C IRCUMPOLAR C OLLABORATION & I NDIGENOUS -D RIVEN I NITIATIVES : Arctic Indigenous Languages Project Carl Christian Olsen,Inuit Circumpolar Council Lenore A. Grenoble, The University of Chicago and Inuit Circumpolar Council

T HE A RCTIC I NDIGENOUS L ANGUAGE I NITIATIVE : A SSESSMENT, P ROMOTION & C OLLABORATION A PROJECT OF THE S USTAINABLE D EVELOPMENT W ORKING G ROUP (SDWG) OF THE A RCTIC C OUNCIL Funded by: Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, Department of Canadian Heritage, and the US NSF # , Assessing the Vitality of Arctic Indigenous Languages, (awarded to Jim Stotts, PI, ICC Alaska). The Tromsø Workshop was funded by the Government of Canada’s Department of Canadian Heritage, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and the Government of Norway. The Guovdageaidnu 2014 Meeting of Saami Language Experts was funded by the Saami Council. With appreciation to the Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) and all our funders for their support.

Indigenous language rights are human rights! Throughout the work of the project there are references to the human rights instruments applicable to the issues: ILO-169 United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, from September Indigenous World Summit at the UN, September 2014.

Arctic Facts & Figures north of Arctic Circle (66°33'44" N); more broadly: north of the tree line in the Northern Hemisphere area = 14,056 million km 2 total population = roughly 4 million; 500,000 of these are indigenous peoples home to some 50 or so different indigenous peoples encompasses 8 nation states: Denmark (including Greenland & Faroe Islands), Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Canada, United States, Russian Federation

1. Introduction to the Arctic

source: Barry et al. (2013), Arctic Biodiversity Assessment, Chapter 20

Assessing, Monitoring and Promoting Arctic Indigenous Languages Assessing: The loss of Indigenous languages is an issue of great importance to the Indigenous Peoples themselves. The members of the Permanent Participants are working with other members of the Arctic Council and government entities throughout the Arctic to find multiple ways to strengthen the vitality of their languages.

2. The Arctic Council Member States Canada  Russia Denmark  Sweden Finland  USA Iceland  Norway Norway Russia Sweden USA Permanent Participants Aleut International Association Arctic Athabaskan Council Gwich ’ in Council International RAIPON: Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North Saami Council Inuit Circumpolar Council

Arctic Indigenous Organizations are transnational: Saami Council: represents Saami living in Norway, Sweden, Russia & Finland ICC, Inuit Circumpolar Council: 4 branches  Alaska, Canada, Greenland & Chukotka Aleut International: unites Aleuts living in Alaska & Russia Gwich’in International: the Gwich’in Nation in Alaska & Canada (the Northwest Territories & the Yukon) Arctic Athabaskan Council: spans 76 communities in Alaska & Canada, representing approx. 45,000 people RAIPON, Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North: represents 41 different groups numbering approx 270,000 and living in 60% of the whole territory of the Russian Federation source:

Arctic Indigenous Languages Symposium 2008 October 2008 in Tromsø: primary objective was that of sharing lessons and best practices in promoting and supporting Arctic indigenous languages. Opened by Duane Smith, President, ICC Canada 3. Arctic Indigenous Language Vitality Initiative

Arctic Indigenous Languages Symposium Tromsø

 The first indigenous languages symposium was held by the Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) of the Arctic Council, hosted by the Sámi Council and co-lead by the Inuit Circumpolar Council.  The symposium was a success, and its recommendations were endorsed by Senior Arctic Officials.  With this background, SDWG endorsed a Project called: Assessing, Monitoring and Promoting Arctic Indigenous Languages

Recommendations from Tromsø 2008 & Ottawa 2012: 1. Networking and Collaboration  Share existing research, policy and practice  Discuss best practices in collaborative community-based research in Arctic contexts  Establish parameters for effective inter-agency and international collaboration 2. Framework for Assessing Vitality  Develop a shared, indigenous-driven and academically-grounded framework and method(s) for assessing and documenting the vitality of each Arctic indigenous language  Identify areas for in-depth case studies of language vitality in the Arctic and its contributing factors 3. Communicating and Sharing Data  Plan for the dissemination of reliable and comparable data for the status of all Arctic languages in a centralized, accessible format  Facilitate local, regional, and international sharing of best practices in addressing Arctic indigenous language vitality

Vitality of the languages From the beginning, all levels of indigenous peoples: elders, youth, men and women, organizations, government entities as well as international forums. An initial workshop was organized in Ottawa in 2012 to map the elements of the project.

the main elements Primary goal of the project: Assessment of the current situation, so as to be able to take appropriate measures to promote language use & vitality Three committees were established at the Ottawa 2012 Workshop:  Vitality Assessment  Language Acquisition  Language Policy  Background discussion established a set of principles & parameters for the Arctic Indigenous Language Project:

Collaborations at multiple levels international level national level regional level local level across all of these levels there is work going on at the higher levels but the overall project is fed by collaborative work going on at the local levels

Principles & parameters 1. Development, implementation and reporting of the assessment must be indigenous-driven. 2. The level at which assessment is done (language, dialect, community) must be relevant to speakers and community members as well as to policy developers and programmers. 3. There is need for a framework that can account for vitality at the higher ends of the spectrum (e.g. Nunavut, Greenland) 4. Assessment must be based on indigenous or community-defined factors 5. Assessment must allow for the dynamic nature of languages – new vocabulary, new domains, changing with different influences, youth and elders use it differently, etc.

Principles & parameters 6. Assessment mechanisms must account for revitalization (i.e. increases in vitality) as well as shift and loss (decreases in vitality). 7. Assessment should take into account impacts and influences on language and of language on well-being. 8. Terminology in assessments must be clearly defined (For example, if a speaker is assessed as being “conversant” in a language, what does that mean?) 9. Community members must have opportunities to provide input into assessments and to peer review findings 10. Assessment protocols should balance the desire for details to account for complex communities with the desire for a snapshot view of vitality in each community across the Arctic.

Challenges Vast geography Cultural differences Continuity Collaborations are difficult to manage Expectations differ Levels of commitment differ Consensus-building is very time-consuming Not everyone plays nice

Looking forward: From assessment to vitality In February 2015, ICC Canada organized an Arctic Indigenous Language Symposium in Ottawa. It was organized around the three core elements of the project to date: 1. Language assessment 2. Language policies 3. Language acquisition and a Youth Symposium run by Anguti Johnson & Shelley Tulloch

Core recommendations 1. Networking and Collaboration  Develop an effective system for networking  Share existing research, policy and practice  Discuss best practices in collaborative community-based research in Arctic contexts  Establish parameters for effective inter-agency and international collaboration 2. Framework for Assessing Vitality  Test and refine the Vitality Assessment Questionnaire developed by the Assessment Committee  Develop and implement the question bank  Create and implement a system for peer review of assessment data before it is finalized 3. Networking for resource discovery  Develop networks for identifying language resources  Develop a system for the long-term preservation of these resources for future generations  Establish a system to improve community access to language resources

4. Indigenous policies  Encourage the Permanent Participants to create their own policies for language vitality and to undertake measures to promote the vitality of Arctic Indigenous languages  Establish effective language policies at local levels  Determine financial resources for implementing these policies 5. Teacher training  There is an urgent need to develop better methods for teacher training and to create venues for longer training sessions.  Develop better teacher training materials and pedagogical materials.  In many cases, we need to improve teacher knowledge of the Indigenous languages. 6. Community language needs  Each community has different needs and faces different challenges. We propose a structure to identify these needs and to find possible remedies.  Community members need to show a strong commitment and dedication to language learning for successful language transmission