11-year-old from Victoria publishes Kwakʼwala language book following UNESCO competition win
Finding the Language is about two friends searching for the Kwakʼwala language
An 11-year-old from Victoria is the winner of an international competition organized by UNESCO, which looked for stories about language preservation written by Indigenous children.
Adelyn Sophie Newman-Ting's story Finding The Language is about two friends searching for terms in the Kwakʼwala language. Newman-Ting is Kwakwaka'wakw and Coast Salish, as well as English, Irish and Scottish on her father's side.
"[The Kwakʼwala language] is his culture and therefore part of my culture and we can't speak it because it got taken away in residential schools," said Newman-Ting.
Residential schools were in place across Canada from the 17th century until the late 1990s. They were part of an assimilation effort imposed on Indigenous peoples to destroy their cultures and suppress their languages.
In Newman-Ting's story, two children meet and talk to the Raven and Wolf, to figure out how to save the environment and the Kwakʼwala language. They learn different words by speaking to elders who they encounter.
Adelyn's dad, Kwakwak'awakw artist Carey Newman, says he was originally an ambassador for UNESCO's Voices of Future Generations project. He stepped down after Adelyn expressed interest in participating in the competition.
To read the full article by CBC British Columbia, and to listen to the interview click here.