These language classes are helping Indigenous people reclaim their ‘stolen heritage’

‘It’s extremely important that these programs keep going,’ one Cree student tells us in this video.

“When I first heard myself repeating words in my own language, it was great — short answer, it was amazing,” Kaen Seguin says. “I felt very proud.”

Seguin is among the nearly 50 Indigenous students who signed up immediately to take weekly Cree and Ojibwe classes at the Native Education College in Vancouver this fall.

Her grandmother went to residential school and as a result never taught her children to speak their language. “So I’m just sort of reclaiming our stolen heritage,” Seguin says.

“I wish she could hear me, and I wish we could have talked together in Ojibwe.”

Here’s Seguin and some of her fellow students talking about how much these classes mean to them:

 

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