Trailblazing B.C. project revitalizes Nisga’a culture and language
Research headed by UBC’s Amy Parent encompasses virtual reality, traditional carving, and the repatriation of a stolen house pole
Amy Parent with her children using a VR headset. Photo by Elahe Rajabi.
WHEN AMY PARENT was growing up, she remembers her grandparents speaking to each other in Nisga’a and Gitxsan in their home in Port Edward, B.C. Part of the same language group, neither dialect was passed down to her family because of the impact of residential schools, where Indigenous children were forbidden from speaking anything but English. Now, the UBC assistant professor in the department of educational studies is embarking on an immense, multifaceted research project along with her Nation that aims to support on-going efforts to revitalize the Nisga’a language and culture.
It’s an effort where worlds collide in unexpected and deeply symbolic ways, one that involves virtual reality, pole carving, and journeys to Edinburgh and the Nass Valley.
Parent’s multiyear project is called Raising Nisga’a Language, Sovereignty, and Land-based Education Through Traditional Carving Knowledge. It will develop new language-learning tools through VR technology, repatriate an original Nisga’a house pole from the National Museum of Scotland, and commission a new pole within the village of Lax̱galts’ap in the Nisga’a Nation.
Parent is Nisga’a from the Nass Valley on her mother’s side, belonging to the House of Niis Joohl in the Ganada (Frog) Clan from the village of Lax̱galts’ap. On her father’s side, she is of settler French and German ancestry.
“Over the past 30 years, there has been a global decline of nearly 6,000 Indigenous languages, representing 90 per cent of all languages on Earth,” Parent tells Stir. “The Nisga’a language is one of those considered endangered, with approximately five per cent of Nisga’a citizens able to speak it fluently.
“I don’t like to say our language is dying but rather that it has been put to sleep because of residential schools and contemporary forms of colonialism,” she says. “What we’re seeing now is a powerful awakening of Indigenous languages in communities all across the country.”
The loss of Indigenous language can have far-reaching consequences, including a devastating impact on a Nation’s identity, history, and cultural development. “There’s definitely a need to continue awakening our language,” Parent says, especially considering that about 1,400 members of the Nisga’a Nation live in the Lower Mainland, far removed from their motherlands.
Parent is bringing in new technology to support language restoration, an effort that Nisga’a Matriarchs, Chiefs, and Knowledge Holders have been working on for decades. By chance, she happened to connect with an SFU colleague who specializes in VR and gleaned that the technology appears to help people, notably video game-loving youth, acquire and retain languages more efficiently.
VR filming is scheduled to start next summer. Recordings will feature interviews with Nisga’a speakers and capture things like traditional uses of the land (including the red cedar tree), place names that are permissible to be shared publicly according to Nisga’a laws and protocol, and stories depicted on Nisga’a poles. Parent is hopeful that the films could ultimately lead to increased ecotourism and support teacher recruitment for the Nisga’a Nation, as they’ll be translated into multiple languages. (Parent is seeking funds for a classroom set of VR masks to pilot the films with Nisga’a communities in the Nass Valley and among those who live in urban settings such as Vancouver, Terrace, and Prince Rupert)
A partnership with Laxgalts’ap Village Government, with protocol guidance from Nisga’a Lisims Government Ayuuk Department and support from the Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada: New Frontiers in Research Grant, the project also involves repatriating the Niis Joohl Pole.
The original House of Niis Joohl Pole, currently located at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Photo shared with permission by Sim’oogit (Chief) Niis Joohl.
Although Nisga’a Nation members have known for years that the pole was stolen, the House of Niis Joohl learned only last year the identity of the colonial ethnographer, Marius Barbeau, who stole the pole, and the exact year it was taken. One of a number of poles and other priceless artifacts that were taken in 1929, it was sold to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh “with the permission of the Government of Canada”, Parent says.
There’s risk involved in its repatriation; the first thing she and a committee of Nisga’a citizens from the House of Niis Joohl need to do is visit the museum next year to investigate the physical state of the pole and whether it can withstand being transported. However, it was recently relocated to a central spot within the museum itself and encased in glass, suggesting, Parent says, that it’s attractive in terms of the institution’s revenue. To date, only one totem pole in the entire country, the Haisla G’psgolox Pole, has ever been successfully repatriated from a European museum.
“I did my first degree in anthropology at SFU, and going through my textbooks, these old, dead white guys like Marius Barbeau were these prominent patriarchal figures in anthropology,” Parent says. “They were touted as exemplars for their work in ‘salvage’ anthropology. They were so prominent in my education and I knew to be skeptical of them. However, to find out only in the last year it was him who stole our house pole was still quite astonishing.”
Finally, the project will commission a new pole by two emerging Nisga’a artists, one male and one female. The carving will serve as a land-based learning opportunity and be captured as part of the VR content. Affirming Nisga’a self-governance and cultural sovereignty, the finished pole will be raised and celebrated with a yukw (feast).
“We’re looking to begin carving of that pole late spring or early summer,” Parent says. “We hope that each component of this project will have multiple impacts in the Nass and our urban Nisga’a communities, particularly with our younger generations. We hope that this project will spark their interest and commitment to begin learning the Nisga’a language and deepen their understanding of our land-based practices. We also intend on continuing to build relationships with Canadian society and members of the international community that are interested in learning about our Nation’s beautiful way of life since time immemorial.”
More information about the Raising Nisga’a Language, Sovereignty, and Land-based Education Through Traditional Carving Knowledge project is at Parent’s website.
The RNL project will use virtual reality to facilitate land-based learning practices for Nisga’a language learners. Photo by Elahe Rajabi.
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