'[The students] can tell you why it's important to learn their language': Inside a Mi'gmaw immersion program
Teachers Madelaine Metallic and Karen Martin may not speak perfect Mi'gmaw, but that doesn't stop them from using everything they know in their classrooms.
"We're in a place now where our speakers are aging and passing away. We lose a number of elders that take the language with them," says Martin. "So now, the only way to kind of slow down the language from going away is to take what we know and teach it, even though we're not where we'd like to be in terms of [being] masters of the language."
"We're not distinguished speakers by any means. But [with] what we do know, we've managed to build resources, teaching material and help each other to pass on as much as we can."
Metallic and Martin appear in the Identity episode of Telling Our Story, a four-part documentary series that features Indigenous perspectives on the past, present and future from the 11 First Peoples in Quebec.
They both teach at a school in Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation, which offers Mi'gmaw immersion from nursery to Grade 4.
"I see the importance of having that immersion program, having their values and their culture and everything incorporated into their learning," says Metallic. "And what a difference it makes."
"[The students] can tell you why it's important to learn their language. They understand the deep meaning that's embedded in the language, and they understand that it's formed who they are," says Martin. "The process of learning the language has allowed them to discover what it means, on a deep level, to be Mi'gmaq."
