Social Exposure and Perceptions of Language Importance in Canada's Urban Indigenous Peoples

The following analysis uses data drawn from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS) to examine the effects of age, sex, education, household type, and exposure to Indigenous1 language in the home and outside the home on the perceived importance of Indigenous language for Indigenous people living in urban centres across Canada. The results of regression analysis indicate that "exposure to Indigenous language in the home" and "exposure to Indigenous language outside the home" are directly related to how important Indigenous language is perceived to be by urban Indigenous peoples. While Indigenous peoples are increasing in number in Canada (Adelson 2011) the frequency with which they are speaking their original languages is dangerously low (Blair et al. 2011, 91) particularly as their first language (Norris 2007, 19) The response by many communities has been to move toward language revitalization, leading more Indigenous peoples to learn their original language as a second language to English especially in the case of young people (22) Language retention is widely described as the best way to understand a worldview or culture when people learn an Indigenous language, it helps them to understand cultural meaning and expression better: "As you learn a language, you get a better knowledge of the culture" (Toulouse in Archibald et al. 2003) Indeed, the vitality of Indigenous cultures and worldviews and the languages that compose them have been affirmed as integral to the health and well being of the peoples with whom they originate (Hallett et al. 2007, 393) The 2015 conclusion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called upon the government of Canada to engage in meaningful action on ninety four items, many of which are concerned with the preservation, sustainability, and provision of adequate resources in support of Indigenous languages (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) In her remarks in May 2015, Chief Justice Rt.  Beverley McLachlin asserted that Canada had committed cultural genocide including in the forbidding of Indigenous languages in residential schools. The admission that degradation of Indigenous languages has been systemic and was rooted in colonial, culturally genocidal policies no doubt had an impact on the broader mainstream awareness of Indigenous issues, which were prominently supported and featured in Justin Trudeau's 2015 federal election platform (Liberal Party 2016) 1 Statistics Canada and the government of Canada use the term "Aboriginal" to identify diverse First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples. I have chosen to use "Indigenous," a term that communicates the quality of being original in land and place. aboriginal policy studies 100 Research indicates that threats to the continuation of Indigenous peoples' cultural identity pose a corresponding threat to the well being of Indigenous communities (Hallet et al. 2007) The adverse effects of colonialism (one being the condemnation of Indigenous languages in residential schools) have been identified as a determinant of lack of wellbeing in Indigenous populations (Howard 2014; Czyzewski 2011) This has influenced Indigenous peoples' efforts to shape and determine their well being via the resurgence of Indigenous worldviews and cultural strength as a proactive response to the destruction wrought by colonialism: Healing the self refers to a reconnection with family, friends, community, land and cultural heritage. Healing from the disruptions of colonialism is thus a process in which selves acquire a new sense of "being" defined in continuity with the past, but also in relation with the land and others. (Guindon 2015, 81) Ensuring the continuity of Indigenous languages ensures the endurance of unique worldviews and original perspectives that contain factors important to Indigenous wellbeing particularly place based oral history. In a recent widely publicized example, the recovery of the Franklin expedition ship HMS Erebus in the Arctic was linked to a location known to speakers of Inuktitut, indicating the strength and accuracy of Inuit oral tradition (CBC News 2014) The urbanization of Indigenous people has been a growing trend in Canada, in some ways exacerbating the decline of language use and traditional practices (Anderson 2013, 76) What is apparent is that while Indigenous peoples in Canada are increasingly moving to urban areas, language revitalization efforts often remain concentrated in on reserve spaces (Baloy 2011, 515) This poses considerable challenges for policymakers in terms of creating effective language revitalization programs. That being said, the language revitalization movement in urban areas is promising, with innovative and reordered practices arising out of the unique urban settings (Baloy 2011, 519; Blair et al. 2011, 93) that have potentially positive implications for the broader Indigenous language revitalization movement, both onand off reserve. In a recent example of indigenous language made visible in the urban landscape, Anishinaabe collaborators Susan Blight and Hayden King of the Ogimaa Mikana Project posted reclaimed historical place names in Anishinaabemowin overtop Toronto street signs (The Toronto Star 2015) The discussion in this paper is indicative of an Indigenous perspective that communicates the importance of Indigenous language retention and use. What is the perception of those who do not otherwise find their Indigenous languages important to learn? Archibald et al. (2003) share an example of a situation in which language diversity and ability are a barrier, particularly across generations: We were interviewing an elderly monolingual Cree woman on a northern reserve, and we asked her, "What language do you speak to your grandchildren?" She looked at us as if we were asking an unusual question and finally said, "I don't talk to them because they only speak English and they don't understand Cree." I was taken aback Social Exposure and Perceptions of Language Importance 101 by this response as I thought about all the things that this woman had to offer her grandchildren, but that without a common language she would never have an opportunity to share.  The focus of this analysis is to explore what affects the perceptions of language importance in Indigenous populations in Canada using the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS) data, if only to illuminate the variables that should be considered when exploring how our Indigenous languages are valued. In their discussion of quantitative research methodologies, Walter and Andersen (2013) note that population data research occurs in a social world in which moral, political, and cultural values are implicit facets of the social landscape at least partly reflecting the dominant mores of the space (50) The APS dataset, while containing a multitude of variables ranging from education to employment to culture, is nonetheless a quantified and numerical representation of lived Indigenous realities. This paper explores the numerical representation in a quantitative regression analysis style as an example of an Indigenous researcher working with a dataset that attempts to measure Indigenous life. While the APS was developed by "a diverse group of researchers and subject matter experts, both from within and outside Statistics Canada" and tested with the help of "First Nation people, Metis and Inuit across Canada" (APS website) the APS has implicit values and interests, reflecting most specifically large government policy concerns (Walter and Andersen 2013, 121) What follows is a quantitative discussion of the relationship among variables selected by the author as possibly significant in affecting perceptions of Indigenous language importance among self identified "Aboriginal" respondents to the APS. aboriginal policy studies 102