Introduction:
Language is not just the way we talk; it’s how we live every day. Languages show us a snapshot of a culture at a point in time. Language includes who we are, what we do, and how we relate to each other every day. Without language, I would argue, there is no culture. Language is how culture is perpetuated, and without it, the culture is most likely not going to exist either. Each language has the culture of its own people within it; if we adopt another language, we adopt someone else’s culture too. We can continue some of our ways and culture, but it will always be a shadow of its former glory without the full context of the language that surrounds the ceremonies and cultural way of being. The power of language is why governments and the church made it a priority to get rid of languages and convert those to their ways and culture. Because of these efforts of the past, a lot of work is now being done, and a lot is yet to be undertaken to retrieve, resurrect, and rebuild these languages, which in turn rebuilds these cultures too.
We are working on it:
It is hard work with a lot of challenges and hurdles to rebuild and revitalize these languages, and can sometimes come at great cost both financially and personally to those actually trying to help. But this is work that some of us do every day, regardless of the hurdles and hardships, because we know what can come of it and how our wins can benefit all revitalization efforts.
We get a win now and again:
Every once in a while, we get a win with the launch of a new language course in-community or at a university, or a resource is created in an Indigenous language. But we also have other smaller wins that all accumulate to create much bigger and larger wins for the community as a whole. All of these small wins build momentum towards the end goal of the revitalization of as many Indigenous languages as possible before they and the culture that is captured in them is gone forever, and we are losing them at an alarming rate.
Conclusion:
Languages matter for many reasons: they contain the cultures of the worlds people, they allow us to be different, they allow us to communicate with each other and most of all they make us unique and wonderful. When you support or participate in language revitalization efforts, you are doing a great thing and you are helping communities save their cultures by saving their languages. This is hard work, but good work, please join us!
tilixam 
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