10th Annual Native Language Symposium

About This Gathering

Language is breath — alive, relational, and essential to our children's futures.

Join us for our 10th Annual Native Language Symposium, Breath of the Ancestors: Reclaiming Our First Words, a two-day gathering centered on early childhood as a powerful and urgent site of Indigenous language and cultural reclamation.

"First Words" holds a double meaning: the earliest words our children speak, and the original languages of the lands we come from — languages that carry memory, worldview, and the living knowledge of our ancestors. When we return language to our youngest children, we return them to themselves.

This symposium brings together early childhood educators, families, language carriers, community leaders, artists, researchers, youth, and advocates from across Turtle Island to learn from one another, strengthen our collective practice, and recommit to this vital work together.

What to Expect

Over two days, you'll participate in workshops, panels, and breakout sessions led by practitioners and communities doing this work on the ground. Sessions reflect the full range of Indigenous language reclamation in early childhood — from classroom immersion strategies and family engagement to intergenerational storytelling, land-based learning, and culturally grounded curriculum design.

Come ready to share, listen, and be in community.

Who Should Attend

This gathering is for you if you are:

• An early childhood educator working in or alongside Indigenous communities
• A language keeper, elder, or cultural practitioner engaged with young children
• A family member invested in raising children with their ancestral language
• A researcher, advocate, or leader supporting Indigenous language revitalization
• A young person carrying this work into the future

All are welcome. The work belongs to all of us.

Why This Matters — Why Now

We are in a moment of both urgency and possibility. Languages once silenced are being sung again. Children are growing up hearing words their grandparents fought to keep alive. This symposium exists to honor that momentum — and to ask: how do we carry it forward together?

We believe that reclaiming language is not only an act of cultural preservation. It is an act of love, sovereignty, and hope for the generations to come.

Event Details

Hosted by the Indigenous Montessori Institute & Keres Children's Learning Center

More details on schedule, sessions, and logistics coming soon.

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Host or Publisher Indigenous Montessori Institute