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Come Thursday, Cree learners at the Edmonton Public Library branch downtown will already be stuck into their 2019 classes.

Nehiyawe, or Cree language learning, is a popular course at EPL, offered downtown and in Highlands.

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The library’s Indigenous services team chair Margo Till-Rogers says when classes aren’t on the calendar, EPL immediately gets calls asking when they’ll be back.

There’s even thought to expanding them to more branches to respond to requests from community members.

Till-Rogers says the classes also fit with the library’s goal of pursing calls to action set out by the truth and reconciliation commission, alongside its Exploring Reconciliation series.

Push for preservation

There has been something of a push for more Indigenous language preservation in recent years. The provincial government recently committed $6 million over two years to support Indigenous languages in education, and some schools have taken it upon themselves to boost the number of Indigenous kids speaking their community’s language.