Celebrating International Mother Language Day from an Indigenous Perspective

I strongly believe that a bill openly acknowledging and committing to protect all mother languages is one strategy to addressing and rectifying decades of shameful acts committed against First Nations, Inuit, Métis and non-status Indigenous peoples, the detrimental impacts of which are so clearly manifest in a loss of cultural connection and native language. The fact is, currently, there is no legislation which explicitly protects or promotes any native languages, apart from our official ones, English and French. Without any bill explicitly recognizing and celebrating the mother languages of all cultures and heritage, there is no real protection of any traditional language.