Edmontonians open AFN conference

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Feds to fund Aboriginal language institute

Jamie McDonell and Lesley Crossingham ? Ottawa

Native people have moved one step closer to founding an Aboriginal language institute with a promise from the Secretary of State to fund an advisory committee.

During his address to an Aboriginal language conference organized by the Assembly of First Nations Jan. 19-21, David Crombie said the committee would be formed by the organizers of the language conference to look into the form and make-up of such an institute.

During the conference, delegates pinpointed the creation of the Aboriginal language institute as one of its priorities. Other recommendations included the entrenchment of Aboriginal languages in the constitution and the broadcast act as well as for an increase of government funding for indigenous language studies.

Other recommendations included declaring Aboriginal languages as the official language of bands all across the country, developing medical, technical and scientific terminology in Aboriginal languages and the use of Aboriginal place names for locations in Canada.

"If Aboriginal peoples lose their languages and the traditions tied up in them, all the constitutional concessions that indigenous leaders have won, and hope yet to win, will be for naught," said Assembly leader Georges Erasmus during the opening ceremonies.

On the second day Dr. Anne Anderson and Ernestine Gibot performed the opening ceremonies using shinokta (also known as wekimasikun) ? a fungus found at the base of the willow tree.

Anderson spoke of the importance of maintaining traditional languages and of her mother's preservation of the Cree language in her family.