Please note the IIO Speaker Series is for everyone. It's open to the public and lunch will be served. We are grateful to the Law Foundation of Ontario for their support of this event!
Please join us!
Speaker Bios
Nicole Rosen
Nicole Rosen is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Manitoba and Canada Research Chair of Language Interactions. She is a sociolinguist who is especially interested in the linguistic results of interactions in Western Canada between Official, Indigenous and Heritage languages, especially at the sociophonetic level. She has created several large corpora of Prairies languages to study these effects, from groups chosen due to their local relevance in terms of impact on local community. She has also worked with Metis groups to help with language documentation and revitalization of the Michif and Michif French languages, and is the co-author of a book on Michif called Nominal contact in Michif, published by Oxford University Press.
Verna Demontigny
Special Guest - by video!
Verna Demontigny was born and raised in a small traditional Métis community known as Lii Kwaen (Fouillard’s Corner). Her parents relocated there from the community of Ste Madeleine in 1939, and her grandparents were originally from the Red River area. Verna now resides in Brandon, Manitoba, where she is a fluent Michif speaker and knowledge keeper of her ancestral language and culture that she works diligently to teach, promote, and preserve. At present, Verna is employed teaching Michif in the Brandon School Division and community, as well as working with various Linguists. She is also a visiting Elder with Assiniboine Community College. Verna likes to share her knowledge of her culture and language with anyone who is willing to listen and learn, and aims to preserve Michif for future generations.
