Province makes powerful investment in righting devastating wrong in Canada’s history

For more than a century, governments in Canada worked deliberately and systematically to erase Indigenous languages.

Through residential schools and the federal Indian Act, the goal was not only to extinguish words but to dismantle entire cultures and ways of life in an effort to assimilate Indigenous people into European culture.

That’s why Manitoba’s announcement this week that it will invest more than $4.5 million in new Indigenous language degree programs at two post-secondary institutions is so significant.

It’s not just an education story — it’s a story about reconciliation, justice and rebuilding what was nearly lost through government action.

The University of Winnipeg will receive $2.3 million to create a bachelor of arts in Indigenous language immersion in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwa). It will be Manitoba’s first immersion degree program designed for second-language learners. The program will also provide a pathway to teacher certification, which will help fill desperately needed immersion teaching positions.

The province said in its news release that the goal is to strengthen the capacity of Indigenous language education throughout Manitoba — something that’s been missing for far too long.

It’s hard to overstate how important that is. When a language dies, it doesn’t just take words with it — it takes stories, humour, spirituality, history and ways of seeing the world. Indigenous languages hold teachings about relationships, responsibilities and the land that simply don’t exist in English or French. They express a worldview rooted in community and connection.

For decades, federal policy sought to replace that world view with one built on colonial ideals. Children were ripped from their families and sent to residential schools, where they were beaten or humiliated for speaking their own languages. The government called it “education.” In truth, it was cultural extermination. And its effects are still with us today.

Across Canada, Indigenous language fluency has plummeted. Many communities are left with only a handful of fluent speakers, most of them elders. Without immediate and sustained action, some of these languages could disappear within a generation.

That’s why government investments such as the one announced Monday are so crucial and why they must go far beyond symbolic gestures. This is about repairing deliberate harm.

Manitoba’s investment is a meaningful step in that direction. But it must also be the start of a much longer journey. Language revitalization takes time. It takes teachers, curriculum, community support and long-term, stable funding. It can’t survive on short-term grants or pilot projects that disappear when governments change or budgets tighten.

The province’s plan to create a pathway to teacher certification through the new University of Winnipeg program is especially important. One of the biggest challenges in Indigenous language education is the shortage of qualified teachers. Without them, schools can’t offer immersion programs and young people lose the chance to learn their heritage languages.

Building a sustainable pool of trained educators who can teach Anishinaabemowin, Cree and other languages is key to ensuring revitalization efforts last.

It’s also important to understand that Indigenous language revitalization isn’t just an Indigenous issue. It’s a Canadian issue.

These languages are part of our shared heritage. They belong to this land — to its rivers, forests and prairies — and they tell stories that go back thousands of years before the first European settlers arrived. When we lose them, we lose part of what makes Canada unique.

Reconciliation is a word governments love to use, but it has to mean something tangible. It’s not enough to express regret for the past.

Real reconciliation requires action, especially action that addresses the roots of harm.

Funding Indigenous languages is one of the most direct and meaningful ways to do that. It helps restore pride, identity and connection. It allows parents and grandparents to once again speak to their children in their own languages.

It gives Indigenous youth a chance to learn who they are in a system that, for too long, tried to make them forget.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission made this clear in its 94 Calls to Action. Several of them specifically urge governments to acknowledge the significance of Indigenous languages and to provide funding for language revitalization.

The commission recognized that language and culture are inseparable and that you can’t have reconciliation without restoring both.

The road to reconciliation is long, and governments still have a great deal of work to do. But language is the heartbeat of culture. If we want to see true healing and partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in this country, then helping Indigenous languages thrive again is not optional, it’s essential.

Manitoba’s new university program is a powerful beginning. It’s a recognition that, after generations of policies designed to silence Indigenous voices, it’s time those voices are heard again — proudly, fluently and in the languages that were once nearly stolen from them.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca