After losing its biggest funding source in Canadian Heritage, the Victoria Native Friendship Centre (VNFC) is hoping to reinvigorate its First Nations multi-language program.

The federal government provided historic investments totalling $840.1M from 2019 to 2026 and ongoing funding of $117M in support of the community-based efforts of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis to reclaim, revitalize, maintain, and strengthen their languages. And the VNFC language program has had multiple funders since 2018, including the First People’s Cultural Council and the National Association of Friendship Centres.

But the majority of its funding was coming from Canadian Heritage, the federal department responsible for a myriad of funding programs supporting culture, history, heritage, sport and official languages in Canada. In 2021-2022, the department approved a total of $516,600 over two years to support the activities of the VNFC's Urban Indigenous Language Hub.

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That funding expired at the end of last March. Ron Rice, the organization’s executive director submitted a new proposal to Canadian Heritage but the federal department rejected it, “based on the quality of the proposals, alignment with priorities and availability of funding,” a department spokesperson said, adding that “applicants that have been funded in one intake period may not be funded in subsequent intake periods.”

Urban Indigenous People "have not been included or considered in language revitalization, despite being the majority of the Indigenous population in BC,” Rice told Capital Daily. “The disparity between on-reserve funding and the funding that serves the majority of our Indigenous community here is immense.” 

Between 2016 and 2021, the number of individuals who reported speaking an Indigenous language as their first language declined by 6.8% to 189K. The number reflects the loss of elders and knowledge keepers. It also reflects disrupted connections to language and community—a reality for many FN people who live off-reserve, or away from their homes and in urban environments.

‍Living off-reserve or away from home disconnected people from their language and culture

When the migration of Indigenous Peoples to cities expanded in the 1960s and 1970s—the era of the ‘60s Scoop and the enduring operation of Indian Residential Schools—the movement was often, and conveniently, asserted as a voluntary rejection or abandonment of Indigenous culture and identity. The shift created a wave of cultural and linguistic discontinuity that had serious impacts on the physical and emotional well-being of urban Indigenous People in BC.

The majority of reasons for the ongoing demographic shift was and remains deeply rooted in institutional legacies of colonialism and racism that include significant health-care, education, and employment disparities; disproportionate rates of incarceration and seizure by child services that have left many Indigenous People in BC uprooted and alienated from their families and communities of origin.

The concept of First Nations Friendship Centres such as VNFC grew out of this migration. In 1972, the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC) was established to enhance service referrals and to offer employment, housing, education, and health support to Urban Indigenous Peoples. Language renewal programs arrived 47 years later. 

‍Indigenous language renewal gets legislative support 

On June 21, 2019, the Indigenous Languages Act (the Act) received royal assent. The Act responded to Calls to Action 13, 14, and 15 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada whose aims were to promote and support the reclamation, revitalization, strengthening, and maintenance of Indigenous languages in Canada.

Using Statistics Canada data, the inference could be made that less contact with European Settlers and culture was a prop to linguistic and cultural perseverance. According to StatsCan, 64% of Inuvialuit report speaking an Inuit language well enough to conduct a conversation compared with 21.3% of other First Nations throughout Canada.

“In Victoria, the number of people living off-reserve is 87%,” said Rice, “So the reality is most of the Indigenous people who are living on Southern Vancouver Island or from somewhere else, right, these aren't our territories, we're all visitors here.”

That reality is reflected in the diversity of languages that were supported by its program.

The Indigenous Language Hub engaged fluent speakers to offer immersive classes in seven different languages, including Nuučaan̓uɫ, Nihiyaw (Cree - Y dialect and TH dialect), Nedut’en Carrier, Dene, Dakhta, and Anishinaabemowin. Since 2018, the Hub has had “over 2K participants and produced many language resources while supporting both speakers and new learners in revitalizing their languages,” Rice said.

Never a good time to lose funding, but losing it now has implications

Funding dried up just when “the learners were starting to gain proficiency and confidence and pride in their language,” said Rice. It doesn’t take long to lose it, he says, which is why restoring funding is so important to him.

New funding for language renewal will soon flow through the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages, but Rice warns the office “has no language plan for Urban Indigenous People, and a limited funding model for multi-language programs.”

“We have been very deliberate not to focus on the local languages,” Price said. “There are some very successful programs in these territories that are being led by those nations, as they should be.”

Songhees Nation runs its language revitalization program calledhəlitxʷ tθə lək̓ʷəŋiʔnəŋ “Bringing lək̓ʷəŋiʔnəŋ Language Back to Life,” funded by the First People’s Cultural Foundation Language Nest Program. It hosts several classes each week for community members at the Songhees Wellness Centre. 

Language Nest funds immersive, culture-based language programming, which is not the same as what was on offer at VNFC. For this reason, the centre finds itself in a funding gap that isn’t easily bridged.  

The Indigenous Language Commission said it “is currently exploring what funding is available to support Indigenous language initiatives. Over the coming months, we will be posting an expanding list of government and non-government funding sources and how to apply.”

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