Grievance #1

Kieran Rice

If you are in U of T’s Indigenous Studies major or specialist program, you are required to take a language class. The language classes U of T currently offers are Anishinaabemowin and Kanien’kéha. Being non-Anishinaabe and non-Haudenosaunee, I recognize that I am a guest on Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee lands, so being asked to learn Anishinaabemowin or Kanien’kéha makes sense. In theory, learning the language of the nation whose land one occupies is a beautiful gesture. In reality, however, if I’m going to devote time and energy to the extremely difficult task of learning a language, I want that language to be my community’s. I speak three words of Halkomelem. There are 25 fluent language speakers of Halkomelem in my community, and just 250 in the world. The situation is dire. For context, there are approximately 25,000 people who speak Anishinaabemowin and 2300 who speak Kanien’kéha. Like in so many Indigenous communities, the Indian Residential School System stripped us of our ability to speak Halkomelem. 

Last year, I talked to INS, and requested that I be allowed to forgo the language credit in order to use that time to learn Halkomelem virtually. Long story short, I was told no. The only solution I was offered was that I could take upper level Indigenous related classes in the department of linguistics. The problem was that I didn’t have prerequisites to take these classes, so effectively, I had no choice but to take Anishinaabemowin or Kanien’kéha. I ended up taking Anishinaabemowin and I really enjoyed it, but this is besides the point. I was bothered all year by INS saying no to this, especially when I thought about the problem from a systematic lens. (Systematic is the key word here. This critique is a systematic one and not directed at any individuals. I honour and respect the people who are doing the difficult work of language reclamation as well as those who organize Indigenous Studies). The reality was that I was forced to learn a language, albeit an Indigenous one, and I resent this. I wasn’t physically forced to learn it, though it felt like a threat no less— take this class or we will not grant you a degree. The ethics of making someone learn a language they don’t want to learn are questionable at best. I feel that we should be encouraging young Indigenous people who are beginning their language learning journeys, not making them learn languages they don’t want to learn. Ethical and so-called “decolonial” education is based on consent, and my experience with the language class was not consensual. I didn’t want to learn Anishinaabemowin the same way I didn’t want to learn French in grade school. The only language that I want to speak is Halkomelem. 

I hope the Centre for Indigenous Studies rethinks how they approach this and are more flexible with language requirements going forward, especially for Native students, because I don’t want this to happen to any else in the future.