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Making a four-minute video was an emotional experience for Syilx language teacher Michele Johnson.

In the film, students in their fourth year of study at the Syilx Language House tell stories in 苍蝉测颈濒虫肠蓹苍, 鈥渓ike champions鈥� as Johnson describes it.

鈥淚鈥檓 a teacher. So while they were speaking, I was feeling really proud and I had a tear in my eye, and I expressed to them how proud I was and how far we鈥檝e come,鈥� said Johnson. 鈥淎nd then when the day was over, I got in my car and closed the door. And I just cried. And it was like, tears of joy and relief.

鈥淎ll of us have worked so hard I鈥檓 glad I took that moment to put them on film. And you can see in the film, they didn鈥檛 even look really that nervous 鈥� they were just proud, we can speak now.鈥�

Johnson said one of the reasons they鈥檙e working so hard to reclaim their language, 苍蝉测颈濒虫肠蓹苍, is that hundreds of years of colonization almost erased it.

鈥淎t the same time, they tragically affected our community鈥檚 health and well being and sense of sovereignty,鈥� said Johnson. 鈥淥ur stories are vitally important. They鈥檙e a big part of who we are as Syilx people and the reason we鈥檙e learning the language is so we can express ourselves as Syilx people.鈥�

Connecting to the past is important, she explained, but they also want to use their language to connect to the future.

鈥淲e鈥檙e putting in all this time so we鈥檙e able to speak about anything, including healing our communities from the inside through language, empowering ourselves and expressing our individualism,鈥� said Johnson.鈥漌e feel like learning our language vitally connects us to the future of ourselves as people.鈥�

The Syilx Language house is a pilot project, Johnson said, proving the success of the teaching model with a results-driven program.

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And according to Johnson, every fluent speaker they can create could have a huge influence going forward: each fluent speaker could create tens, if not hundreds, of fluent speakers.

鈥淣ow we鈥檙e fundraising to grow the program,鈥� said Johnson. 鈥淲e want to start 30 to 60 people by next September. And any help with fundraising is welcome.

鈥淓very $50,000 we can raise is a new fluent speaker by 2024.鈥�

Being one of a small number of people fluent in has its challenges too.

鈥淚 think we all feel that joy of being able to speak our language, that the elders can understand us,鈥� said Johnson, adding that there is also loneliness. 鈥淓ach one of us, it鈥檚 as though we鈥檙e entering into the same sense of loneliness that the elders have because they鈥檙e the remaining speakers of our critically endangered language.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we have to maintain our sense of hope and keep working as hard as we鈥檙e working so that all of my current students will have 100 more people to speak with.鈥�