Allan Adam has always been interested in using mass media to preserve and promote Indigenous languages.
For the past five years, he has owned and operated his own website which contains videos and audio files to help people learn First Nations languages.
The longtime broadcaster says he began posting interviews he had done with Dene elders on the Internet to help others learn the language.
“I kept a lot of those tapes, I still have them, I thought I might as well put them somewhere to use and not just keep them in a box,” he says. “So, what I’ve done is I’ve put them online and started to share them with people.”
The website contains eight different Aboriginal dialects.
Some of the dialects include Cree, Dene, Saulteaux, Nakota and Ojibwe.
Adam adds people from all over the world are making use of the site.
“Today, I just got an email from somebody in Vancouver looking at the webpage and liking it, and somebody else was asking about it, so they are going to share my webpage information with them. People from Texas talking Dene languages, related to Navajo…”
The website can be accessed at allanadam.com
Adam ran a workshop on mass media and languages at the First Nations’ Language Keepers Conference in Saskatoon.
The languages conference, hosted by the Saskatchewan Indian Culture Centre, concluded yesterday.