Located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River in Québec, the Kahnawà:ke territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) people, faces an issue shared by First Nations communities across the country: the preservation of its language and culture.

Out of a population of approximately 8,000 people, less than 200 speak Kanien’kehá:ka as their first language. The majority of native speakers are elders, whose advancing age means that that number declines further each year.

Referring to the proportion of native speakers, Reaghan Tarbell, executive director of theKanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center, noted, “That really … shows you that a significant number of the population does not know the language, and we need to try and reach our different segments of the population any way we can.”

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