FirstVoices celebrates its 20th anniversary on International Mother Language Day with the announcement of a new site design and added features.
The First Peoples’ Cultural Council launched FirstVoices.com 20 years ago as a joint initiative with the First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation. This Indigenous-led technology makes language revitalization tools accessible to all B.C. First Nations. In celebration of 20 years and in honour of International Mother Language Day we are excited to announce a new logo, website design and new features to better support use of the platform.
FirstVoices.com provides an online space for B.C. First Nations to share and promote their language, oral history and linguistic history. Importantly, members retain ownership of content created by them for use on their community site. The goal of FirstVoices.com is to help Indigenous languages succeed with state-of-the-art hardware, software, and technical support for their communities.
The Tla’amin First Nation has been working with FirstVoices since its inception and uses the platform to store recordings from community members to pass on for future generations. Betty Wilson shares, “We are thankful to have been able to archive fluent speakers who are now gone. The recordings are treasures for our community members and their families. Our Sliammon FirstVoices team has grown in terms of technical expertise, clarifying our words and phrases and realizing how much more work we have to do to keep our language. Our FirstVoices App is used by not only our community members but also the wider community.”
Sicarii, Leeland Askew is a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim site administrator from the Xwemelch’stn Village. He says FirstVoices helps encourage the community to revitalize what was taken from them, “In our home, with my daughter, we use FirstVoices to bring the language back and make our Ancestors proud.”
Explore some of the new features below.
Website platform:
- Complete redesign of the platform with consultation from over 250 First Nations people in B.C.
- Fully customizable language site homepage for users
- New content management dashboard for the language team
- Option to embed YouTube/Vimeo videos
FirstVoices Mobile Apps:
- The new mobile apps include offline access to take on the go and for users without internet access
- Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) so that users can download the apps through the website and not third party app stores
- New option for the inclusion of mobile apps for any language site that is interested
FPCC’s development of FirstVoices has been supported by the First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation, Province of British Columbia, and the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Click here to read FPCC’s news release on this announcement.
Celebrate FirstVoices 20th anniversary with us by learning about the origins and impacts of the initiative. Watch the FirstVoices celebration video by award-winning filmmaker Michael Bourquin from Iskut First Nation below.
We thank the film production team for capturing the history of FirstVoices and the stories shared by site administrators from First Nations across B.C.:
- Michael Bourquin: Cinematographer, Director and Editor
- Ramsay Bourquin: Location Sound
- Nate Dickson Media: Additional Cinematography
Learn More
Explore more stories about language projects and other program areas here.
Click here to learn more about FPCC’s Language Technology Program.
Visit FirstVoices.com to view the full list of language sites.
Share Your Story!
Do you have a story about the work your community is doing to revitalize First Nations languages, heritage and arts in B.C.? We want to hear from you! Please send your story to info@fpcc.ca and check back as we post more stories about the good work being done across the province.
Connect with Us
To receive FPCC news and funding announcements, please sign up for our email list here.
To view all current FPCC funding opportunities please visit our Grants page.
Follow FPCC on social media for updates: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube