THUNDER BAY — Matawa First Nations’ CEO says its language revitalization program needs a long-term funding commitment to fulfill its mission.
Funding of Matawa Waka Tere “needs to be ongoing” so that the program won’t again face the uncertainty it’s under now that a three-year funding arrangement has run out, Sharon Nate told reporters Thursday in an online news conference.
Matawa Waka Tere (Indigenous Language Revitalization) has been running in all nine communities served by Matawa First Nations Management and in Thunder Bay, but it’s now in scaled-down operations due to a lack of sustainable funding.
The 2019 Indigenous Languages Act says “the Government of Canada is committed to providing adequate, sustainable and long-term funding for the reclamation, revitalization, maintenance and strengthening of Indigenous languages.”
The feds are falling short of those ideals and funding “should be permanent,” Nate said.
“It's going to take two to three generations to reclaim our language. That's how long it takes, and that's how long (Matawa Waka Tere) should be funded.”
Matawa sounded the alarm for the program’s future on April 17 when it issued a news release saying it “faces the threat of full suspension” unless the funding situation is addressed soon.
Asked Thursday if Matawa has received any response from the federal government since then, Nate said “Unfortunately, no, there has been no response from any level of government regarding this program.”
Nate said Matawa has avoided a total shutdown of the language program because “we were able to move some of the existing funding that we had … And we were able to carry on to the end of the school year.”
The World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium conferred 10-year accreditation on the Matawa program last September following site visits by an international team of language education experts the previous month.
Matawa Waka Tere’s work “has been important and it has been significant to our Matawa communities,” Nate said.
“They've created this program. It's a program that has come from each of our communities, and they've developed this, so this is their own in terms of taking that stand to revitalize.
“And it brought back a sense of identity and self-confidence in our peoples.”
A Matawa news release said Indigenous languages in Matawa communities “are classified as endangered according to language disruptions scales.”
Matawa First Nations Management provides services and support to nine First Nations north of Lake Superior: Aroland, Constance Lake, Eabametoong, Ginoogaming, Long Lake #58, Marten Falls, Neskantaga, Nibinamik and Webequie.
Before her appointment as CEO of Matawa First Nations Management earlier this year, Nate was executive director of Matawa Education, which operates Matawa Waka Tere and the Matawa Education and Care Centre.
