Podcaster uniting Dene Athabaskan speakers across the continent

Dene Athabaskan languages spread vast across much of North America, and one man has set out to teach it online through a video podcast.

Willis Janvier is from La Loche, Sask. and currently lives in Moose Jaw where he's studying Indigenous social work at First Nations University of Canada.

When he used to work in Fort McMurray, Alta., and his daughter lived more than 10 hours away from him, he would search for Denesųłıné videos he could listen to on Youtube, but there weren't many, he said.

He quit his job, went to university and started up "Willy FM," at first, recording his conversations with friends and family. When they learned about his idea to create more Denesųłıné content, he was met with encouragement. 

Then, people back home in La Loche, where students learn from majority Dene-speaking teachers, started encouraging him to keep making videos in Denesųłıné in late November.

"That was the thing that drove me to keep going," he told Trail's End host Lawrence Nayally. 

"Now, you can go on Youtube and hear the language any time, instead of the scarce little videos that were hard to find."

Willis also told CBC's Marlene Grooms, host of Denesųłıné Yatie, a weekday Chipewyan language radio program, that he's looking to connect with more speakers of Dene Athabaskan languages.

The videos give opportunities for people to interact whether they're in northern Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia or as far as Navajo country, where people speak Diné, he said.

For example, Janvier hosted T.J. Warren, a Navajo Dine from Red Mesa, Arizona. 

They got connected through powwow dancing, and the two began to share their language and histories, which you can hear about in this episode. 

"When he came on my show we compared our language," he said. They also spoke about Dene people and Dine, how there has been a separation of peoples but that they are now coming back together.

The podcast is just one example, he said.

"Now that's led to more Navajo people that I can reach out to," he said. "It connected people, Denesųłıné, [and] one day we're going to come back together. We are all meeting through the Dene Yati podcast."

Janvier grew up in his language, but many of the stories he has heard are new and each conversation is a learning opportunity about the interconnectedness of the languages and the people who speak them.

Janvier said he is always looking for anyone who will join the show, even if their dialects are different.

"I don't see myself quitting any time soon, where it's going to go, I don't know. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, share the languages,."

You can find the Dene Yati Podcast on YouTube and Facebook.