“Our language is the living fire of our culture: sacred, vulnerable and alive. If we lend it our breath, it will guide its own resurgence through our words, stories and wisdom,” says Kistabish, who co-founded Minwashin, a cultural organization based in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Que. As Kistabish speaks, red ribbons are passed from hand to hand. One by one, people write messages to their ancestors, their grandchildren, the land, the future: “When our languages live, communities heal. My wish is for the Cree language to be spoken daily in my community.”

The ribbons will eventually form a collective artwork, with a goal of having the final piece displayed at UNESCO headquarters in Paris at the close of the international decade. The artwork will serve as both a celebration and a call to action for revitalizing Indigenous languages.

The messages on the ribbons gathered so far speak to the profound role that language plays in Indigenous peoples’ lives. Some express the hope of hearing their language spoken fluently and routinely once again. Others describe language as the path to healing communities, the key to keeping cultures alive and the means of reconnecting with identity, ancestors and homelands. So far, ribbons have been collected from Indigenous communities across Turtle Island, throughout Canada and the United States. Over the coming years, Project Nin aims to gather messages from Indigenous peoples across every continent. To date, more than 5,000 ribbons have been collected.