Roundtable on the Destruction of Indigenous Languages

 

 

Chair/Moderator: Dorota Glowacka (University of King’s College, Halifax, Canada, History and Humanities)

  • Aluki Kotierk Inuk (President, Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI); Co-Chair for the Steering Committee of the United Nations Global Task Force For Making a Decade of Action for Indigenous Languages)

 

  • Stanley Rodriguez Kumeyaay-Iipay, Santa Ysabel (Kumeyaay Community College, California State University, San Marcos, US, Educational Leadership, Language, American Indian Studies)

 

  • Lorena Sekwan Fontaine Cree-Anishinabe, Sagkeeng First Nation (University of Winnipeg, Canada, Indigenous Studies)

 

Dorota Glowacka is Professor of Humanities at the University of King’s College, where she teaches critical theory, Holocaust and genocide studies and theories of gender and race in the Contemporary Studies Program. Among her publications are Po tamtej stronie: świadectwo, afekt, wyobraźnia [From the other side: testimony, affect, imagination], 2017, Disappearing Traces: Holocaust Testimonials, Ethics and Aesthetics (2012), Imaginary Neighbors: Mediating Polish-Jewish Relations after the Holocaust (with Joanna Zylinska, 2007) as well as many articles and book chapters, including “‘Never Forget’: Indigenous Memory of the Genocide and the Holocaust,” published in 2019 in the book Holocaust Memory and Racism in the Postwar World.

Lorena Sekwan Fontaine (BA, LL.B., LL.M., Ph.D) is Cree-Anishinabe and a member of the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba, Canada. Professor Fontaine is co-founder and co-director of an Indigenous languages program and an Associate Professor in Human Rights at the University of Winnipeg. In 2022, she served as the Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Studies at San Diego State University. Her research includes linguicide, the legacy of residential schools and Indigenous language rights in Canada. Her research was presented in a CBC documentary entitled “Undoing Linguicide.” She has worked with Indigenous organizations as an advisor on Indigenous languages and linguistic rights. Since 2003, Professor Fontaine has been an advocate for Indigenous Residential School Survivors as well as their descendants. Both her parents and maternal and paternal grandparents are residential school survivors. She was a task force member and contributor to the Assembly of First Nation’s Report on Canada’s Dispute Resolution Plan to compensate for abuses in Indian Residential Schools. Dr. Fontaine also acted as a legal consultant to the Toronto law firm Thomson, Rogers in a National Class Action on Indigenous Residential schools. Recently, Dr. Fontaine was a co-organizer of an educational forum on the legacy of the residential schools and the Holocaust with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Dr. Stanley Rodriguez has been President of Kumeyaay Community College since 2018. He serves as a Council Member of the Santa Ysabel Band of the Iipay Nation. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Dr. Rodriguez to the California Native American Heritage Commission in 2021. Dr. Rodriguez is the developer of the accelerated language immersion program, serving as a Kumeyaay Language Instructor at Kumeyaay Community College since 2005. Dr. Rodriguez served as an E-5 in the U.S. Navy from 1985 to 1991. He earned a Master of Arts degree in Human Behavior from National University and a Doctor of Education degree in Educational Leadership from the University of California, San Diego.

Originally from Igloolik, now residing in Iqaluit with her family, Nunavut Tunngavik President Aluki Kotierk leads by example. Throughout her career and to this day, Aluki is driven by her passion to empower and improve the lives of Inuit. After earning her master’s degree in Native and Canadian Studies at Trent University, Aluki worked for various Inuit organizations including Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (now known as Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami), and Nunavut Sivuniksavut. She has also held management and Deputy Minister roles within the Government of Nunavut, Office of the Languages Commissioner and NTI. In her current role as President, Aluki is keen in how Inuit Language and Culture can be better incorporated into the way in which programs and services are designed and delivered in Nunavut. She is a strong advocate for Inuktut language and a key driver in the move to see Inuktut recognized by the federal government as an official founding language of Canada in Nunavut. President Kotierk is a co-chair on the Global Task Force for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL) 2022-32, and, beginning in 2023 will be a permanent member for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.