An Indigenous arts society based on the Kwantlen First Nation reserve in Fort Langley is hoping more secure funding will help it preserve a language that has almost gone extinct.
stalew Arts & Cultural Society staff members met with Langley East MLA Megan Dykeman on Dec. 7 to talk about some of their successful projects, as well as the road forward.
The group has held a number of high-profile events, including two stalew Pow Wow events, the most recent over three days in September at the Langley Events Centre.
The group’s Grounding Langley: Sharing the Language of Land and Water project will soon see a number of carved wooden plaques, each inlaid with abalone shell, placed at significant locations around Langley Township, part of a partnership with the municipality. Each plaque was created by a different local Indigenous artist.
Stalew has also been working on a longer-term project.
“Number one is language revitalization,” said stalew manager Phyllis Atkins, whose traditional name is q̓ʷɑti̓cɑ.
The small organization is working to preserve the Indigenous languages spoken by the Kwantlen people and neighbouring groups along this part of the Fraser River.
The language’s name is written as hunquminum or hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, and it is spoken by the Kwantlen, Katzie, Matsqui, and Semiahmoo people. The language is closely related to Halq’eméylem, spoken just upstream, and the two branches of the language are referred to as the upriver and downriver dialects.
As part of that project, stalew videographer and language lead Joshua Carr has been putting together videos of language keepers, some of the few people who still speak the languages. Many of them are short video clips showing the pronunciation of words like “grandma” and “baby” and even “chicken.”
“We have a lot of language keepers,” said stalew project coordinator and graphic designer Amber Oliver. “We need to document it and get it on film.”
There are only a tiny number of speakers of hunquminum or Halq’eméylem left, and many of them are not fully fluent.
But Atkins is concerned over possible cutbacks to projects like the language work, which is funded by the First People’s Cultural Council.
They’re advocating to politicians in the region to ensure the work can continue.
With a small organization – the handful of staff members work out of offices shared with the Kwantlen First Nation’s business groups on MacMillan Island – each member wears many hats, Atkins noted.
There is a lot of work yet to do on the language project, including setting up a full website and database for the videos, as well as posting them publicly.
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That’s in addition to all their other arts and culture work.
“We need more people, to share the load,” Atkins said.
The group has worked with partners including the United Way, Surrey Cares, and Langley Township.
“We rely heavily on funders, grants,” Atkins said.
There are some grants that should be easier to get.
After two successful pow wow events – the last one had 7,000 visitors at the LEC – follow-up editions of the popular event should be eligible for provincial gaming grants.
Dykeman promised to look into options with other B.C. ministers after the meeting.