In Memoriam - T’łat’laḵuł Trish Rosborough

Dr. Rosborough was a dear colleague, friend, and mentor to many and her contributions to community knowledge and Indigenous language recovery and revitalization will continue to have an impact on the field of Indigenous education well into the future. 

T’łat’laḵuł Trish Rosborough focused her scholarship on Indigenous language revitalization. An adult learner of her late mother’s first language, Kwak’wala, Trish often used a narrative approach to her research, sharing stories of her personal journey as a language learner, teacher, and researcher.

Her research project, Beautiful Words: Enriching and Indigenizing Language Revitalization through Understandings of Linguistic Structure, stems from her view that it is important to consider both how to retain Indigenous languages and how to retain the worldview understandings within the languages.

T’łat’laḵuł also was a co-PI on a SSHRC Partnership Grant lead by Dr. Onowa Mcivor and Dr. Peter Jacobs. This project, NEȾOLṈEW̱: ‘one mind, one people’ is working in collaboration with nine Indigenous community partners across Canada to deepen the understanding of best practices in adult Indigenous language learning.

Listen to her as she teaches words in Kwak'wala and shares family stories on First Words, a CBC unreserved podcast recorded February 2019. 

T’łat’laḵuł Dr. Trish Rosborough Memorial Award in Indigenous Language Revitalization

The good work of Indigenous language learning continues in communities and on-campus at the University of Victoria. Help us support students working in Indigenous Language Revitalization by giving to this endowed scholarship honouring the memory of T’łat’laḵuł. 

T’łat’laḵuł Dr. Trish Rosborough Memorial Award in Indigenous Language Revitalization