this is very cool.
taken from my home page. www.telus.com



B.C.-based web project to help preserve aboriginal languages

VICTORIA (mytelus.com) - Take oral history - one of the First Nations' most treasured traditions - plug it into a computer, and what have you got? FirstVoices.com, a born-in-B.C. initiative to help ensure aboriginal languages don't disappear.

FirstVoices.com provides a set of web-based tools to archive text, sound, picture and video and presents these resources in language teaching materials. It was designed by an international team of aboriginal language teachers, linguists and educators as an easy, interesting and cost-effective way to record and teach indigenous languages to anyone with access to the Internet.

"When aboriginal people are able to maintain a connection with their language, heritage and culture, they retain a strong sense of identity and self-confidence which helps to build strong and vibrant communities," said George Abbott, B.C.'s minister of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services in announcing the initiative Thursday. "We are maintaining a vast storehouse of thousands of years of human knowledge and experience that would otherwise be lost."

It all started with the dedication of Dave Elliott, an elder on the Tsartlip Reserve on the Saanich Peninsula in B.C. Dave spent years creating and perfecting an alphabet for the Sencoten language, which had been strictly an oral language.

Following Elliott's death, his son John continued his father's legacy as a tribal school teacher. Working with fellow teacher Peter Brand on development of computer applications to enrich the language learning experience for their students, the duo developed the concept for web-based language archiving resources.

The First Peoples' Heritage, Language and Culture Council liked the idea, and starting in July, 2001, began to develop the FirstVoices project.

Following final focus group testing, FirstVoices will be available in September 2003 for aboriginal communities wishing to document and archive their languages. It may now be possible to save from extinction hundreds, perhaps thousands of aboriginal languages throughout the world.

"The FirstVoices project has evolved from the dedication of Saanich elders, past and present, who have been gathering their language and history for over fifty years," said John Elliot. "In finding a solution for ourselves, we discovered a solution that can be shared between us, for expressing our culture. Through FirstVoices we are extending a helping hand to the world community of Indigenous peoples."

Thursday's launch was attended by students of the LAU,WELNEW Tribal School in Brentwood Bay, chief Simon Smith Sr. of the Tsartlip Nation and chiefs and representatives for the Pauquachin, Tseycum and Tswaout Nations. Also in attendance were John Elliott and Peter Brand, the developers of the project.

"It is significant that we are launching this rich language resource where the vision began at the LAU,WELNEW Tribal School and that so many people involved in this project are here today," said Elmer Derrick, chair of the First Peoples' Heritage, Language and Cultural Council. "We are excited about our involvement in a local project that has global significance."

B.C. provided $450,000 to the First Peoples' Cultural Foundation to develop FirstVoices.com. The project also received private sector support and continues to add partners.

For more information link to www.fpcf.ca/lang-firstvoices.html.

These projects have a good chance of success just as long as the pupils and the community have a reason to be enthusiastic. There is no mystery how this 'magic' works but it is almost magic and it can be easy to go wrong.

In the British Isles we have several living 'aboriginal' languages, all forms of Gaelic. The history of two is instructive. Fifty years ago Welsh was much in decline and fears for its future well- founded. Now we have the strange picture of even English parents happily sending their children to Welsh-speaking schools.

However the true change has been among Welsh people. The language had been seen as the language of failure;no go-getter would speak it, even if they had been brought up with it. It was of the past and abandoned by modern native speakers at the earliest opportunity.It belonged, they thought, in the old working class of miners and shepherds and with academics for study.

The change was brought about 1)by encouraging Welsh nationalism and pride in the independence of their history and culture; so that Welsh children and their parents thought themselves better than English in some and at least equal in all things and that they could manifest this independence by learning and speaking Welsh. This was the key, really
2) by law having all road signs, government documents and court proceedings in Welsh or bilingual so the language seemed normal and everyday
3)by law expecting schools in historically Welsh areas to teach only in Welsh and for schools to elect to be Welsh
4) by making programmes in Welsh which were just as entertaining as those in English and on Welsh -speaking TV channels.

This is a mixture of some little compulsion but mostly of appealing to the minds of the people to be proud to be different, so it became a fashion even, to learn Welsh. My Welsh native- speaking wife's younger brother actually had to learn Welsh, since it was no longer spoken at home ( see above) his own parents having abandoned it;so did his Welsh, non-Welsh speaking wife, but their children have been raised bilingual 'from birth'. This is a true sign of the last thirty years.

The Irish Republic made it compulsory some eighty years ago for everyone to learn Gaelic, like it or not, and to pass an exam in it before being allowed to study at University or to have government employment above a basic level. This is still the law.

Gaelic has been in decline there ever since and is going the way of Latin. The lesson is obvious and clear.