Preserving an Indigenous language? There's an app for that

The AthabascaTribal Councilis launchinga new mobile phoneapp that it hopes will help preserve theCree languagedialect of northeastern Alberta.

• Regina residents call for Cree syllabics on street signs
• Edmonton man performs traditional Cree dance on moving escalator

The app is calledATC Cree. Ittranslates 120 Creewords into English and plays audioof their pronunciations. Closeto 450 wordshave been recorded and are expected tobe addedto the app later.

Byron Bates, an app developer and AthabascaTribal Council member, created the app with help from other ATC members. In 2000, the councilhelped fund Bates' four-year education in software development. He sees this as a way to pay them back, while helping to preserve the language of his people, he says.

"Your language is a big part of your identity and I think this will help with the younger generation who all have smart phones and they all useappsand it will help keep the language alive a little bit better," said Bates.

TheAthabascaTribal Councilrepresents 5,000 Cree andDenepeople from five First Nations in the FortMcMurrayarea,including theAthabascaChipewyan,ChipewyanPrairie, FortMcKay, FortMcMurray, andMikisewCree nations.

Bates admits he didn't know manyCreewords before working on the app, but says the words he knew were from signs on the Fort McMurray First Nation where he lives. He says he haslearned a lot more Cree while designing the app and plans to continue to use it himself.

If it's not taught then we're going to lose it- RitaMarten,the ATC'sdirector of education

In 1995, the Athabasca Tribal Council started an education department that focuses on the culture and languages of its five First Nations.

Students there takeCree language classes at school, but this app is designed to encourage those students to bring the language home and to practise it with their parents.

"This Cree app would entice them," said Rita Marten, the ATC's director of education. "They can review the Cree words that they learn at the school and then start speaking fluently with the elders and other students."

Only 49,810 people speak the Cree language fluently at home, according to the2011 census. Of those, 7,630 were Albertans.

'It was punished and beaten out of me'

I did not knowmy language,I did not know my culture- Lana Whiskeyjack,Saddle Lake Creeartist

Across northern Alberta,Indigenous people are trying to preserve their languages.

Lana Whiskeyjack is a Saddle Lake Cree artist livingin Edmonton. She says she feltdisconnected from her culture without its language.

"I did not know my language, I did not know my culture,I did not know my history;I did not know any of that," Whiskeyjack said.

That changed when she heard a shocking testimony from a residential school survivor.

"I never taught my children Cree because it was punished and beaten out of me," Whiskeyjack said.

She learned Cree and now she's teaching itand other traditions to her three children, hopingto pass on the language that was not meant to be spoken in residential schools.

Steve Wood, a Grammy award-nominated musician, teaches Cree at a school on the Ermineskin Cree Nation. He says over the last coupleyears, more young people are attending traditional ceremonies and social events.

• Alberta Indigenous group receives 7th Grammy Award nomination

"Our young people learn how to re-establish Aboriginal family values in their families," said Wood."They learn the Cree language and teach it to their parents and brothers and sisters.

"We have to relearn our language before it disappears."

The ATC Cree app is available for Apple and Android devices.

With files from Marie-Eve DuSablon

@Travismcewancbc

Travis.mcewan@cbc.ca