At 95, Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation’s last fluent Hän speaker hopes to pass on as much as he can; Indigenous objects repatriated from small British museum to Haida Gwaii; and poet Dennis Saddleman’s story of surviving residential school
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95-year-old Percy Henry is the last fluent speaker of the Hän language in the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation in Yukon. Now, work is underway to capture his knowledge of the language so it’s not forgotten. Matt Galloway discusses those efforts with Georgette McLeod, the First Nation's language administrator and oral historian in Dawson City, Yukon, who’s learning more of the Hän language from Henry. He also speaks with Mskwaankwad Rice, an Anishinaabemowin adult learner who studies linguistics; and Belinda Daniels, an assistant professor of Indigenous education with the University of Victoria, who is Nehiyaw from Sturgeon Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan.
Then, how a small British museum connected with the Haida Gwaii Museum in Skidegate, B.C., to repatriate Indigenous artifacts in their possession — and the growing movement to reclaim artifacts as a form of healing and reconciliation.
Also, Dennis Saddleman was six years old when he was forced to attend the Kamloops Indian Residential School in 1957. He witnessed and experienced extensive physical and sexual abuse during the 11 years he spent there, but found solace in poetry in the decades that followed.