Breathing life back into the stories: Creating the circle of Indigenous languages website

Abstract

This paper describes an innovative project undertaken to create a website to share historical recordings of the nēhiyaw (Cree), Nahkawe, and Michif languages of Saskatchewan. Each author played a role in the delivery of a graduate program that took place simultaneously alongside the creation of the Circle of Indigenous Languages (COIL) website. This paper explores the importance of Indigenous networking and a collective consciousness towards Indigenous language revitalization as neither project would have happened without the spark and interconnection of the other. Weaving together our language experiences, we highlight the strength of aligned synergies. This paper also addresses critical issues pertaining to cultural continuity for Indigenous Peoples by embracing technology. Therefore, the greatest impact of the COIL project was to koskopita (reawaken) the stories from inaccessible formats in private collections. The project of digitization, categorization, and website creation provided access to old stories, and therefore "whole language," now shared in the public domain. Our journey with technology and the experience gained can be used by other language communities to support Indigenous language documentation.