Language Warriors Need Each Other: Kindness, Community, and Ojibwe Language Revitalization

Why Kindness Matters in Indigenous Language Revitalization

Learning and teaching an Indigenous language takes courage. Whether you are a student trying to reconnect with your language and culture or a teacher sharing what you know with others, the work can be humbling, challenging, and sometimes frightening.

For many Indigenous communities, language revitalization happens in the aftermath of generations of colonial disruption. Knowledge was interrupted, families were separated, and opportunities to learn and teach Indigenous languages were taken away. We cannot expect elders to have passed on everything they were never given the opportunity to learn, and we should not blame young people for growing up in circumstances that made language learning difficult.

What we can do is support one another. The future of the Ojibwe language and other Indigenous languages depends not only on the knowledge we preserve, but also on the relationships we build among the people working to keep those languages alive. Kindness, respect, and encouragement are essential to that work.

Respect Our Elders and Encourage Our Young People

I believe we are right where we should be, given everything our people have endured. The cultural and linguistic circumstances we find ourselves in today are the natural consequences of a long history of disruption. It is not the fault of our elders that they could not teach something they themselves were never taught. Nor is it the fault of our students that they did not grow up with the opportunities to learn that previous generations may have had.

We should look at our elders with tremendous love and respect for everything they managed to keep going for us. They carried knowledge, traditions, and relationships through extraordinarily difficult circumstances. We should also look at our young people with tremendous love and respect for what they care about and what they are trying to learn, reclaim, and carry forward.

Our future is already in the hands of our young people, and our elders are not getting any younger. We need to recognize the importance of both generations and create opportunities for them to learn from and support one another.

Language revitalization is not about assigning blame for what was lost. It is about honoring what survived and making sure the next generation has the support it needs to continue.

Support Everyone Who Is Doing the Work

Anyone who has the courage to teach a class, share a word, create a learning resource, develop a new tool, or build an entire language program is contributing something meaningful.

That work is not always easy. People who put themselves out there to teach or create resources can face criticism, disrespect, and discouragement—even from within their own communities. When someone is trying to make something happen and feels torn down or unsupported by the very people who share their goals, it can be deeply disheartening.

We should remember that most people doing this work are not pursuing some selfish purpose. They are investing their time, energy, and knowledge because they believe in the importance of our languages and cultures.

If someone is making an effort to strengthen the Ojibwe language, develop teaching materials, or create opportunities for learners, we should start by recognizing the good intentions behind that effort. We can offer constructive feedback when it is needed, but we should do so with respect.

There is room for many approaches, many teachers, and many kinds of contributions. Not everyone will teach in the same way or create the same resources. That diversity can be a strength. We need people who are willing to take risks, experiment, learn, and keep building.

The worst thing we can do is make the work so discouraging that people stop trying.

How Colonialism Conditions Us to Turn Against One Another

One of the lasting effects of colonialism is that it can condition people to distrust and harm one another.

Historically, colonial powers have used members of one oppressed or conquered community to help suppress another. The British, for example, recruited Irishmen into the British Army and sent them to fight other Irish people. In the United States, members of Indigenous nations were sometimes recruited as scouts for the U.S. Army and used in campaigns against other Native nations.

These strategies did more than advance military and political control. They created divisions between people who might otherwise have recognized their shared interests and experiences.

Those dynamics can continue within our own communities. We can become suspicious of one another, criticize people who are trying to contribute, and turn disagreements into personal attacks. We might question someone's motives, dismiss their knowledge, or focus on small differences rather than the larger work we share.

This is one way oppression reproduces itself: people who have experienced marginalization can be conditioned to direct their frustration and pain toward one another instead of toward the systems that created the harm.

We need to recognize these patterns if we want to move beyond them.

Division Hurts All of Our Communities

When we are unkind to ourselves, the consequences can be devastating. Low self-esteem, substance abuse, and suicide are among the serious challenges that can affect our communities.

When we are unkind to one another, we create what is sometimes called a crab-in-the-bucket mentality. Instead of helping someone climb, we pull them back down.

We see it when people dismiss a language teacher, question the motives of someone creating a resource, or criticize another person's efforts to contribute. We see it when disagreements become reasons to undermine one another rather than opportunities to learn.

And the harm does not stop within Native communities. When we direct hostility toward people from other marginalized groups through homophobia, anti-Black racism, or other forms of prejudice, we reinforce the same systems of inequality that have harmed our own communities.

These divisions preserve white supremacy and English-language dominance. They weaken the relationships and collective strength that Indigenous language and cultural revitalization require.

We cannot build a stronger future for our languages by reproducing the divisions that helped weaken them.

Choose Kindness and Build a Stronger Language Community

The work of language revitalization requires more than dictionaries, curriculum, fluent speakers, and classroom programs. It requires a community in which people feel safe enough to learn, teach, make mistakes, and contribute.

That means giving one another the benefit of the doubt. It means recognizing that someone who is trying to teach a word or build a resource may be doing something difficult and important. It means offering encouragement instead of assuming the worst about another person's intentions.

We do not have to agree with every decision or approach. We can have thoughtful disagreements and still treat one another with dignity. We can offer corrections without humiliation and share knowledge without making others feel small.

Every person who contributes to the survival and growth of an Indigenous language matters. A fluent elder, a beginning learner, a classroom teacher, a parent teaching a child, and someone developing a new learning resource are all part of the same larger effort.

We should see one another as brothers and sisters in the struggle to keep our languages and cultures alive.

So, to everyone who is putting themselves out there as a student or teacher: keep going. Your efforts matter. And to everyone who sees another person trying to make a difference: support them. Be kind. Help them succeed.

We have inherited a difficult history, but we do not have to carry its divisions forward. We can choose to build relationships rooted in respect, generosity, and shared purpose. That is how we strengthen our communities, and that is how we help ensure our languages and cultures will continue into the future.

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