‘Language shapes and tells us who we are’: Sask. woman fights to save Michif

Mick Favel brings you this week's edition of Indigenous Circle, featuring one woman's efforts to save the Michif language.

A unique language that originated in the Red River Valley, running from the southern Canadian prairies to the upper midwestern United States, is at risk of being lost.

The language is Michif. Experts estimate only about 30 people currently speak it, and a Saskatoon educator is working to ensure the link to cultural history doesn’t go silent.

Lyla Phillips considers herself a student of the Michif language. She is the Métis/Michif Liaison for the Saskatoon Public School Division (SPSD) and works to preserve the language, which she says is unlike any other in the world. It blends French nouns with Cree verbs. Mostly elders speak it fluently now. With an aging population of experts, it’s a race against time to revive it.

“Language shapes and tells us who we are, and that’s why it’s so important for me to keep fighting for Michif,” Phillips told CTV News.

That fight happens through programs offered by various Métis groups in Saskatoon, like the Central Urban Métis Federation, Métis Nation Saskatchewan, as well as SPSD.

• Get the latest news from Saskatoon, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

Phillips helps develop programs for the language, trains teachers, and gets into the classroom sharing Michif with students.

“With the cultural program at Westmount Community School, the cultural teacher will visit classrooms. The teachers there also do an amazing job of incorporating language throughout their day,” she said.

Phillips, who is originally from Rocanville and taught most recently in Saskatoon, recalls a fond memory of teaching Michif to a young girl who excitedly exclaimed, “My name’s Lyla too, and I’m Michif too.”

Seeing the connection in a young student’s eyes was very memorable.

“They were really excited, and they saw somebody else who reflected who they were, and they were just excited to share and say that they were Michif.”

She’s trying to make up for generations of Michif speakers who hid the language as a survival mechanism, and she doesn’t fault them for it.

“They did what they thought, at the time, to try to protect us from colonization and racism.”

Her grandfather spoke Michif, but he died when she was two.

“My mooshoom would be happy now that we’re trying so hard to fight for Michif, to wake it up, to speak it, to hang on to it, and to fight for it.”

So, where does she see all her work to revive the language ultimately going?

“My hope is that you’ll all hear it in all spaces, within wherever I am, wherever I travel, that there will be people speaking and sharing Michif.”

Information on Michif programming at SPSD can be found on their website.