“teepaalilaani” © Hannah Buchanan 2025
Despite the increasingly concentrated efforts to revitalize Indigenous languages over the last thirty years, the United Nations estimates that every two weeks an Indigenous language is lost. In Canada, half of the Indigenous languages still spoken have less than 500 fluent speakers remaining. Scholars have rushed towards language projects with an all-hands-on-deck ethos that celebrates any and all language reclamation efforts. The fervor is warranted – with heritage languages are lost worldviews, histories, culture, and invaluable knowledge of the world and all of our relations within it. However, the sudden global interest in Indigenous languages fostered homogenized views of language reclamation that continue to centralize the work and world view of non-Indigenous linguists over efforts that directly lead to the growth of networks of Indigenous language speakers. Our collective efforts towards flourishing Indigenous languages need to develop language programs that intentionally work towards fostering and building communities of Indigenous language speakers.
We developed this project to investigate the field of language revitalization, and create a list of models, case studies, and best practices gleaned from published scholarship for scholars and language practitioners. Our goal was to synthesize the knowledge and best practices in the field of Indigenous language reclamation over the past 30 years, with a focus on sources that seek to support Indigenous flourishing and sovereignty over the future of heritage languages. Ultimately, we hope this will help to steer Indigenous Language Reclamation programs and funding toward projects that directly support language growth in Indigenous communities.
We began with these questions in mind:
- What does the literature tell us about how to run successful, effective Indigenous language programs focused on rebuilding a community of language users? Do different types of language programs have significantly different markers of success?
- What counts as a successful, effective language program? Who decides? How are Indigenous communities naming and identifying the goals of language reclamation?
Our process involved a broad search of literature in the field of language reclamation using Indigenous digital collections and scholarly databases. We then completed 5 stages of review to identify articles addressing Indigenous people learning their own language. Finally, we coded the remaining articles for thematic analysis to better understand how the learning of Indigenous languages is explored and evaluated in the literature.