Language Tuesday March 9th 2010
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First Nations Language Program

The Language program continues to meet its program and work plan objectives by successfully completing mandated and secondary activities throughout a year. The Language program acts as an advisory role as well as a place for research on traditional knowledge and wisdom research which includes an extensive audio/CD collection of ceremonial tapes, collecting, transcribing and translating the funerary rituals of the Longhouse people as well as continuing to work on the Moral Code of Handsome Lake.

As well as the Language program delivery is undertaken by maintaining the historical collection which means duplicating and cataloguing the collection onto the latest technological mediums. The Language department in conjunction with the Sweetgrass First Nations Language Council Inc., host the annual Raising Our Voices Language Conference which looks at the best practices and retention of our First Nations languages.

The latest project the Language program is working on in partnership with Memorial University of Newfoundland is Cayuga: Our Oral Legacy (COOL) a research project about the Cayuga language which will look at what kinds of spoken Cayuga exist? How do we record and preserve spoken Cayuga? Who get to listen to the recordings? What ethical guidelines should we follow?