How technology is saving native tribe languages | Darrick Baxter | TEDxWinnipeg

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Languages are disappearing but with this App, Darrick can save cultures.

Developer who creates Native American language learning tools for tribes in Canada and the United States. This is his passion because he wants to help other tribes revitalize and pass on their ancestral teachings for generations. He has the expertise, tools and determination that can help save many dying languages around the world.

My first love is creating apps
that help people.

That's why I created
the Ojibway language app,

to help teach my 12-year-old daughter
how to speak Ojibway.

Like any parent, I bought her books,
and I bought her CDs.

I even bought her books with CDs

(Laughter)

but they failed in their intended purpose.

She never learnt Ojibway,
and many of the books still lie unopened.

I wonder if I still have the receipts.

When you think about it,

books really aren't a great way
to teach the language.

Around that time, I had just bought her
a brand new iPad, about four years ago.

And she used it every day.

She loved it, she thought
it was the coolest thing,

and she never put it down.

I decided to use that connection

to teach and have her learn
some basic Ojibway.

I spent about a month
creating the Ojibway language app.

I never intended to release it
or even share it with anyone.

A couple of weeks later, I was sitting
at my kitchen table quietly,

and I heard my daughter speaking Ojibway.

She was on the phone with her grandmother.

She was using the app,
she was speaking Objibway;

that was truly a magical moment,
and it touched my heart.

And I knew that I had to share
the app with everyone.

I wanted every parent to experience
that magical moment.

when their child is speaking
their native language.

So that's what I did,
I released the app for free.

And I can tell you that the next time
I saw the app being used

was by my three-year-old daughter.

She was using the app

to count to five in Ojibway
and say a few other words,

and I just happened to catch it on video.

Let's take a look.

That's great, so, with my first app
in the App Store,

I can tell you that I received
a lot of criticism.

And the first piece of advice
I got right away was,

"You should sell the app for 99 cents,
don't release the app for free,

don't give it away."

The next piece of advice I got
was from a famous celebrity investor.

He said, "I don't see
the value in it, I'm out."

Come to think of it. I forgive them.

Neither of them realized
the magnitude of language extinction.

It's estimated that if nothing is done,

nearly half of 6,000 plus languages
spoken today will disappear

by the end of the century.

After releasing the app to the App Store
and distributing it for free,

I wanted to do more.

I still felt that that wasn't enough.
I had to do more.

There were so many other
languages that needed help,

and I decided to follow
with this just crazy idea,

just an idea I've always wanted to do.

"Why not release
the app source code for free?

And allow every single tribe

to download it, and use it,
and distribute it?"

And I could tell you the same critics
that were giving me advice then,

called me insane.

So that's what I did,

I released the source code online,
and I distributed it for free.

And I noticed that a lot of the tribes

started using the source code,

and my phone started ringing
at weird hours of the night

from numbers that I didn't recognize.

When you release something online,

like anything, like source code,
it truly goes global.

I found myself talking
with the Sami tribe,

the tribal government of Norway,

giving them advice
on how to create a language app.

A tribe in New Zealand,
a tribe in Australia,

a tribe in North America as well.

I started out also training
some of these tribes

to create their own language apps
and empowering these tribes.

But right here, at home,

a grand chief from Northern Manitoba
heard about what I was doing,

and he shared a story with me
about residential schools.

Now, I've never been
to residential schools,

but I can imagine how difficult
it was for him to share.

If you don't know
what residential schools are

- or boarding schools,
as they're commonly known as -

they were government-funded institutions
designed to assimilate the Indian

often using brutal methods.

He started out by saying, "The nuns
in residential schools would tell me

that they were going to kill my language.

I never realized what they meant
until 30 years later."

When he found that his son
couldn't speak Cree.

Now, accomplishing something
of great magnitude

is by no means a one-person job.

We need help.

And that reminds me of a story of
when my youngest daughter was 3 years old

from the time she could walk,
like any child,

she always wanted to help.

So one day, we went grocery shopping,

and I gave her a bag of oranges
to carry into the house.

She walked all the way down the street,
and she walked all the way up the walk.

And when she got
to the bottom of the stairs,

she said, "Dad, I can't do it."

So I walked past her with my hands full,

and I said, "Yes, you can!
Believe in yourself."

Moments later, she comes into
the house with nothing in her hands,

and I said, "Baby, what happened?"

And she said, "Mum believed in herself!"

(Laughter)

And that was the girl
that you saw there in the video.

Accomplishing something
of great magnitude

is by no means a one-person job.

We all have a responsibility
to save these tribal languages.

Since releasing the Ojibway app,
we've had over 100,000 downloads.

And since releasing the source code,

we've had over 40,000 downloads.

It's estimated that our source code,
and the work that we're doing

is helping to create over
60 language apps.

and that is, by no means,
me doing it alone;

that's the help of teachers,

that's the help of students,
and that's the help of parents.

What's it like to get a phone call

from a tribe that has only
two or three living speakers left?

Well, I've gotten a few of these calls,

and I could tell you
that it's very humbling.

Their languages could be gone tomorrow,
their elders could be gone tomorrow

taking with them thousands of words,
thousands of phrases,

and hundreds of years of oral history.

Together, all those language apps,

it's estimated that they have
200,000 downloads.

So the next time you look
in your smartphone,

why not download an app
and learn how to speak in a new way?

You'll be helping to strengthen
global languages today.

Thank you.

(Applause)