Community involvement makes a difference in Victoria and around the world
Students, faculty and staff at the University of Victoria are putting knowledge to work to improve lives on Vancouver Island, across Canada and around the world.
Bringing communities together
Inside the main entrance of UVic’s First Peoples House are two house posts by Tsartlip artist and master carver Charles W. Elliot. UVic linguist Dr. Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins found a quiet moment outside this building a few days after accepting a prestigious BC Community Achievement Award to reflect on her work on the Coast Salish Language Revitalization Community University Research Alliance (CURA) Project. In keeping with the nature of her work, she was not thinking of herself on either day.
New tech for an ancient language
In a separate project, UVic linguist Dr. Leslie Saxon and programmer Chris Coey, along with the Tłįchǫ Community Services Agency (TCSA), have developed the Yati Dictionary App for the Tłįchǫ language, recently released by iTunes for free download on iPod, iPad or iPhone at bit.ly/JfREt3.
A curriculum that builds community
This year, Saxon travelled north to teach classes in the Northwest Territories. And Tammy Steinwand-Deschambeault, a key co-developer of the Yati app, travelled south this week for UVic convocation ceremonies as one of the first nine graduating students in a group of learners from the NWT. Over the past two years, the students took the Certificate in Aboriginal Language Revitalization (CALR) program in Yellowknife as part of an innovative partnership between UVic’s Department of Linguistics, the Division of Continuing Studies, the En’owkin Centre (the Okanagan Nation’s arts, cultural and educational institution) and the Government of the Northwest Territories.
In the business of cooperation
Rekindling the use of threatened languages is a great example of community engagement, but one UVic business professor also sees a range of wide opportunities from entrepreneurship. Dr. Ana María Peredo, director of UVic’s Centre for Co-operative and Community-Based Economy, explains that entrepreneurs need not be individual risk-takers motivated by the prospect of personal achievement and financial success—they can also be communities working together for the collective benefit of all their members.