Protecting Indigenous Languages: It takes Individual and Collective Determination

February 21, 2023 – Nuuk, Greenland – February 21^st is International Mother Language Day, and the International Decade of Indigenous Languages has been well inaugurated. The day calls for reflection on the importance of preserving and continuously developing our Indigenous languages.

Many children grow up speaking our Indigenous languages. But there are also many children, who are not given this opportunity. Even more children should grow up learning and using our Inuit languages. It takes individual determination from parents and the surrounding society to foster a strong, everyday use of our Indigenous languages. I would like to encourage all parents to be determined in teaching and supporting the learning of our Indigenous language for all Inuit children.

To truly continue the use and further develop our Indigenous languages, governments at levels of public service must prioritize teaching and using our languages. This includes pre-school, children’s school, youth and higher educational levels, and it also includes those Inuit children, who live outside of our homelands. We have very different approaches to the use of our languages across Inuit Nunaat, but we share a culture and a language going back thousands of years. We must protect and cherish this wealth of our people.

On this year’s International Mother Language Day, UNESCO encourages multilingual education. 
I would like to echo this recommendation, and further encourage all to see languages as creating possibilities, and not constraints. As Indigenous Peoples, our languages are constantly under pressure, and it takes continuous determination and deliberate efforts to truly protect and further develop the use of our own languages.

As our good Inuk colleague and representative in the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Aluki Kotierk stated at the official launch of the International Decade of Indigenous Peoples in December last year; “Speaking our language is an act of self-determination”.

I wish everyone Happy International Mother Language Day – pilluarta, oqaatsivullu paarilluartigit.

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