Aiyana Twigg

Biography

Aiyana Twigg is a proud Ktunaxa citizen and a registered member of the Kainai Nation and was raised in yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡiʔit within ʔamakʔis Ktunaxa (Ktunaxa territory). She carries the Ktunaxa name Kⱡawat̓inak Paⱡki· and the Blackfoot name Sa’tahtaki, both meaning “Woman on the other side of the mountain.” These names were given to honour and reflect her responsibilities to both Nations.

Aiyana is an Indigenous youth activist, language researcher, and scholar whose work focuses on Indigenous language revitalization, youth leadership, and culturally grounded approaches to language learning. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in First Nations and Endangered Languages and Anthropology from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Education in Indigenous Language Revitalization from the University of Victoria.

She has contributed to and led language revitalization initiatives within the Ktunaxa Nation and across Turtle Island, including authoring Safeguarding Your Language Through Documentation: A Toolkit for Beginners in partnership with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO (CCUNESCO). Aiyana currently serves on the CCUNESCO Youth Advisory Group, the International Decade of Indigenous Languages Working Group, and UNESCO’s International Decade of Indigenous Languages Ad-Hoc Group on Digital Quality and Domains.