[Witness spoke in Wolastoqiyik as follows:]
Qey, Woliwon, ntoliwis nil Wespasahtuwet Possesom Etolaqosit naka Kahkakuhsuwakutom naka Malsomuwakutom. Nuceyaw nil Wolastokuk.
[Wolastoqiyik text translated as follows:]
Hello, thank you, my name is Morning Star Burning and from the Crow Clan and Wolf Clan. I am from Wolastokuk territory.
[English]
Greetings. My traditional name is Morning Star Burning, and I represent, through my mother's side, the Crow Clan and, from my father's side, the Wolf Clan. I am from the homeland we call the Wolastoqey. We are the people of the beautiful and bountiful river.
I just stepped out of a mite ceremony, here in Winnipeg. I flew here a day and a half ago. Senator Murray Sinclair is part of our beautiful ceremonies. He spoke yesterday, at the tail end of our session, about how important language is to all indigenous peoples and how it connects us deeply to who we are and our relationship to the land, waters and all the fauna and flora. Plus, he said, it points out what our responsibilities are, as a nation and people—as citizens of our nations.
I just turned 62 years old a week ago. I am probably one of the youngest fluent speakers of our Wolastoqey language. Unfortunately, people younger than me can possibly comprehend what we're saying, but the younger ones cannot speak it. They are not fluent at all in our Wolastoqey language.
Back when I was born, in 1960, you could walk around my community of Neqotkuk, which is called Tobique, and that was all you heard: our beautiful Wolastoqey language. Because of Catholicism and the provincial school system, our language decreased rapidly within two decades. It is unfortunate that our language is on the brink of extinction. We have approximately 10,000 citizens in our nation, but fewer than 100 speakers are left. I have five sisters and four brothers. Fortunately, we grew up in a home where our parents and grandparents spoke fluently, so we're all fluent speakers, but we're some of the few who can still speak our language. We are in very dire straits, right now.
On a positive note, this past September, we started a pre-K immersion program outside the city of Fredericton. It was started by Lisa Perley-Dutcher, who is a first cousin of mine. We have six students there. I go in once a week to help and guide the teachers in our language, but we lack funding from both the provincial and federal governments. We have put in various proposals, but very few are approved. We are very fortunate that the mayor and council of the City of Fredericton gifted us with a building to teach the language in. It's an on-land teaching process we're doing there.
I was fortunate to visit our Maori sisters and brothers in New Zealand, approximately four years ago. I was so amazed and astonished that every one of their communities had a Maori immersion program. They were getting full support from the New Zealand government, because their language, over 35 years ago, had fewer than five speakers left. With the hard work of those five grandmothers, plus the support of the New Zealand government, they have more than.... I believe 75% are now fluent in their beautiful Maori language.
We are in dire straits on the east coast. In the province of New Brunswick, the Wolastoqey language is dying. We need funding and support, especially through the immersion programs. There was an elder woman, Christine Saulis, who taught for over 40 years in the provincial school system in a Wolastoqey core program. Close to her death, I remember talking to Christine. She was such a beautiful, kind lady. She said, “Ronnie, in all the years that I taught, I never produced one fluent speaker, because these little core language programs, 20 minutes to 30 minutes a day, do not work. We need immersion programs.”
I am proposing that the federal government put monies and funding to support immersion programs in our communities, as well as all over our nations.
I will end with that. Thank you.