Translating Youth Voices: The Indigenous Youth Reconciliation Barometer 2024

Wintranslation had the privilege of supporting Indigenous Youth Roots on the Indigenous Youth Reconciliation Barometer 2024, a project that was both significant in scope and deeply meaningful.

Our team translated 8,600 words into Inuktitut, Ojibway, Michif, and Mi’kmaq, and laid out 36 pages directly in Canva, ensuring the content remained accessible and visually consistent across languages.

For the wintranslation team, the project was inspiring. While we regularly work with Indigenous translators, many are Elders, so it was powerful to see younger generations so engaged in learning and preserving their ancestral languages. In an era when much of the conversation about language focuses on AI and technology, the Barometer highlights a very different reality: many Indigenous youth want to learn their ancestral languages but face barriers such as limited opportunities, geographic challenges, and lack of resources. The project underscores the importance of accessibility, cultural preservation, and listening to youth voices as they shape the future of their communities and languages.

We’re grateful to Tija Hauta, Research Manager at Indigenous Youth Roots, for taking the time to speak with us, sharing her insights on this initiative and reflecting on her collaboration with our team.

Q: Can you tell us a little about yourself and your role at Indigenous Youth Roots?
Tija: I’m the Research Manager at Indigenous Youth Roots and have been with the organization for over six years in various roles. I work within the Centre for Indigenous Policy and Research, a national hub focused on engaging Indigenous youth in policy in meaningful ways and making policy more accessible.

We run initiatives like Policy School, a nine-month tuition-free program, and Indigenous Youth Advocacy Week, where youth meet with MPs, ministers, senators, and national Indigenous leaders. These programs give youth the opportunity to voice their priorities and have direct, face-to-face conversations with decision-makers.

On the research side, we have our large scale research project, which is the the Indigenous Youth Reconciliation Barometer, and create online content to make complex policy issues more understandable for youth. Our goal is to ensure policy isn’t just happening around youth but is something they can access, understand, and influence.

Q: What is the Indigenous Youth Reconciliation Barometer 2024 and what inspired it?
Tija: The Barometer is our large scale research project. The 2024 edition is the second iteration after the 2019 Barometer. The Barometer 2024 focuses on Indigenous youth aged 18–29 across Canada and explores how they envision their futures in through themes like culture, wellness, solidarity, reconciliation, education, and meaningful work.

A key goal of this research was to ensure it was youth-led, addressing a significant gap in Indigenous youth-led research. It highlights what Indigenous youth are already doing, what they aspire to, and offers recommendations for how governments and organizations can support youth-defined visions for the future.

Q: What do you hope organizations, communities, and readers take away from this Barometer?
Tija: The main takeaway is that Indigenous youth voices must be meaningfully included in any research, policy, or work that affects them. This Barometer was intentionally designed to be by and for Indigenous youth, not just something done “about” them.

We highlight in the methodology section how youth were involved at every step of the process, from shaping the questions to interpreting the findings. That’s something we believe all organizations, governments, and communities should take seriously: if you are doing work that impacts Indigenous youth, their voices need to be included, respected, and reflected throughout the process.

Q: Why was it important to make the Barometer accessible in multiple languages?
Tija: IYR is a national nonprofit working with Indigenous youth from coast to coast to coast, across many nations and communities. So, beyond English and French, we wanted to honour the diversity of Indigenous languages.

We worked with an advisory circle made up of Indigenous youth and subject‑matter experts that helped guide the project, and they also to identifiedwhich languages to prioritize. They pointed us toward places where there are gaps in available resources, and toward communities where language is still central to daily life.

For example, Inuktitut is a first language for many Inuit in Canada, and some people may not speak English or French fluently, so it was important to have the report accessible in Inuktitut. We also chose languages like Michif, where there are very few speakers left and resources are limited. Translating into these languages is part of supporting  reclamation and resurgence, which are two of IYR’s seven guiding principles

Q: Why did you decide to translate only a portion of the Barometer?
Tija: The section we translated is the “At A Glance” section, which functions as an executive summary of the report. It pulls out the key findings across the main themes in a concise way.

There were a couple of reasons for focusing on this section. First, as a nonprofit, we work within specific budgets and funding guidelines, so translating the full, lengthy report wasn’t financially realistic. Second, we know that not everyone has time to read a long research report, whether they’re youth, community members, or service providers. The “At A Glance” section is the piece people are most likely to read, so translating it ensured the most accessible and impactful part of the report was available in multiple languages.

Q: How did you select wintranslation for this project, and what was the collaboration like?
Tija: We asked colleagues within our organization about translators they had worked with before. Your team came recommended from a previous French translation project for another program.

When we learned that you could handle both French and Indigenous language translations, that really stood out. It allowed us to manage the translations in one place rather than sending documents to several different companies and translators. That kind of centralized project management was a big factor in choosing to work with you.

Q: How was your experience collaborating with our team on the translation work?
Tija: It was a really positive experience. The whole process felt smooth and well‑communicated. If there were any delays, you let us know and explained that they were related to translator availability, which we completely understand. The key thing is that we always knew what was happening and when to expect updates.

We also really appreciated that you were able to work directly in Canva. Our report design is quite intentional—it’s visually engaging and not just walls of text. Because we don’t speak the translated languages ourselves, it would have been very difficult for us to place the translations properly in Canva and adjust layouts to account for different text lengths. Having your team handle both the translation and the Canva layout made things much easier and helped ensure the final product remained accessible and beautiful.

Q: What was your key takeaway from this project?
Tija: From the project itself, one of my biggest takeaways is just how expansive and powerful Indigenous youths’ knowledge is. Their insights, priorities, and visions for the future are so important, and they absolutely need to be honoured and respected in every space—research, policy, and community work.

From working with your team, I learned that there are translation companies that can manage multiple languages—including Indigenous languages and French—under one roof. We honestly didn’t know that was possible before, and it made a big difference for us.

Q: What’s next for Indigenous Youth Roots following this project?
Tija: We’re in phase two of the 2024 Barometer, focused on amplifying the findings nationally and internationally. We’re also working on an online interactive data dashboard. This tool will let people explore the data themselves—for example, an Indigenous youth in Winnipeg who is Métis and Two‑Spirit could look specifically at what youth with similar identities in Manitoba said in the survey. Organizations will also be able to filter by region, identity, or other demographics to better understand the youth they serve.

Our goal is to make the data as accessible and useful as possible so that people don’t have to rely only on the surface‑level results in the report. We’re aiming to launch an initial version of this dashboard sometime this year.

Indigenous youth have so much to share, and projects like this are stronger when everyone involved is committed to accessibility, respect, and centering youth voices.

*Images: Indigenous Youth Roots