CBC is doing a series of stories to recognize that the United Nations has declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages. The observance is meant to raise awareness about the consequences of losing endangered languages, and to establish a link between language, development, peace and reconciliation.

Travelling into one of the N.W.T.’s Sahtu communities with Leitha Kochon is like going on a road trip with Oprah.

Everybody knows she’s in town and they all want to shake her hand, say hello and tell her what’s going on. Within five minutes she’s laughing with them, retelling old jokes and remembering good times.

For 35 years, Kochon has been an Indigenous-language broadcaster with CBC North and is the voice of Leghots’edeh, its North Slavey-language news and current affairs radio show.

It’s where she tells stories in her language, connecting people in the territory to each other and to the wider world around them.

“A lot of elders I know, every day they listen, because that’s the only language they have,” she said. “That’s the one hour a day that they can hear their stories, hear other people speak in the language.

“We call the communities to see what’s going on, ask what’s the main story of the day?” she said. “I like to do stories on issues that affect our people like climate change, old-time stories, histories, traditional knowledge, on-the-land, what’s really sacred to them.”

Kochon was born and raised in the Sahtu and maintains strong ties with the people in the communities of Fort Good Hope, Deline, Colville Lake, Norman Wells and Tulita.

“I feel that I’m part of their day, every day. When I get a response I like that. I know they’re listening,” she said. “When you’re in the studio it’s like talking to the wall. There isn’t an audience [in the studio] but I know they’re there.”

That language never leaves you. It’s always there.– Leitha Kochon 

Growing up, Kochon attended residential school in Inuvik, N.W.T., but she held onto her language through her parents Sarah and Gabriel Kochon.

“I’ve always spoken my language,” she said. “My parents at home, they always spoke the language, when we came home we always spoke in our language.

“It was just automatic,” she said. “When you are born into the language and learn that language since you were a child, that language never leaves you. It’s always there.”

Gabriel and Sarah still live in Fort Good Hope and Kochon often travels home to broadcast her show from important gatherings, like community meetings, and hand games tournaments.

“When you’re away, and you’re not in the community, you don’t know everything that’s going on. They don’t tell you everything. So it’s important to get [in the communities] to get those stories,” she said.

Lifeline to the wider world 

Kochon also delivers international news in North Slavey, interpreting scripts written in English into stories that people who don’t speak English can understand.

“We’re the only people on the radio telling them what’s happening around the world,” she said. “The elders really like that, it’s the only time they hear it.

“They can’t pick up a newspaper and read about what’s going on. They can only hear it on the radio when we speak to them in the language,” she said.

 

Though most people who speak North Slavey fluently are elders, Kochon has a large audience of young people who understand the language but may be too shy to speak it, she explained.

With elders passing on, there are fewer and fewer people speaking North Slavey regularly, but she hopes that her radio program can play a role in passing that language on.

“I enjoy my job, working with my people, talking to my people.”

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