The Indigenous language Ryan DeCaire is fighting to save isn’t one he
spoke regularly — or fluently — while growing up on Wahta Mohawk
territory.“People [with Mohawk ancestry] are saying words like, ‘hello’,
‘goodbye’, 1,2,3’ but is that all there is?,” DeCaire asked himself.The questions spurred him to realize that the only people who spoke
fluent Mohawk were elders in the community and that time is running out
to preserve the language.“If we don’t do something about that, we’re probably going to witness [the language’s] death in my own lifetime.”
DeCaire is now an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s
Centre for Indigenous Studies. The faculty focuses on teaching
Indigenous history, language and customs to students.Its Ciimaa/Kahuwe’ya/Qajaq language program teaches the Mohawk,
Anishinaabemowin, Oneida and Inuktitut languages, which teachers and
linguists said will die out if they are not passed on to the next
generation.“It’s a part of what it means to be Canadian, that we have a relationship to Indigenous people.”
Mohawk, an Iroquoian language spoken in Ontario, Quebec and parts of
New York state, is considered threatened and is estimated to be spoken
by 3,500 people; a number that DeCaire disputes. He believes those who
are proficient and experienced in speaking Mohawk as their first
language hovers around only 1,000 people.DeCaire, who teaches a class of 12 people in Mohawk language studies,
is dedicated to learning his ancestral language from elders over “many
cups of tea and games of solitaire.”He also enrolled in a two-year immersion program at Six Nations of
the Grand River reserve near Brantford, learning directly from speakers
whose first language is Mohawk.“You have to set up your life in a way that you can constantly be
around a language and constantly be learning it,” DeCaire said.
How an Indigenous prof at U of T is fighting to save dying languages
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