2014
The CILLDI 2014 Summer School ran from July 7th to 25th on the campus of the University of Alberta. 58 students attend 10 courses (57 for-credit, 1 auditor) coming from communities across Alberta, the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan.
Block 1 (July 8-17)
LING 111: Introduction to Linguistic Analysis for Indigenous Language Revitalization (Instructor Darin Flynn)
LING 212: Morphosyntax of Indigenous Languages (Instructor Craig Kopris)
LING 311: Community Language Archiving (Instructor Andrea Berez)
EDEL 306: Introduction to Language and Literacy Development (Instructor Belinda Daniels)
INT D 311: Language Policy and Planning for Indigenous Language Communities (Instructor Susan Penfield)
NS 103: Cree Immersion for Adult Beginners (Instructor Dorothy Thunder)
Block 2 (July 18-26)
LING 311: Building a Community Language Dictionary Cover to Cover (Instructor Jordan Lachler)
EDEL 461/595: Second Language Acquisition: Teaching Indigenous Languages in an Immersion Context (Instructor Ethel Gardner)
INT D 318 B2 & B3: Technologies for Indigenous Language Documentation (Two Sections due to high enrollment: Instructors Andrea Berez and Ben Tucker)
In 2014 there were six graduates of the Community Linguist Certificate program: Gladys Alexie (Gwich'in), Chester Auger (Cree) Carla Chisaakay (Dene Tha'), Theresa Gladue (Cree), Gina McIntyre (Denesuline), and Helen Metchooyeah (Dene Tha'). These students bring the total number of CLC awardees up to 64.
The CILLDI Internship Program ran a third time in 2014. The fantastic interns of 2014 were: Neesha Bhat, Megan Bontogon, Taylor Casavant, Andrea Custer, Caylie Gnyra, Atticus Harrigan, Maeghan Jerry, Rebecca LaGrange, Tao Ocean Luo, Hanie Min, Alexandra Sieben, Michaela Stang, and Kaitlin Traynor. Some of these students took the internship as a LING 375 credit course, where they interviewed students and wrote papers for part of the class material. Jordan Lachler was the CILLDI Director for the 2014 institute, and Faun Rice was the CILLDI Administrative Assistant. Rochelle Starr was the APYWCL Coordinator, while Margaret Cardinal, Donna MacDonald, Ivy Houle, Jackie Filipek, Sandra Yellowhorn, and Maria Lamouche delivered the APYWCL program.
The sixth year of the Alliance Pipeline's Young Women's Circle of Leadership (APYWCL) took place from July 7 to July 16, 2014. The APYWCL program is for young aboriginal women aged 12-16. Many of these young women were children or relatives of adult CILLDI Summer School students. Each day, participants were immersed in Cree language and cultural activities involving leadership, drama and technology.
Along with taking courses, the Summer School students came together for social and cultural events. The program opened and closed with a sharing circle, where students, interns, and instructors took a moment to speak and listen to one another about their backgrounds, interests, and missions. On July 16th, CILLDI hosted two events. First, that afternoon CILLDI instructors and guests delivered talks about the language revitalization work they do outside of teaching.
That evening, CILLDI coordinated a fifteenth anniversary banquet at the University of Alberta faculty club. Along with the dinner, students produced a Cree Immersion rendition of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The APYWCL participants performed a song and showed a video of their work. Additionally, many students sang, drummed, told stories, or delivered spoken word poetry. On Monday, July 21st, one CILLDI student and one instructor teamed up to conduct a Cree Immersion Drama workshop. This was hosted by Bruce Sinclair, formerly of Canada Council for the Arts, and Dorothy Thunder, Cree Instructor at the University of Alberta.
More images and other media from CILLDI 2014 can be found on our facebook page. Follow us for CILLDI updates, history, and language revitalization news!
