Absolutely. We know it's part of wellness, especially for indigenous people. The loss of our language has impacted our entire family for generations, so we know this. There's a whole body of research out there on mother tongue languages and how important those are for children developmentally. Many of the friendship centres across the country are trying to focus on restoring and resurrecting our indigenous languages. We have two languages in New Brunswick: Wolastoqiyik and Mi'kmaq. We are working diligently on that, but we have to understand it's a challenge, because many of our speakers are aging. We're losing them, so we have a sense of urgency around that.
For indigenous people, it's all connected. We take a holistic approach toward health and wellness. It's not just about how much you weigh or what your blood pressure is. It's about how well you are within your community, culture and language, and how families are being supported. It's very important, especially for children, to realize that our language is as important as other languages.
New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in the country. Our French brothers and sisters have done an amazing job of making sure that happens for their children, because they know it's important. It's not as if we have to look outside the country for that. We have amazing examples in our own country and province. French-speaking children can go to French kindergarten, day care, middle school, high school and all the way up to university, but we don't have that. At a minimum, that's what we're hoping for someday.
I don't know whether I answered your question.