Revitalizing Indigenous Languages: Podcasts & Playlists

NFB: Indigenous Languages Playlist

• The National Film Board of Canada has created and re-released Indigenous-language versions of select films from their Indigenous collection. The films in this playlist are offered in several Indigenous languages: Inuktitut, Nakota (Assiniboine), Kanien'ké:ha (Mohawk), Cree, and Atikamekw. They are also available in English.

Curio: Language Revitalization Playlist

Squamish Language YouTube Channel

Indigenous Language Pop! / Genner Llanes Ortez.

• This Spotify list contains contemporary pop and other genre songs recorded in several Indigenous languages from around the world. Among these languages, Inuktitut, Tilcho, Maori, Maya, Zapotec, Quechua, and others.

Indigenous Languages Playlist: Strengthening and Reclaiming Languages / The National Centre for Collaboration in Indigenous Education. 

• The ten videos in this playlist highlight language education programs as well as the central role of Indigenous languages in passing on one's culture and identity. They also highlight the strong connection between land and language.

Animating the Mother Tongue: An Indigenous Language Playlist. / Folklife Magazine, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. 

• Language lives at the heart of culture and serves as a vessel through which traditions, customs, histories, and knowledge travel through space and time. Language is the tool that teaches us to engage with the past, express in the present, and imagine the future. Language serves as a strong means of identification. 
• These principles inspired the 2021 Mother Tongue Film Festival’s animation playlist, which seeks to empower identification through language. 

Words and Culture: Playlist 

• Words and Culture weaves conversations with Indigenous language and knowledge keepers together with music by Indigenous artists. The team creating this original content is made up exclusively of Indigenous producers, hosts, and guests. Words and Culture is funded by SiriusXM through the Community Radio Fund of Canada.
• It airs on CKUT on Tuesdays from 6-7 pm, alternating with Prison Radio, starting April 2, 2024

Inuit story telling with Michael Kusugak / Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada

The Owl and the Raven: An Inuit Legend / KingInukshuk

Voices from the Land: Indigenous Peoples Talk Language Revitalization  A podcast series on Indigenous language revitalization efforts across Canada

pîkiskwêwin an Indigenous language platform where we amplify Indigenous languages from across Canada to help preserve and pass them on to the next generation. Listen to podcasts in Cree, Dakota, Dene, Mohawk, Nakota, Michif, Saulteaux, and more. pîkiskwêwin is an Indigenous language podcast project funded by the Government of Canada. It was initiated by Indigenous Communication and Fine Arts (INCA & IFA) at the First Nations University of Canada. pîkiskwêwin supports the University’s mission to preserve, protect and interpret the history, language, culture, and artistic heritage of all Indigenous groups.

Mino Bimaadiziwin Podcast: The Power Of Indigenous Languages With Dr. Lorna Williams. This episode is all about language – its connection to our mental, emotional, spiritual & physical wellness. For more than 50 years, Dr. Williams of the Lil’wat First Nation has been an Indigenous educator and language specialist.

The Tongue Unbroken: Language Revitalization and Decolonization. The Tongue Unbroken (Tlél Wudakʼóodzi Ḵaa Lʼóotʼ) is a podcast about Native American language revitalization and decolonization, as seen through the eyes and mind of a multilingual Indigenous person who is Lingít, Haida, Yupʼik and Sami. This podcast explores complex concepts of identity, resilience, erasure, and genocide and features guests involved in language revitalization and decolonial efforts in Alaska, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. This show hopes to connect to all audiences who wish to understand how over five hundred languages Indigenous to North America became endangered, and what actions individuals and groups have taken and can take to create a more equitable and brilliant future than that of American genocide.

Voices from the Land: Indigenous Peoples Talk Language Revitalization/ The Legacy of Hope Foundation. 

Indigenous Language Revitalization Efforts and Allyship/ by Allyson Brinston, Podcast on Spotify

Language Keepers Podcast Series/ Emergence Magazine. This six-part podcast series explores the struggle for Indigenous language survival in California.

Coffee with my Ma is a podcast created by actress Kaniehtiio Horn that places the audience at the kitchen table with her and her mom, Kahn-Tineta Horn.

On the mic: Indigenous podcasters taking space and sharing stories