Reconciliation in action

I was listening to a Media Indigena podcast episode the other day where the conversation was about Indigenous language revitalization.  One of the guests said that, sometimes, well-meaning settlers would ask to take part in Native language instructions.  The issue is that many of these Native organizations that are providing the instructions and classes are strapped with cash and don't have much resources, meaning classroom space is constrained.  And, so, the guest argues, these organizations would usually decline the admission of non-Natives to these language classes to make room for Natives in the class..  And I had a thought that, what if all or some of the Filipino charitable organizations located in the GTA were to band together and create an umbrella organization, following the TASSC model (tassc.ca) of governance, where member organizations would contribute financial resources into a central fund?  This pool would be used to create grants for a suite of programs aimed at helping Filipino members of the GTA community.  Then, one program can be greated among this suite of offerings that would sponsor a Native person who'd like to pursue learning about their own language.  Sort of like a grant or scholarship, but for a Native person?  I think it would be a meaningful step towards reconciliation between the Filipino community and Natives.

This umbrella organization can include Filipino social enterprises that, together with businesses and charitable organizations, can draw from their internally-generated revenues to create this funding pool.