Community Compass

A demo for First Nations University of Canada

Help in the language you think in.

Someone in Saskatchewan is stressed and needs a phone number for help. They would feel safer reading it in their own language.

This short demo shows how a fluent speaker can make that real, one afternoon at a time. It is about 2 minutes.

Today: 16 languages, one First Nations language.

Community Compass helps people find support in Saskatchewan in 16 languages. Plains Cree is the only First Nations language on it, and no fluent speaker has checked it yet.

A real line from the site

What do you need today?

tânisi kâ-nitawêyihtaman anohc?

Machine draft, not checked

The site says this on its own screen: “This is a machine translation to help you.”

Why a machine draft is not enough.

A computer guessed these. Only a speaker can say if a line is right, clear and kind.

Safety

kanawêyimisowin

Privacy

kiya piko kikiskêyihtên

Quick exit

kakwêyâho-wayawî

All three are unchecked machine drafts. We do not know which are good.

Meet the Line Check.

A fluent speaker sees one line at a time and taps one button. Try it.

English

Find support for your life.

Machine draft (unchecked)

miska wîcihiwêwin kipimâtisiwinihk.

Tap a button. Nothing here is saved.

The speaker writes the fix.

If a line is off, they type what they would say. Roman letters or syllabics both work.

The speaker’s wording

[ a fluent speaker types here ]

145lines on the five-tap path, first

862more lines, when they like

Most important lines come first, so even one afternoon helps real people.

The community owns it.

We follow OCAP®: the community owns, controls, accesses and holds its data.

The speaker says yes before anything is shared.
They choose how to be credited, or stay unnamed.
They or their community choose the licence.
The dialect is labelled (Plains Cree, y-dialect).
Not a replacement for an interpreter in medical or legal matters.

Checked lines go live.

Nothing changes on the site until a fluent speaker sends their file and our team approves it. Then the label changes.

Before

[ today’s machine draft ]

Machine draft, not checked

After

[ the speaker’s wording ]

Checked by a fluent speaker

Each checked line builds a growing, speaker-checked Cree phrase bank.

Credit where people read.

The speaker chooses how they are named. Same screen, three choices:

Checked by a fluent speaker

Checked by [Speaker name]

Example: their own name

Checked by a fluent speaker

Checked by speakers from [Nation or community]

Example: a community, not a person

Checked by a fluent speaker

Checked by a fluent speaker

Example: anonymous. Always allowed.

All names here are examples. The community decides, not us.

A credits page, and credit in the file.

Credits page (example)

Fluent speakers: [Example Speaker A], [Example Speaker B]
Elders who advised: [Example Elder]
Language students: [Example Student], paid
Host: First Nations University of Canada (only if they agree)

In the shared file (example)

checked by: [Example Speaker A]
dialect: Plains Cree, y-dialect
date checked: [date]
licence: chosen by the community
source: Community Compass

Everyone who helps is paid an honorarium, and is named only how they choose.

The same tool can grow.

Saskatchewan has many First Nations languages. Each one could get its own checked set, led by its own community.

Plains CreeDeneSaulteauxNakotaDakotaLakotaMichif

Dashed means not started. We have no drafts in these languages, and we will not guess. Only a community that wants it, in its own time.

What we would ask of you.

An invitation only. No partnership exists today.

People: fluent speakers or language students to check lines.
Pay: an honorarium for their time.
Data: an OCAP® agreement, written together, before any line is shared.
Start small: one fluent speaker, one afternoon, the 145 five-tap lines.

What you get

Cree speakers can find help in their own language, and the work is credited and owned by the community.

Could we start with one afternoon?

Community Compass, Saskatchewan

Live site: benefit-compass-sk.pages.dev

Facts: 16 languages; Plains Cree unchecked; 145 + 862 lines (1,007 in all). Federal Translation Bureau had about 100 Indigenous-language interpreters and translators across 20 languages in 2020 (canada.ca, Feb 2020). No Plains Cree translator count was found.