Northern B.C. teacher translates popular Christmas songs into Dakelh language

An Indigenous language teacher in northern British Columbia has translated classic holiday tunes into Dakelh, the language of the Lheidli T'enneh people whose traditional territory includes the city of Prince George. 

Originally from Singapore, Cherie Chai now works alongside elders, knowledge keepers and linguists to pass their language on to students in School District No. 57. 

She wanted to do something creative to use in her lesson plans for the Christmas season, so she reimagined three classic Christmas songs and wrote Dakelh versions of them with the help of linguist Bill Poser. 

The songs are not direct translations, but instead simple winter stories told in Dakelh to the tune of popular holiday classics. 

Yus̲dune Nzoo is sung in the tune of Frosty the Snowman and tells the tale of a happy snowman that reminds children to wear their winter hats and boots. 

Luglos Gool Dot'en, which describes the ringing of golden bells, is sung to the tune of Jingle Bells, and 'Awet Khui Noye Hoont'i reflects the excitement of winter break and is sung in the tune of We Wish You a Merry Christmas. 

Chai recorded herself singing the three songs as a resource for teachers to use with their students throughout the district. 

"It reflects the diversity in this community here so I want everybody to use it as much as possible," Chai said.

"Also with Indigenous language revitalization, it helps to contribute to having more exposure to the language." 

Few Dakelh speakers remain

Clifford Quaw, a Lheidli T'enneh elder, says he was astonished to hear popular Christmas tunes sung in his language. 

Just speaking Dakelh was something he was punished for when he was forced to attend the Lejac Residential School in 1953 at age five.

"I didn't realize you can sing in Dakelh language," he said. 

"Whenever we were at home, say, for summer holidays, my parents talked to me in Dakelh and I understood it and I was on the verge of learning. Then we had to go back to Lejac and we forgot about it because we weren't allowed to speak our own language in the residential school." 

According to a 2022 First Peoples' Cultural Council Report on the Status of B.C. First Nations Languages, there are only 1,039 Dakelh speakers remaining. 

"I wish I'd actually learned my language. It would be a totally different world for me to be able to speak Dakelh and English at the same time," Quaw said.

"One of the reasons why I really think a lot of this is because our language is on the verge of being lost, because there's very, very few of Dakelh teachers left." 

Chai said she hopes to create more Dakelh versions of songs in the future so teachers in the district have more options to incorporate into their lesson plans. 

"I hope this will remain because the language needs to have this resource," she said.