Gurpreet Singh: B.C. Punjabi educators back Indigenous language campaign in Nova Scotia

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      Demands for official status for the Mi'kmaq language have received support from the Punjabi community in B.C. 

      A campaign is underway in Nova Scotia, with those at the forefront wanting Mi'kmaq used on street signs. 

      The B.C.-based Punjabi Language Education Association (PLEA), which has been struggling for the recognition of Punjabi language for more than a decade, has come out in favour of the campaign for Mi'kmaq. 

      Established in 1993, PLEA has been instrumental in getting Punjabi introduced in B.C. schools. It also organizes an annual Mother Language Day every year in the month of February to promote the Punjabi language. 

      Balwant Sanghera, one of the cofounders of PLEA, says that it is important to acknowledge that Canada was built on the traditional lands of the Indigenous peoples.

      "We must remember that there were attempts to kill Indigenous languages and culture through Indian Residential School system during colonization," Sanghera told the Straight.

      It is for this reason that he finds it necessary to support any demand that can help in rejuvenating a native language.

      "I understand that Mi'kmaq language has survived for 10,000 years and it is important to give it an official status."

      Sanghera also insisted that since Punjabis share history of racism and colonialism with the First Nations, South Asians must support this demand.

      He further pointed out that there was a need to break immigrants' stereotypes about First Nations.

      "What they (immigrants) need to be told is that Aboriginals have been facing structural racism for centuries," Sanghera said. "They over represent the population in jails, which is unacceptable." 

      Gurpreet Singh is cofounder of Radical Desi magazine. He's also the author of Why Mewa Singh Killed William Hopkinson: Revisiting the Murder of a Canadian Immigration Inspector and Fighting Hatred With Love: Voices of the Air India Victims' Families. Both were published by Chetna Parkashan.

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