2 Sask. Dene advocates take different paths to share their language
CBC
The spark for the Dene Yati podcast came from Willis Janvier messing around on a Zoom call and a friend recording him.
"I was doing this voice, you know, like a radio voice type, and it was a funny clip that I posted to social media and people really got a kick out of it," Janvier said.
Janvier is from Clearwater River Dene Nation, near La Loche, Sask., about 515 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon. The reaction to the clip made him want to start his own podcast and share conversations in the Dene language.
It was also a way for him to honour his father, who was once a broadcaster for Saskatchewan's Indigenous radio network MBC and died in 2019.
Janvier started reaching out to other Dene speakers to have one-on-one conversations for the show. He brought in elders in to share stories and went out to the community to share what was going on.
He said there were many times he wanted to quit the podcast, but he pushed himself to keep going after thinking of his father and his grandmother, who was a language teacher.
"I'm doing their work. So I've wanted to quit many times but I know it's needed," said Janvier.
He said he gets an extra push via thankful messages from listeners who were in the foster care system and are now reconnecting with their culture.
"It's all about sharing the language, hearing the language. A lot of people like myself, I've lived away from home for probably half my life now and in urban areas. A lot of people were displaced for residential schools or foster care, so they get to hear the language. That's the only focus," said Janvier.
"There's no set topic each week and it's OK. I used to go and look for the content, but now I let it come to me."
The podcast now has listeners from as far as Russia.
Doing the show has also has helped Janvier himself reconnect with his Dene culture.
"I've received the drum. I've been taught ceremony. I've been taught stories that, you know, I never knew existed about being Dene."
He grew up in the Catholic religion, as many other Dene have.
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