Indigenous languages summit to be held in Ottawa this August

Officials are hoping about 2,000 delegates from around the world will attend an Indigenous languages summit that will be held in the nation’s capital this summer.

WAVES 2025 will be staged in Ottawa from Aug. 11 to Aug. 14.

The event is being organized by the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages, an independent organization that was established following the passage of the Indigenous Languages Act into law.

The act, which was given Royal Assent in 2019, supports the efforts of Indigenous peoples to reclaim, revitalize, maintain and strengthen Indigenous languages.

The commission was then formally established in 2021.

Those who will attend WAVES 2025 will be language experts, practitioners, advocates and supporters.

“Our objective is to hear from Indigenous peoples,” said Ronald Ignace, who has served as the commissioner of the language commission since its inception. “And we want to understand the progress being made and the challenges being faced by those leading revitalization efforts. We're placing the community at the centre.”

The goals of the summit are to inspire innovative thinking, foster significant dialogue and to provide worthwhile solutions to advance Indigenous languages.

“Indigenous communities are our best place to determine the rules and responsibilities and strategy for revitalization of Indigenous languages,” Ignace said. “And as a commission we’re here to champion their work, along with building and bringing people together.”

The commission held its first national event in 2023 in Kamloops, B.C. A couple of hundred delegates attended that event, which focused on personnel working on revitalization of Indigenous languages in their communities.

“We didn't reach out to organize national organizations,” Ignace said. “We wanted to hear directly from the people on the ground that were working in languages.”

First Nations, Métis and Inuit representatives were brought in “to talk about their best practices that they've experienced.”

Ignace said commission officials also heard the thoughts of attendees that helped determine a strategy how to best support and champion Indigenous languages across Canada.

Since then, the commission has organized regional summits in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Nova Scotia.

“We've hosted a series of language gatherings across the country to unite the people and hear their inspiring stories,” Ignace said. “And this has led to, we call it a wave. We’ve been building up to the WAVES summit in Ottawa.”

Ignace is a survivor of the Kamloops Indian Residential School. He purposely set up his commission office on the grounds of the former school.

“I thought it was fitting that I would come back and set up the office here,” he said. “I'm saying that I'm here to stay. We're here to stay. And we're not running anymore.”

Ignace also said commission reps are hoping to bring Indigenous languages back into the spotlight as they’ve been in the shadow of others for far too long.

“If our languages were not so important, why were they subjected to linguistic genocide?” he said. “And so, we want to bring the positive aspects of our languages forward so it can help, not only heal ourselves, but also heal our lands and contribute to creating a country that's great and good with a rich, diverse multilingual history that this country once had and can once again have.”

The WAVES summit will address three pillars: languages on the land, languages in the community and languages in technology.

Ignace said he’s proud of the work the commission has accomplished so far.

“We don't respond to the federal administrative act,” he said. “We're not an agent of the Crown. Nor are we employees of the federal administration. We're independent of that.”

The commission has a responsibility to work towards revitalizing 70 Indigenous languages across the country.

“We didn't have blueprints or road maps on how to build an Indigenous language commission,” Ignace said.

And the commission faced some early hurdles.

“For the first year-and-a-half, we couldn't meet (in person) because of COVID,” Ignace said. “We had to do everything, all our business via Zoom. But we got it done.”

More information on WAVES 2025 is available at www.waves2025.ca

And additional details about the commission and its mandate are at www.commissionforindigenouslanguages.ca

Local Journalism Initiative Reporters are supported by a financial contribution made by the Government of Canada.