Wolastoqey language school to open in Fredericton, first of its kind for N.B.

The City of Fredericton has voted to allow the Killarney Lake Lodge to be the home of the Wolastoqey Language Immersion School, known as Kehkimin School.

It was a unanimous vote by council at its regular meeting on May 24.

The school will teach the Wolastoqey language to people in an effort to preserve it for future generations. According to the Wolastoqey Grandmothers, there are only about 100 fluent speakers left, many of them seniors.

Calvin Thompson, the First Nations Relations Manager with the city, said this is the first school of its kind in New Brunswick.

“We’ve been working with the Wolastoqey Nations and Grand Council for about the past eight months,” he said. “We have to act now.”

Thompson said this is a critical piece of the path toward reconciliation with First Nations communities.

“It’s extremely critical,” he said.

The school will be on the ground floor of the lodge for the first year it operates, until June 2023. It will then move to a city-owned house in the adjacent property for the remaining four years of the deal. The rent for the term of the agreement is $1, according to the city.

The city has also marked National Truth and Reconciliation Day despite the province not doing so and flies the Wolastoqey flag at city hall. It makes a land acknowledgement at the beginning of every council meeting.

Fredericton Mayor Kate Roger was very excited when the location for the school was agreed upon.

“A feeling of a sense of accomplishment,” Rogers said in an interview Wednesday.  “It very much comes from this idea that we say that we’re committed to truth and reconciliation, and we say that we are a treaty people and we say we’re allies, but without actions to back that up it doesn’t have much meaning.”

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Calls to Action 14 (i) says  that “Aboriginal languages are a fundamental and valued element of Canadian culture and society, and there is an urgency to preserve them.”

“We are committed to this process,” Rogers said. “It’s the original language of this territory and Fredericton resides within Wolastoqey territory.”