The Usage of Indigenous Languages as a Tool for Meaningful Engagement With Northern Indigenous Gover

Finding common ground among Indigenous peoples, governments and industry on engagement and consultation practices is imperative to the future of resource development and the Canadian economy, and ultimately to the reconciliation of the relationships between Indigenous Peoples and Canada (Boyd and Lorefice 2018). [...] Finding common ground among Indigenous peoples, governments, and industry on engagement and consultation practices is imperative to the future of resource development and the Canadian economy, and ultimately to the reconciliation of the relationships between Indigenous Peoples and Canada (Boyd and Lorefice 2018). [...] The existence of different cultural systems, reflecting many ways of the seeing the world, means that the translation of concepts from one language to another (especially one with a very different ontological view of the world) may mean that nuances and layers of meaning are lost in the process. [...] In North American Indigenous societies we tend to see an emphasis on equality due to prominent values such as sharing and generosity, the importance of the group as opposed to the individual, and the concepts of wholeness and totality (Little Bear 2000); as mentioned earlier, IQ refers to the idea of power based on skills and practice (Tester and Irniq 2008) as opposed to the Western concept of po. [...] Due to the long histories of English and French hegemony in consultation with the governments as well as researchers and consultants, attempts by non-Indigenous project-personnel to use Indigenous language are a gesture of respect and accommodation, as these attempts subvert the tradition of forcing or coercing speakers of Indigenous languages to conform and assimilate to an English dominant space.