The FNWSC’s calls for more Indigenous language programming were featured by Canadian media and at a Chiefs of Ontario conference this month.
A CBC journalist contacted FNWSC for interviews after seeing Leslee White-Eye’s submission to Canada’s Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs. In a five-page briefing, posted on our advocacy page, FNWSC called for amendments to Canada’s Indigenous Languages Act in order to incorporate sustainable, predictable and flexible funding for First Nations schools and language immersion programming.
The briefing was included in Standing Committee deliberations on the Act, which has been in place since 2019, with the stated purpose of supporting and promoting the use of Indigenous Languages.
The briefing was one of several key advocacy reports produced last month by the First Nations with Schools (FNWSC). The collective also responded to a call for submissions to the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, who is scheduled to visit Canada next month.
SEE REPORTS ON OUR ADVOCACY PAGE
In addition, Leslee appeared as an invited panelist at the Chiefs of Ontario Language and Learning conference in Toronto, held Feb. 7-9. White-Eye spoke about work FNWSC has been doing at a Joint Education Technical Table with Indigenous Services Canada and Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada with the goal of transforming First Nation education delivery.
She also spoke about how FNWSC participants are able to remain united as a body of independent First Nations, each seeking full and unfettered control over their own local education.
For more, listen to the CBC radio piece or see the story with comments from White-Eye, Elder Advisor Jeannette Corbiere Lavell and Education Consultant Neil Debassige.