Ts'msyen First Nation member aims to revitalize endangered Indigenous language through yoga

Emily Bryant grew up speaking Sm'algyax with her grandparents, thoughlater conversed mostly in English with her parents and other relatives.

However, since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Bryant also known as Dm Syl Haaytk Gyibaaw,"the one who stands with the wolves" in Sm'algyax saysshe has been spending more time with her 90-year-old grandmother,speaking her first language more frequently as a result.

"Immersing myself [in the language] for the last four years has opened up memories withmy grandmother that's still here with me today," said Bryant, a member of the Ts'msyen First Nation.

Now Bryant, the language program co-ordinator of the nation's Kitsumkalum Band,is co-leading a unique new project in northwestern B.C., to help revitalize Sm'algyax:by incorporating words from the language to yoga.

Since mid-February, Bryant andher friend,yoga instructor Bhavani Britt McDougall, have been hostinga series of meditative yoga classesonSaturday eveningsin Terrace, B.C.

Participants speakwords in Sm'algyax with a spiritual theme, such as "heart," beforethe yoga routine. While the class is designed forTs'msyen, Nisga'a and Gitxsanpeople, everyone is welcome to join.

Sm'algyax is a critically endangered language spoken by people across northwestern B.C. and Alaska. According to the First Peoples' Cultural Council, based in Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island, only 48 people worldwidespeak it as their first language.

McDougall, who identifies as a settler of British and Jamaican ancestry, says she didn't know anythingabout Indigenous communities until after movingfrom Toronto to Terrace for high school in 2011.

She says she has since become passionate aboutTs'msyen culture,andworkedwith the Kitsumkalum Band as a youth program workerfrom 2017 to 2021.

"[I have] gotten to know the community, and then noticing and falling in love and really just admiring the fire that's being lit among the people who reclaim the language," she said.

Bryant saysthe yoga classes inspire her to promote Sm'algyax to more people in the local community and to use the language more often in her daily life.

"Sm'algyax is what I dream of living one day without speaking English to other people," she said.

"To see my kids [speaking] Sm'algyax together one day without English is the goal."