 It's great y'all. My name is Ty Swallow and I am an administrator or a director, facilitator of language revitalization at the Husseinich School Board. And the program I help work with is a states in the Sinchauffin program, which is a language apprentice program. So it's what the Lysia's in this niche, just let me tell you a little bit about Husseinich. My name is Renee Sampson, so I'm from the Lanong School. My English, French name is Renee. I come from here, the Husseinich Nation. I work at the Lanong School, which we call the Sinchauffin Survival School. I work currently in a kindergarten slash grade one immersion program. Here in Husseinich. So our main goal is to teach our course subjects, basically all day, from preschool to grade three in Sinchauffin immersion. And then when they get into grade four, that's when we start to introduce English as a subject in grade five. They get a little bit more. And that is what we're doing and we're currently growing. So we're growing into grade six next year. So we're continuously expanding our program. And of course the main goal for us is to revitalize and preserve our Sinchauffin language. And right now we're using the education domain to reach children. And we think it's really important that we continue to strive to teach a language to our children and families because our language is critically endangered. And so that's our ultimate goal is to have our language flourishing in our community of Husseinich again. Well, I would say that our learning objectives for the adult center. So I work in the adult center. And so my focus is really on our adult students. My focus over the years has been working with Squint Alicia here and others of her sort of generation to build capacity to speak the language, to learn the language in order to teach the language in the school. So our sort of goal to begin with was really in this education domain, as Squint Alicia was talking about, to use that as sort of the place to nest our language capacity building, right? So if we have teachers who can teach through the medium of Sinchauffin, then the federal government will pay us through normal role funding in order to continue growing a language. And so that's what we started in 2009 and built capacity for three years. Squint Alicia was monumental as far as building the sort of educational components of our program as far as the language nest and then transitioning into kindergarten where she's been from that point on. So my job really is about finding more teachers, working with universities and college programs in order to get our, get Husseinich people the credentials that they can teach in a program. And yeah, working on new speakers through Diploma of Indigenous Education programs, partnership with the University of Victoria, as well as working with our wonderful teachers here to try to give them more opportunity to grow language, because it's quite difficult when all you're doing is teaching and doing the massive amounts of curriculum and materials development that these guys do. So that's kind of the job that we do at States in here. I think the biggest thing is the language revitalization component and within our program because the, all of the teachers are certified teachers. However, our educational assistants, they're community members. And so they're basically coming out of community with little to no language. And so what we're doing is we're mentoring and like Ty said, is that we're building capacity. And so like through my little career, I've mentored probably about five people. And so now once I mentor them, then they go to another class and they're able to assist with a pretty good level of fluency in the classroom. And so it's like a reciprocal giving. I feel like our program is this because what we're doing is reaching out to community members and because we need the support and so they come and then we train them in the language. And a lot of them then go back to school into the Hussein Chathaneese program, which is a Indigenous language revitalization diploma program. And if they want to continue into the education stream, then they, then they continue their education at the University of Victoria. And so a lot of them that have come maybe for a year or half a year, then then go get more education where they're able to really foster the skills that they need to work in the education domain, as well as have the opportunity to work with our elders and language teachers in the classroom learning different methods of language. And so for our school, our main goal is to get the students to speak the language. So they're speaking the language, they're reading the language, and they're writing the language. But also within our classrooms, we're trying to create, I suppose, communicative activities so that the students are able to use language with their families and in the home. And so our ultimate goal is to instill Hussein Chathaneese values and to help build a self-confidence in their identity and to really connect them with the land and really connect them with the Hussein Chathaneese teachings. And so that's, I think, the biggest goal for us because we want them to be able to walk really strong and know who they are as Hussein Chathaneese people so that they can be really successful in the mainstream society. And so that's our ultimate goal is to really really strengthen themselves up inside so that they have a really strong heart and mind. So I work in Leungoch Tribal School and in Leungoch Tribal School we have two streams. We have an English stream which teaches the general BC curriculum and then we have the Sin Chathane immersion stream, what do we call Leungoch School out. And so within our school in our school we have a method of teaching our literacy program through play-based learning. And so our Leungoch School immersion stream has adopted this method from a lady named Jan Mort. And so through our literacy program what we teach them is the alphabetic principles and from there we build on alphabetic principles to teach high-frequency words in Sin Chathane and from the high-frequency words we have literacy guided reading books that help to support the students learning for their high-frequency words so it's just scaffolding them and then as well as writing. And so through the play-based method for example in kindergarten we have our Sin Chathane alphabet which is our orthography that late Dave Elliott has created for our program which uses I suppose the English alphabet but also we use different hyphens and different backslashes and underscores to to donate the sound of the language and so we teach the alphabet at preschool we teach the alphabet and it's required and so for kindergarten they're required to know our alphabet and so we do different games with them so we can create a game through snakes and ladders we do different games with playdohs and we do different things. So just to add to our play-based literacy we're trying to build the the student skills for their fine motors as well as just engaging and fun too. I always feel like we're tricking them to learn you know because we're having so much fun at our centers and from there we just build like I said to our our books that are we've been working on so the thing is with our program we're continuously and constantly building curriculum as we go so our teachers are are working so hard to build the curriculum for each grade and what we've done in our grade what time mentioned is that we started that at the language nest and we started with eight students and then we're like okay well now that we've had our students we should and we've had them in the language for a year and a half how are we going to continuously how are we going to continue and support these these families that want their children to learn the language and so what we did is we did a like a survey to say would you would you have a that's how we got everything started would you send your children to a language nest would you send your children to an emerging program would you be interested in taking any sinchothin courses and would you be willing to continue education into post-secondary and so from that survey that's how it really grew was from the community support back in 2010 back in 2010 and so once we were done a preschool and I had my degree because I was working on my degree at the same time and finally graduated from the University of Victoria we're like okay we need to support this you have your degree so it's what the least yes so hey cha you go and you teach kindergarten and then we had different ideas of following the students up however once we did a call out to community we got a really responsive positive response from community and so then we had another cohort start in preschool and so that's kind of where my forte is right there so every year we just built on and the and we're building capacity and the teachers are our some of the teachers are teaching in English and so they switched over to get mentored in sinchothin and they've become immersion teachers and a lot of the parents went to school that were had their children in their immersion stream to become teachers themselves so it's just been a really growth and a really beautiful bloom for us and I think the more interesting thing is is that we've had a lot of late immersion students come so we had one late immersion in grade three the next year we had another late immersion in grade four and then this year we've had another two people come in grade four and so that's really interesting too and I think that the key is is if if community members want we don't want to say no to to anybody right because language is everybody's birthright and so we want to be open and receptive however we want that support too because we want every student to be successful so we have to really think of what's in the best interest of for the for the student so if they don't have good attendance in English and they're wanting to come into immersion we've got to really look at these things right because we don't want them to be floundering and struggling we want them to be successful so those there's some factors that we need to look at when we have late immersion students and what late immersion means is that they're just joining us like in grade three they didn't go through the program at preschool they didn't enter when everybody else did and so it is really hard but if you have a supportive family and you have family members learning the language as well then the students are more successful and that's what we're finding now so there's different things that we're learning around the way some of the challenges around that and of course some of the challenges like I mentioned before is that it's curriculum it's because we got to build all of our curriculum we got to build our own books so we really worked hard at building different things and we work in the summer to help build build resources for ourselves we can't just go online and download it we got to translate it we got to label it or if it's a book we really like like Mortimer Robert Munch we need to translate that and so it's a it's a really busy busy schedule life to be a teacher in a language immersion program however the benefits of that is seeing seeing the children grow you know seeing them using the language on their own without prompting hearing them singing hearing them converse hearing them get mad at each other you know like in the language like hey you shouldn't be doing that you know don't touch that and you know and things like that and I'm just like sitting back and looking at them and just like well like I had no nothing to do with that conversation you know and that's what we're trying to do is in kindergarten I'm really trying to express to them the importance of learning the language as well as doing different activities to help them express their needs and wants because I want them to be able to express that and how they're feeling and things like that so every single grade is different everybody has a like any teacher however we're really looking to become a really trauma sensitive school trauma sensitive program because if you look at the history in Canada you can really see the dark past right the residential schools my grandparents all went to a residential school and so the language transmission hasn't been transmitted to my parent generation and so I think that really helps spark the fire for a lot of people in my generation because we really feel like you know a lot of people feel like man we've been ripped off it's not it's not fair that we aren't speaking our first language and we're really trying to instill the the importance I think of of learning the language because it's like I keep going to it's our right and you know I have all my daughters in our immersion program my oldest was too too old because we started our journey when she was already in school and at times I always tell the story of how she feels like ripped off like you know that she didn't get the experience and she always reminds her sisters to really to really remember how fortunate you are and really value your experience because not everybody gets has experience and then on the other hand it's pretty amazing how much she knows because of the language in the home right because me and and Penejo and their father are working as teachers in the immersion program and so and that's what our ultimate goal is is to have families using the language because once it's in the home we know that the language will be really safe and so we're continuously looking at different strategies to how to get the language out and right now we're doing a lot of youtube videos and help to help support family members outside the home we do we have in that in the last six years done night classes you know evening classes the teachers will go and and teach the parents excuse me we've tried different things like just teaching the parents and then teaching the kids we've tried teaching at the same time we've we try a lot of different methodologies like should we do tbr or should we use gray mourning or should we just do literacy games so we're always trying to reinvent I guess reinvent different um and use the methods that we're using in the classroom to help support families to keep it interesting and and now I guess the next thing we're doing is um creating different um home language don't mean the language of the home video so that like um they can that the families can learn how to make eggs with your child you know so that's the that's the last video or how how what are the words and some childhood to make tea you know and so just trying to to reach out further um to community because that's the biggest thing is is how do we get a challenge is how do we get parents involved you know and in the language so a lot of parents are really invested and then we have some parents that are still um they're busy you know they're they're they're working or they're doing this and that so it's trying to get um parents involved so that they know what their children are doing because a lot of the time um our our children our students are learning the language but their parents don't know the language and so that's one of the challenges um that a lot of different indigenous communities are are facing is that um that there's that gap there so that's just a little bit a bit of that I'll just add a little bit about what Renee was talking about earlier about the the life of a language revitalist is is constant and endless and so at the school we we were forced to use times where school is not a factor right so spring breaks summertime's a huge workload for us so a lot of a lot of what I do is is to work with first peoples or other granting agencies to find funds so that we can run programs including our immersion summer camps which are we've been doing for three years now and then doing a lot of professional development for our teachers for parents other support staff and also trying to link with other communities because we get a lot of requests to come see our program um that and so I don't know I think we all feel very responsible to to share what we've learned and and the gifts that we have and the opportunity we have to to share all these things that this team of teachers and brilliant language revitalists get to do and so that's we do a lot of that and um I think Renee also does a teaches one of our classes in our adult program our diploma of indigenous edge revitalization program um so yeah it's uh it's it's a lovely job it's I'm thankful and humble every time I get to do it I think it's really awesome that um in our immersion program we teach for from our own perspective so we're fortunate enough that we can teach from how our teachings from our grandparents and so in my classroom for example we do lots of storytelling and teaching through um which is Raven right and um and the teachings that our elders have have taught us of of how how not to be so Raven is a teacher and um he's he teaches us how not to be and so um in my classroom we use puppets and different things and different stories even if it's as simple as in the in the line I seen students pushing each other so what we do is when we come in back from break we have a meditation time where we just calm our body our mind and and all our goal and I tell them all the time all we're doing is resting our brain so and so that's the only goal there and so after that they know that and they expect to have so it's the teachings from Raven and so that's where if there's any differences or anything throughout the day that I see that that I bring out and and it's um teaching it from in the language is teaching it from an indigenous perspective is because because the language is is our soul you know it's it's the main thing that that is so ancient that comes from you know um all of our ancestors and so I think it's um pretty interesting um when people are trying to like I'm thinking of the mainstream education and trying to indigenize their education and a lot of them are struggle you know struggle because they want to make sure that they're doing it right and they want to make sure um that they're um being appropriate and they're not being offensive and they're using their appropriate terminology for First Nation or as Aboriginal or is it you know making sure that it's not Indian or whatnot what have you right and and it's easy you know it's easy because we're just being us we're just being some chathen who signature us people and conducting ourselves in the way that um we have always happened and so it's the teachings of listening it's teaching at all respect it's teaching the being truthful and it's just conducting ourselves in a way that's that that if your grandma and grandpa how they would you know or their great-grandparents or your parents how they would treat you and so what I see is um a great respect from a lot of the students but also creating a really nurturing supportive environment you know that they feel like really comfortable in the class that they know that we love them the majority of our students are relatives um they're all my they're all my nieces and nephews the majority of them like I probably everyone is and so it's I'm there I'm like their aunt too but I'm their teacher and so um I feel like that indigening indigenizing our our education in our classrooms is so easy is because we're doing it from our language and we're incorporating all our teachings within um within our daily practice you know like our elders always said that we always gave prayer for even if a piece of toast and tea you know and so those simple things I know that in mainstream schools um religion is something that you don't even want to touch because it's um there's there's so many different religions but for us a prayer isn't um just a prayer it's an acknowledgement almost it's an acknowledgement to to our creator it's acknowledgement and being thankful and having gratitude um for for our food and everything around us and each other and so that's why um in our program our whole program um teaches the students how to give a steely it's how to give a prayer and acknowledgement and um it's really neat how how they lead it you know and they bring it home they bring it home too as well and and a lot of people are really proud that that five-year-olds are able to to um to use our language to have a connection to our creator and I think that um is really powerful and another thing is just being able to um teach through song and that's one of the things I really enjoy and is really highlight I love teaching through a song and so we will create um our own Husseiniches songs we will that has our Husseinich beats or has our Husseinich you know style but also if the kids are going around singing Mary had a little lamb you know we'll we'll translate that and so we just did that today because I'd rather hear it in Sinshawthin than hear it in English and um we've created a lot of cool um cool little um songs like that to help our students remember our language as well so um also having um our stories of our origin stories that's really important too like I was mentioning about the teachings that um I guess it's just the communicative and the social skills and all those different things teaching through through our Husseinich ways so for example skateboard which is um the octopus I I like to um use him as an example because he was a man that um didn't have high school acquaintance he was yaslu yaslu daychuck he was always angry he was always wishing around and not happy for what he had and so because he continuously conducted himself that way our great creator um gave him two legs because he was um whining and complaining about um his work I wish I had two more arms so that I could do my work better and you know all not very kind and so he continuously um didn't heed our creator's warning of being being happy with who you are as an individual and your gifts that you have that um he gave him more legs until he had eight legs and he was so clumsy he he and he still complained and was upset so our great creator would throw him uh not not willful he threw him into our Shkwana into our ocean and told him if you want to continuously be conduct yourself in this way then um you will forever be in the deep of the oceans touch at the Shkwana and so the whole um we teach these teachings just to just to say you know like um how to care yourself and how to conduct yourself through what has been going on in our community for through hundreds of thousands of years and um and to some it might just seem like a simple story but it's like a great teaching of how to care yourself as a percentage person. I'll just add that interesting part of our program is that we have to use prescribed learning outcomes that are mandated by the government in order to receive funding but um the beauty of the curriculum now or the neurocurriculum is that it's based on bigger ideas and it doesn't take you know like listening to Shkwana Alicia it's pretty easy to indigenize those um those prescribed learning outcomes and make them real and meaningful it's beautiful to watch these teachers do their thing and it's it's not stale or colonial at all it's very live and sanage and um one other thing that I'll add too I'm surprised you didn't bring it up is just that the Eileen I'm not like it's a huge part of what she does and all the teachers do in the classrooms is nature kindergarten based so almost every day they're out on the land they're you know at least three times a week these kids are getting exposed to their land to their place names and to the the ways that they they loved and used their their land so it's a it's a very powerful program um that yeah again it's it's not colonial at all and just to go a little bit off that is just to that acknowledgement again when we're out there to um to really acknowledge everything around us to really acknowledge the plants and some of our elders used to get really sad and would ask them why why why are you so sad and and um they would they would talk to us about how they felt really bad for the plants and and um some of the trees and some especially some of the medicines because nobody goes out to they were saying nobody goes out and uses their name they're sned they're so shocked and sned anymore and so when we're out there we always give acknowledgement to the plant and use that name and and and grab its branch you know and just and really teach them to um not just rip up rip it apart everything has a life and that's what we believe is everything has a life and so that uh we're giving that acknowledgement using this in Shafi names out on the land singing our songs out on the land and teaching them and you know um for us like it doesn't matter we'll continuously go back to to our our homeland because it's in our place-based education because we're going there and showing you know the community other community said this is a language of the land this is our territory and um we're going to use it and we're going to go to our sacred mountains three to four times a year so that we could go in and give respect to um to to our heritage and our origin so and then the kids you know maybe in kindergarten at five-year-olds they won't really get the whole picture but but they will it's neat to see the light bulb that's what I love because you can see in the older grades that they're like they're they're getting it you know what I mean they're getting that uh that place-based um learnings or the teachings and it's it's a beautiful thing when they finally really really understand that what's so interesting is what these children are going to be like in the future right they're going to be so differently exposed to beautiful things of their culture right and they're going to be so strong because of it well a lot of them like they amazed me because they're so young 10 and 11 years old and i'm thinking wow like I took how long just to learn that much you know and and I tell them all the time you guys are going to surpass me you guys are going to be more you know they're going to be stronger I feel like when by the time they're my age stronger in the language and and the possibilities that's what excites me too is that they'll be able to go even delve further into things um to get to what to to the higher language you know and and because they've been they've been training in it so I'm excited about that because they're a lot of them are just able to they think a lot different they think a lot different their worldview is a lot different is because they've been exposed to it for so many years already since preschool and it amazes me to to see that to see that um and and it's really interesting and I told the story the other day about um to my um university students that one of the students was really upset because they're doing their math in English and she she told her teacher she said come look at this and she didn't want to do the she was upset she didn't want to do the question so they were just wondering well why don't he's asked her in the language well what's wrong he said he's taught us that so she read it and she's it was a question about Canada when it was founded and she said that she didn't want to do the question and and he's he told her to figure it out he said um he said in the language to her and so she did and she came up with 152 years and and and she started to say um in the language to her teacher that that 150 years is just I was so he's at the at the stand on like Canada she was saying it's not even very long and she started to say in the language that we've been here for for longer than 10 000 years but that's just so you know what I mean I didn't think about things like that when I was 10 years old about my identity about my connection to place about but you know to almost like to be a warrior at so young you know and um that is I think the ultimate highlight is when you see students um take that real pride and and to know the truth of our of our heritage and to know that that the tango is that we're the original people of the of this land and that's the beautiful thing that I'm seeing in these 10 year olds