A partnership with Xaad Kil Nee and Skidegate Haida Immersion Program, and a grant from First Peoples Cultural Council, created the three-day Haida Language Conference on February 10 – 12, 2020 in Kxeen. The agenda featured a prayer for opening and closing each day, round of introductions, hearing from the Read more…
Rhonda Lee McIsaac The Haida Gwaii Mentor Apprentice Program hosted its third annual winter dinner in December 2019 at the HlGaagilda Skidegate Community Hall to celebrate, honour, and lift up Haida language teachers and learners in the community. Kuunajaad Jenny Cross and Kihlgula Gaaya Severn Cullis-Suzuki were the emcees and Read more…
Rhonda Lee McIsaac Continuing with oral narratives and story-telling traditions, Haida writers have been contributing to Indigenous literature in many genres over many decades. Here is a small list of Kuugin guu gina K’aalang.ngas books for your Kuugin king dii reading pleasure. In these literary creations you will find educational Read more…
Jaskwaan Bedard It is an exciting time for the Haida language. Known as Xaad kil in the northern dialect and Xaayda kil in the southern dialect, our language is entering a time of growth and rebirth. Today as Haida, we are calling ourselves by our Haida names; we recognize and Read more…
Rhonda Lee McIsaac Haida language learner Haana Edenshaw travelled to New York this spring to deliver a message before the United Nations. Haana presented at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on Friday, April 26, 2019 on the topic of Sustainable Development. There she delivered a Joint Statement of Read more…
“X̲aayda kil jii.nga x̲aaynang.nga G̲as ga.” Nang Kiingaay Yuu7ans James Young Rhonda Lee McIsaac The secret is out! 2019’s list of Haida graduand’s grew larger when nine k̲’aay.yas Haida elders were formally invited to receive their honorary doctorate degrees from Vancouver Island University. For a good minute the room was Read more…
Rhonda Lee McIsaac — With less than five percent of Indigenous languages alive in Canada, learning Xaayda kil with the intention of teaching it is an admirable goal. It is a journey being taken by twelve Haida students over the last four years. In that time, the twelve Haida women Read more…
Rhonda Lee McIsaac Haida educator SGaan jaadgu san glans Sara Florence Davidson was recently back on Haida Gwaii, consulting with SHIP elders about a new children’s literacy project that has a Haida twist. The project, which is supported by Indigenous Storybooks, is based on the premise that children’s books that Read more…
Graham Richard — “With Haida stories, I want to say ‘this is how we see the world,’” said Haida animator, writer, and director Waats’daa Christopher Auchter. “We have a unique story to tell.” An audience of kids and fun adults packed the room tightly at Gina Guu Aahljuu Naay Performance House Read more…
Rhonda Lee McIsaac Language preservation, storytelling and children go hand-in-hand when education and culture intersect at an elementary level. From an Indigenous perspective, this has always been a way to teach – by watching, listening and doing. In the spring of 2018, CBC is preparing to air a pilot TV Read more…