First Nations languages need protection: prof.

Last Updated: Friday, September 3, 2010 | 4:45 AM ET

By Daniel McHardie, CBC News

Andrea Bear Nicholas, the chair in native studies at St. Thomas University, said governments must help Fist Nations children learn their traditional languages. (Courtesy St. Thomas University)

First Nations languages are on the verge of extinction unless future governments help children learn their traditional languages, says an expert.

Andrea Bear Nicholas, the chair of native studies at St. Thomas University in Fredricton, writes in an analysis for CBC News that the next New Brunswick government must help First Nations children learn their native languages.

Bear Nicholas said she'd like the provincial government to introduce a program called mother-tongue medium (MTM) education, which has been used in other parts of the world so indignenous languages are not lost forever.

The First Nations language expert said this change would bring the provincial government into compliance with international linguistic rights standards, "which are routinely violated in Canada where First Nations children are concerned."

Not only would this policy change help young people keep their languages, she said it would ameliorate other social problems.

"In the first place, it could avoid the expense and effort involved in addressing the poverty in First Nations communities associated with high dropout rates," Bear Nicholas said.

"These include such social and financial costs as welfare, addictions, suicide, incarceration, and poor health. As one analyst has put it, it would cost far less to provide a private tutor in the mother-tongue to a child for nine years than it would cost to keep a person in prison for one year."

She said the system of language education has been used in Canada to help the Mohawks, the Cree, and the Secwepemc. It has also been implemented in Norway, Hawaii, Nepal, and Papua New Guinea.

The MTM plan calls for children to be immersed in their traditional language.

Bear Nicholas points out that Acadian children in New Brunswick have been instructed in their mother tongue and it has helped them hold onto their culture.

New Brunswick has a dual education system that allows anglophones to be instructed in English and francophones to be taught in French.

Election debate

New Brunswick's five political parties have been campaigning for a week in the run-up to the Sept. 27 election.

The parties have made many campaign promises but none of the political leaders have addressed First Nations issues.

The St. Thomas University professor said it is often difficult for First Nations people to get involved in election campaigns for fear of jeopardizing their rights.

"So it is as a dominated people, and not as potential voters that we need to speak out on issues of importance hoping that both candidates and the electorate will address these issues during the election campaign and act on them afterwards," Bear Nicholas said.

"In this case, I would like to comment on a matter essential to our survival as First Nations, that of our linguistic rights."

There is only one First Nations politician sitting inside the legislative assembly, Liberal T.J. Burke. Burke was elected in 2003 and served as justice minister and for a brief stint as environment minister under Premier Shawn Graham before opting to sit outside of cabinet so he could return to his law practice.