Decades of Indigenous advocacy has led to a nascent but growing awareness in Canada about Indigenous languages and the impact of settler colonialism on them. While Indigenous languages have long been an area of study in linguistics, historically the relationship between Indigenous communities and linguists has been fraught and characterized by colonial dynamics. Today, many Indigenous communities, organizations, and groups are working creatively in under-resourced situations to increase knowledge and use of Indigenous languages and restore intergenerational transmission. There has been an increasing amount of scholarship related to these efforts—often referred to as Indigenous Language Revitalization—which employs diverse methodologies and falls within diverse strands of linguistics.

The purpose of this course is to facilitate students' critical engagement with scholarship from the field of Indigenous language revitalization, with a focus on Indigenous communities and languages from the lands now known as Canada. Through this course, students will deepen their understandings of the unique and complex challenges that Indigenous communities face in learning, teaching, and reclaiming Indigenous languages within the context of ongoing settler colonialism. Through the course, we will also consider the role of research within Indigenous language revitalization.