able to help. Today, over 40 speakers are involved from 8 different communities.
Although challenges exist between schools, administration, individuals and communities, they have been willing to co-own the solution with MERL. SayITFirst exists to provide leadership and vision to help bridge these worlds. As more tools and strategies are provided, more speakers have expressed the desire to contribute more. Hope and progress is being cultivated.
Going forward, as our programs increase the ability to execute effective language and cultural programs, so too are communities making improvements. The vision now is to take the content into the homes and communities to provide a self-serve model for households and daycares. The communities will develop First Nation specific content and carry on growing and developing it long after SayITFirst is gone.
Our mission is to help with language vitality so the Elders can spend time passing on culture.
Our goal is to reverse the tide of language loss.
Our vision is to produce more speakers today than existed yesterday.
This is our dream.
