Indigenous creators hope Wolastoqey app will help revitalize endangered language
Updated app offers learners more opportunities to practise the language
A newly refreshed Indigenous language app is giving users more ways to learn the Wolastoqey language — and the Elder who voices the app hopes the new features encourage users to keep on learning.
"When you don't have anybody else to speak to, then it limits your usage," said Opolahsomuwehs (Imelda) Perley on Unreserved with Rosanna Deerchild.
"The app was a perfect response to [this problem]," similar to having an elder on your phone or computer screen to talk to, she said.
Perley understands what it's like not to be able to speak her language and the harm this kind of rupture can cause. As a child in a Catholic-run day school in New Brunswick, she wasn't allowed to speak her language or use her traditional name, Opolahsomuwehs, which means Moon of the Whirling Wind.
"We didn't learn English until five or six or seven," Perley said. "When the missionaries came, there was this policy that nobody was allowed to speak our language, even in our homes."
Now, Perley is a Wolastoqey language teacher, a fluent speaker and an elder-in-residence at the University of New Brunswick. It was her and her husband's idea to create the original Wolastoqey language app to try to revitalize the language.
Called Wolastoqey Latuwewakon in smartphone app stores, it was first created by Winnipeg-based Indigenous language app development company Ogoki Learning and launched in 2018 by the university's Mi'kmaq-Wolastoqey Centre.
The new version was launched on September 30. It's available in app form as well as online, so computer users aren't left out. New features include text content that allows users to learn not just to speak but to read the language as well, a pronunciation guide and customizable quizzes.
Perley noted that while she requested to have quizzes added, she wanted to make sure the new element wasn't disheartening or felt like punishment for language learners.
Instead of telling learners, "No, that wasn't right," the app gently says, "Here's the right answer in case you didn't get it," Perley said.
"What needs to be done is more encouragement than discouragement."
Preserving endangered languages
Diego Bear, a language processing master's student at the University of New Brunswick, is the developer behind the updated version of the app. He's from Tobique First Nation and is a Wolastoqey language learner himself. In fact, he was one of Perley's Wolastoqey students.
"We felt it was important to have this application because, well, Wolastoqey is a critically endangered language," Bear said.
Since New Brunswick is a bilingual province, there's a pull for second-language learners to take French classes, rather than Wolastoqey, he said. And for those who didn't learn the language in elementary or high school, there are limited options to do so in adulthood.
"Language is a snapshot of the culture the language originates from," he said. "Language revitalization is of utmost importance because it's not just about preserving the method [of] communication, but also preserving culture as well."
Bear said his field of natural language processing, which he describes as the use of "machine learning AI techniques for the purpose of linguistic applications," is biased towards the English language.
"The field can almost be renamed to English natural language processing based on the amount of work that's been done in regards to English compared to basically every other language."
As a consequence, Indigneous languages aren't well integrated with technology. But Bear hopes this will change. "We hope by developing apps like this, and continuing to develop Wolastoqey language technologies, that we can aid in revitalization," he said.
WATCH | Imelda Perley performs a naming ceremony.
Derek Baxter, president and CEO of Ogoki Learning, is on the frontlines of language revitalization and knows the challenges of creating these kinds of language tools.
But there's certainly demand for them, enough that it's a challenge for his company to keep up, he noted.
"Schools are requesting more support for digital online learning and apps," Baxter said. "There are different schools that are searching out apps for their language, whether it's an Athabaskan language or a Coast Salish language."
Baxter added that requests are coming from governments and even the child welfare system.
"In Manitoba, there are 11,000 young kids that are in the foster care [system]," he said. "So now, the childhood family agencies have a responsibility to deliver cultural education [and] training … [and] they're requesting that we provide them with different language apps."
Carrying the language for those who couldn't
To help Wolastoqi children feel pride in their language, Elder Perley visits schools in New Brunswick to honour them with spirit names.
She wants the children to know that they won't be attacked or punished for speaking their language, like she was as a child. She also wants students to understand the significance of being able to learn Wolastoqey.
"I always tell them a spirit name isn't just a pretty name in our language. There's a responsibility … to carry that language for the ones who didn't get to learn," she said.
When evidence of the remains of children were discovered at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C. in May, Perley brought her pipe to a school to bless the children's feet.
"I told them, 'I need to bless your feet because … you get to still go outside and play. You get to dance. You get to walk home. You get to bike,'" she said.
"'And I want you to continue to do this, but with your language, because they didn't get to come home and learn their language.'"