Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute (CILLDI) - an intensive annual "summer school for Indigenous language activists, speakers, linguists, and teachers" - hosted at the University of Alberta, Edmonton[7] - is a "multicultural, cross-linguistic, interdisciplinary, inter-regional, inter-generational" initiative.
[2]: 93 [16][17] The 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal People report drew widespread attention to the plight of Canada’s Indigenous languages.
[24][25] CILLDI was established in 1999 by a collective of language advocates and educators including Donna Paskemin, Heather Blair, and Sally Rice; the first CILLDI summer institute was held on the Onion Lake First Nation, Saskatchewan and offered one course entitled "Expanding Cree Language and Literacy" with fifteen students from Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Ahenakew's work[2]: 96 [33][34][35] and that of Dr. Verna Kirkness, a Cree scholar and language advocate, is acknowledged as catalytic in the formation of CILLDI.
[2]: 96 Donna Paskemin – who had worked in 1981 at the Saskatchewan Indian Languages Institute (SILI) under the direction of Dr Freda Ahenakew[9] – was the instructor for the Cree immersion course.
Rice with Brenda Ahenakew; and Planning for Indigenous Language and Literacy Development by University of Alberta Education professor, Heather Blair.
"[39] Donna Paskemin, Heather Blair, Sally Rice, Mary Cardinal Collins, Priscilla Settee,[5][6] Edie Hyggenat, Brenda Ahenakew, Dolores Sand and Sam Robinson were on the CILLDI Advisory Council.
Instructors at these institutes are "educators, researchers and Aboriginal language speakers drawn from the teaching and administrative staff of school districts and from university faculties across North America.
[48] Stephen Crowchild, the current director of the Tsuut'ina Gunaha Institute - their language revitalization program - is a former student of CILLDI.
[49] A National Vision for Indigenous Language Stability (ANVILS) is a workshop held during CILLDI's intense summer school program at the University of Alberta.
[41]: 1 Donna Paskemin co-authored papers and presented with colleagues such as Barb Laderoute, Laura Burnouf, Ferlin McGilvery, and Heather Blair.