Language – P`la Labonte

Language

Director Report

Pamela Labonte

Language Director The Department grew this winter as we welcomed Julia Payne to the team as the Tahltan Central Government (TCG) Language Documentation Specialist. Julia’s position is critical for language preservation. LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT FACEBOOK PAGE

On other fronts, we continued to create and share digital language resources on the Language Department Facebook page. This is a great platform to connect to language and build strong foundations for learning Tāłtān. We encourage everyone to like our page and share these creative resources with others.

Visit: facebook.com/TCGLanguageDepartment

to check it out.

Her role is dedicated to documenting Tāłtān through working with speakers in and out of territory in pursuit of documenting all elements of language such as stories and songs among other critical components. All documented language will be made visible and accessible to Tahltans and membership as we work with the Culture and Heritage Department and the TCG Archives Project through the Tahltan Stewardship Initiative (TSI).

Please contact the Language Department if you are a fluent speaker, or if you know of a fluent speaker who would like to work with Julia in documenting Tāłtān.

Tatl’ah Language

Programming Coordinator Updates

Dhakāle Hayle Gallup

Tatl’ah Language Programming Coordinator

Over the winter we started delivering language lessons via Zoom, spearheaded with fluent Tāłtān speaker Pat Etzerza. I facilitated each language lesson with fluent and semi-fluent language speakers leading the teaching. These language lessons will be posted on the Members Only Section of the Tahltan Central Government Session for members to check out.

I also had a successful training session with the Telegraph Creek language team where the team learned how to document and edit language audio. Re-opening the Language Nest in Tatl’ah (Dease Lake) is slowly underway! I hosted two Language Nest information sessions where I gathered information from community members on potential staff and child registration numbers. I will continue to support the school in offering language lessons upon request to individual classrooms as well as supporting on the land field trips. I look forward to another season of growth in relationship and language programming and initiatives within the community.

Above: Audio recording and editing training sessions with the Telegraph Creek language team.

Left: Tāłtān language lessons with Pat and Theresa Etzerza.