Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages Announces WAVES 2025: Global Indigenous Languages Summit

WAVES 2025: Global Indigenous Languages Summit to be held in Ottawa August 11–14, 2025

OTTAWA, ON, Feb. 12, 2025 /CNW/ – The Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages (the Commission) today announced WAVES 2025, a Global Indigenous Languages Summit aimed at promoting, celebrating and championing Indigenous languages, and supporting Indigenous Peoples in Canada and around the globe in reclaiming, revitalizing, maintaining, and strengthening their languages. This summit supports the objectives of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.

WAVES 2025 will convene language experts, practitioners, advocates, and supporters from across Canada and around the globe. The summit seeks to inspire innovative thinking, foster meaningful dialogue, and drive actionable solutions for strengthening Indigenous languages.

“WAVES 2025 is an opportunity to stand with a multitude of Indigenous nations, languages, and cultures and be part of the wave of voices committed to bringing Indigenous Languages out of the shadows and into the light,” said Stsmél̓qen, Ronald E. Ignace, Commissioner of Indigenous Languages.

Key Summit Highlights:

• Focus on promoting and championing all Indigenous languages in Canada
• Support for global Indigenous language revitalization efforts
• Open to all passionate about Indigenous languages and cultural celebration
• WAVES 2025 symbolizes a wave of momentum, carried forward from generations of work by communities, speakers and language champions
• Announcing WAVES 2025 Co-Hosts;
  Waneek Horn-Miller, Andrea Menard, and Tunu Napartuk
• Announcing three exciting WAVES 2025 keynote speakers;
  Peter-Lucas Jones, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, and Dr. Lorna Wanosts’a7 Williams
• WAVES 2025, hosted by the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages (the Commission), takes place August 11-14, 2025, on the ancestral territory of Kitigan Zibi, Anishinabeg, in Ottawa, Ontario, at Rogers Centre Ottawa
• For more information and to register: waves2025.ca

More information and highlights will be released weekly on social media. The Commission invites everyone interested to follow its social media channels for updates on speakers, panelists, featured artists and entertainers, educators, and other leaders in land and language, technology and language, and community and language. Plus, exciting news on the 7Gen Youth Space at WAVES 2025 will soon be announced.

To find out more and to register, visit waves2025.ca

About the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages

The Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages (the Commission) is an independent organization established through the Indigenous Languages Act.

The Commission’s overarching purpose is to help promote Indigenous languages and support the efforts of Indigenous peoples to reclaim, revitalize, maintain, and strengthen their languages.

Visit commissionforindigenouslanguages.ca for more information on the Commission and its mandate.

SOURCE Office of The Commissioner of Indigenous Languages

For more information, please contact: Karran Finlay, Media and Communications, 780-717-9996, karran@askcommunications.ca