Prince George will be the host city for the 2014 Dene Language Conference.
The annual amassing of First Nations from across the western Americas - all connected by the Dene language family - is underway now in Calgary. It was announced Friday that Prince George would be next year's destination.
"School District 57 took the lead [on winning the bid]," said Lheidli T'enneh First Nation councillor Jennifer Pighin, in attendance at the event. "There is a great opportunity to partner with UNBC, CNC, many others including the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation. It seems like a natural fit, but it is not something chief and council has had a chance to talk about yet. I'm excited to come home and bring that up at the discussion table. It is also, I think, a great chance for the 2015 Canada Winter Games organizers to link into something really important for the traditional peoples of the host area."
Pighin said School District 57 has been a leader in drawing aboriginal relevance into the education system, and this conference would advance that mission. It is attended by linguists, anthropologists, First Nations experts, educators, elders, and a host of stakeholders in the linkages between language and cultural viability.
"I hope, and I think it is realistic, that people from all over North America and even South America who share this language family will come to Prince George a year from now, and we will have prepared something for them that will impress them and make an impact for the next generations," Pighin said. "My goal for the next one will be to have youth heavily included. The elders here are saying 'this knowledge is great for us, but we know this, we get this already, but we are getting old. We need to pass this down to the next generations.' So that's what I hope to happen in Prince George."
