Sixty-five years ago, Dorothy Eastman was beaten in residential school for speaking her language. Now she’s teaching a new generation to speak Ojibwe.

“I want to be a part of preserving this language,” says Eastman, who teaches in weekly language classes organized by the Pacific Association of First Nations Women, given at the Native Education College in Vancouver.

Watch her video:

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This video is part of our ongoing coverage of the urban Indigenous community in the Lower Mainland. Sign up here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Editor’s note, Jan. 18, 2019: This story was updated to include information on where Dorothy Eastman teaches and who organizes the classes. 

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More from this series:

Learning Cree and Ojibwe feels like ‘coming home,’ these urban Indigenous students say

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

If we lose our Indigenous culture and language, ‘we lose everything’

Elders help urban Indigenous youth connect to culture — if they can find each other

How saying ‘I’m gay’ in Heiltsuk connects this Indigenous man to his ancestors

Fake art hurts Indigenous artists as appropriators profit

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