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♪[Music]♪
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- [Eli] I'm fascinated with
the way language is central
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to our world view as indigenous people.
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I'm a Néhiyaw artist and curator living on
Lekwungen territory in Victoria, BC.
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My personal research centers
around language revitalization
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and how it connects us
to our cultures and lands.
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Over the past few years, I've been
on a journey to learn the Cree language.
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It's been a challenging and
incredibly rewarding experience.
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Now I want to travel to Alberta,
where my ancestors are from,
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to discover the ways that
different communities
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are revitalizing their languages.
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My mother and I both grew up
not knowing anything about our Cree family
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because she was adopted out at birth
as part of the Sixties Scoop.
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Twelve years ago, we met our Cree family,
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and since then I have been in a process
of connecting with the community
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in Wabasca, Alberta,
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the place where my kohkom,
my grandmother Florence, was born.
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I recently met Nora Yellowknee,
an administrator at the local school,
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Oski Pasikoniwew Kamik.
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After realizing that
we were second cousins,
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she offered to help me learn
about my family tree.
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[Nora] You have your grandmother, --
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Florence.
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And her mother is Isabelle.
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And then, I'm here.
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And your grandmother. And your mom?
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Fancine.
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[Nora] They are first cousins
or second cousins.
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- [Eli] Okay.
- [Nora] And you're down here.
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[Eli] I'm down there?
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[Eli] Yeah, this is more than, --
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a lot more than I knew
before I met you, before I came up.
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[Nora] Yeah, that's Isabelle.
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Nohkom Isabelle.
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This means a lot to me to see this, --
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again, --
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because the more that I see it
the more that I hear about this
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and talk about it.
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It's going to stick and --
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I now understand more and
know more through that process
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[Nora] My dream for the language here,
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starting with the school, is to have
our people who speak the language,
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speak it every day,
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because we are not getting that.
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There are many Cree speakers working here,
but they are not speaking it.
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For people, the young families now,
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the young mothers
speak Cree to their children.
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And all the rest of it will follow.
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Seeing a photo of my kohkom Florence
as a young woman
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created a sense of
healing and re-connection
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after feeling disconnected
for most of my life.
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Knowing more about
my family's history has allowed me
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to connect deeper with my ancestors.
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There is so much more to discover
but, like learning the language,
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this will take time.
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The Kapaskwatinak
Cultural Education Center
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is a place for the Children of Wabaska
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to connect to the land and their culture.
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Knowledge Keeper Lorraine Cardinal
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helps guide the children
through land-based education
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including coming-of-age ceremonies.
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I'm excited to learn about these teachings
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since I didn't have the opportunities
to experience them,
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growing up disconnected
from community and family.
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[Lorraine Cardinal] The reason that --
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I do these things, like the coming-of-age,
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because it's also my responsibility
as a Néhiyaw school
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to protect the children,
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creator's children.
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And when I'm protecting
creator's children, --
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we need to teach them those protocols,
we need to teach those values.
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They need to know them so that they don't
end up getting hurt in the future.
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And that shame of our language,
and who we are, and our ceremonial ways;
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losing those has caused
big destruction in our communities.
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Because our children,
as they're growing up,
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they know who they are, they came
with the gift of knowing who they are.
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I have a responsibility to pass
those teachings on to other children too,
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because they will experiment,
they will explore,
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and we want to prevent them
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from hurting each other
or hurting themselves, right?
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[Drumming and chanting]
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[Lorraine Cardinal] They call that
oskinîkiskwew ēkwa oskinîkîwiw,
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young manhood and young womanhood.
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I want to thank you and honour you
for coming into this world.
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You are a blessing to us.
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We are so very honored to have you
as part of us, nêhiyaw-iskwêw.
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Always remember to hold your head up,
don't be ashamed and --
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always accept yourself for who you are,
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and honour those gifts
you brought with you, --
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and welcome into womanhood.
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Welcome.
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It truly is a blessing
and an honour to have you
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as a young nêhiyaw-iskwêw,
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A young nêhiyaw woman.
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Welcome.
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[Children talking]
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[Lorraine Cardinal] Somehow, someway --
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fear got instilled in us
as indigenous people.
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Shame got instilled in us
as indigenous people.
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Our children, what they
experienced here today
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taught them how sacred they are,
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how important they are,
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how beautiful they are,
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and that they're not just
beautiful in physical form.
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that they're beautiful
in spiritual form too.
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All we need to do is believe in them,
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to love them, and to tell them
they're important.
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They'll start feeling good
about themselves.
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I'm proud of them.
Their spirit is still alive and well.
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What do you see being the way forward
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so that these young ones
in the community --
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can not only understand the language
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and its relationship to their spirit,
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and their relationship to the land
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and each other and themselves,
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but be speaking it?
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How do you feel about --
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the future of the language
in these next generations to come?
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We have to believe in ourselves
to be able to do it, --
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and we need to set our goal.
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And if it's revitalizing the language,
then let's do that.
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How did we learn Cree?
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We learnt it sitting around
with the old people,
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visiting each other and --
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our parents speaking to us, you know?
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So we can get it back.
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We just need to do it.
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John Bigstone is a Wabasca elder who carries
vast spiritual and ceremonial knowledge.
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He invited me to the land where
he holds sweat lodge ceremonies
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to share teachings about the spirit
within our languages.
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[Music]
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[Inhales deeply]
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It clears your mind when
you breathe in this smudge.
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English language is inadequate --
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if you're going to describe spirit.
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Anything of spirit.
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It's inadequate.
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They named it according to their
connection to that plant
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because they spoke to the plant
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They had a connection.
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They had a connection to all of life.
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They understood their environment.
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They understood that
everything was alive, --
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and your spirit has
a connection with that spirit
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of mother earth and everything
that grows on her body.
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Prior to contact, everything was
described in a more spiritual way.
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Mîtos you know,
has a spiritual meaning.
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Sihta as in spiritual meaning.
That's the poplar and the spruce.
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I stutter coming back to the language
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where our families have
had these interruptions --
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of residential school, the 60s' scoop.
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I'm curious what your thoughts are --
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about those of us with this blood in us,
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and whose ancestors
have spoken the language,
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and whether you think that
we have it inside of us
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just waiting to come out, --
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this bone memory or
blood memory of the language.
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Yeah, it's in your DNA.
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It's programmed in there already.
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You just have to wake up that programming.
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That's why you're here, see?
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It's that programming,
and your spirit guide.
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You've got to remember,
there's a spiritual aspect to this.
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You're never alone.
You never walk alone.
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Your ancestors,
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your Cree ancestors, walk with you.
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They're assigned to you
to guide you where you need to be.
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That's the beauty of
this understanding of spirit.
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It happens in spirit.
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We are the result of spirit in action.
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We become material.
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That's a deeper teaching.
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But the reality is, every one of us
have spirit guides around us.
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I was on kind of a lost path
before I found my way to my first lodge.
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And it's interesting to think of these --
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European modalities or
academic ways of describing
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how things are working.
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And the way that I explain it to people is
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I don't know how it's working,
I just know it is working for me.
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And it's not something I'm trying
to figure out up here,
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I just know it's working down here.
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And I think it has connected
my heart and my spirit
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in ways that weren't happening before.
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When I say a prayer
in the social gathering,
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I say it in Cree
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because it's an insult to my ancestors
if I pray in English.
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It's the very thing
that oppressed me as a child.
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I can't do that.
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I have to speak and pray in Cree.
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That's what I do and
I explain, you know, why.
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Because I'm not praying to the people.
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I'm praying to the spirits
that are guiding me.
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They don't have to understand
what I'm saying.
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Because as long as a spirit hears,
the spirit will come.
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And they understand my language,
the Cree language.
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Once I identify myself, they say,
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"Huh, our grandson is praying.
Let's go support him."
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That's the beauty of our language.
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What happened to our language --
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came from the time of
the residence in school,
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the first time it was introduced, --
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not only the Cree
but the many tribes themselves.
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When they took away the children, --
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they took the children away
from the land, --
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the language, their ancestors,
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their grandfathers, their grandmothers,
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their teachers, their parents,
their aunts and uncles.
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That's when the separation happened.
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They broke that connection.
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So when he took us away, --
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they severed that connection
to all of those things.
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We were taught a foreign way of thinking.
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I was programmed as a child.
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Now, I have to deprogram myself,
sometimes referred to as decolonization,
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as they gave us that colonized mentality.
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And it just did not fit with our paradigm,
how we saw our place in creation.
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At some point, somebody's got to wake up.
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One day, you've got to say,
"Hey, there's something wrong here."
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This is the time.
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That's why we're here.
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To wake the people up.
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To wake ourselves up.
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Still be the guiding light, you know.
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There is a different way.
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So, it's about connection.
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That's what was severed --
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in the time of the residential school.
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We lost connection to our spirit.
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It replaced the creator
outside of us instead of in here.
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We're trying to mend that rift.
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That's what you're doing.
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That rift that was caught;
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you are the stitch that is bringing
those two worldviews --
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but to where they start
respecting our way,
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the Cree way.
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When you have love, when you feel love --
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and somebody tells you something
that your spirit is looking to hear
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like, "Welcome home."
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Where do you feel it?
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Right here. You're connecting.
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You'll always have
that sense of belonging --
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because you come home. Yeah.
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So once you come home,
you know where to come
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next time you're out there, wandering, --
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you have a connection there.
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You've made some connections already here.
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You're no longer disconnected.
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I left my conversation with John
feeling like I belong
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in a way that I've never felt before.
250
00:16:48,794 --> 00:16:50,816
It was an incredibly
powerful experience
251
00:16:50,816 --> 00:16:54,032
that made me feel more
connected to my spirit.
252
00:16:57,835 --> 00:17:02,606
Tell me again, like,
your family story with Wabasca.
253
00:17:02,830 --> 00:17:06,280
My mother grew up there,
my father grew up in Grouard, --
254
00:17:07,304 --> 00:17:08,430
a couple hours away,
255
00:17:08,430 --> 00:17:11,066
and she didn't want
to raise me on the reserve.
256
00:17:11,197 --> 00:17:13,963
So as soon as they found out
about me, they moved away.
257
00:17:14,254 --> 00:17:16,355
And when we move to Edmonton,
through the teen years,
258
00:17:16,355 --> 00:17:19,446
through my adult years, that's when
the reconnection really started to happen,
259
00:17:19,446 --> 00:17:20,948
going home more happen.
260
00:17:21,075 --> 00:17:25,332
Before that, I would only visit,
like, holidays, few times a year.
261
00:17:27,167 --> 00:17:32,262
Dusty Legrand is the creator of
the clothing label Mobilize Waskawēwin.
262
00:17:32,662 --> 00:17:36,387
Using the ancient writing system
of Cree syllabics and his designs,
263
00:17:36,579 --> 00:17:39,378
he's making the language
visible to a new generation.
264
00:17:42,066 --> 00:17:43,815
Yeah, so this was the --
265
00:17:45,793 --> 00:17:47,471
- it has the --
- Oh yeah,
266
00:17:47,471 --> 00:17:51,227
the different languages,
tribes of the north.
267
00:17:51,672 --> 00:17:53,333
Yeah, it tells the story of --
268
00:17:53,882 --> 00:17:55,759
a bunch of people.
And it was really special to hear, like,
269
00:17:55,759 --> 00:17:58,623
the feedback from different people
that had never seen
270
00:17:58,623 --> 00:18:01,055
their nation represented on a ....
271
00:18:01,288 --> 00:18:04,739
There were certain people that;
this was like their first time.
272
00:18:04,739 --> 00:18:08,200
They're like, "I'm just buying this just because
I've never seen my nation represented."
273
00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:12,206
Yeah, then I put revolution down the arm
just to let them know what's going on.
274
00:18:12,206 --> 00:18:13,303
[Laughs]
275
00:18:14,104 --> 00:18:15,782
I've been always wanting
to create a clothing brand.
276
00:18:15,782 --> 00:18:19,507
So to be able to create something that
can empower indigenous youth
277
00:18:19,507 --> 00:18:22,749
and educate them
on the indigenous history,
278
00:18:22,749 --> 00:18:27,300
on the future, on values
and what it means to be indigenous.
279
00:18:28,998 --> 00:18:32,833
So Mobilize was a way that
I could give voice to the voiceless.
280
00:18:33,130 --> 00:18:34,856
I could give a voice to the youth.
281
00:18:35,017 --> 00:18:37,884
To do it in a different way
than I had seen being done, --
282
00:18:38,481 --> 00:18:39,899
it was very important to me.
283
00:18:39,971 --> 00:18:41,995
To do it completely different,
284
00:18:41,995 --> 00:18:45,399
to represent the funky people,
to represent the different people,
285
00:18:45,399 --> 00:18:48,628
to represent everybody
that's ostracized that way
286
00:18:48,628 --> 00:18:51,695
and especially as indigenous people,
like, that's been done to us.
287
00:18:52,786 --> 00:18:53,725
Okay.
288
00:18:53,725 --> 00:18:58,963
So this is the first drawing of this shirt.
289
00:18:59,109 --> 00:19:02,390
So, a lot of, like, the pieces will come,
290
00:19:02,390 --> 00:19:04,743
and they'll come at certain times,
when I'm driving,
291
00:19:04,743 --> 00:19:06,437
when I'm listening to certain things.
292
00:19:06,676 --> 00:19:09,125
And they'll come and if I don't write it
the way it's supposed to be,
293
00:19:09,125 --> 00:19:10,634
the idea won't stay.
294
00:19:11,266 --> 00:19:14,334
I want to try to encompass all of Canada
295
00:19:14,334 --> 00:19:17,218
and I'm gonna try to reach
as many as I can.
296
00:19:17,218 --> 00:19:20,156
So for me this was like a lot of studying,
297
00:19:20,156 --> 00:19:24,849
a lot of research to try to see
as far east as I could go
298
00:19:24,849 --> 00:19:26,717
and see what nations are there.
299
00:19:27,073 --> 00:19:29,247
And that's what is special
about the language I find.
300
00:19:29,247 --> 00:19:36,206
It's that the stories, and the purpose,
and everything exists within the language.
301
00:19:36,206 --> 00:19:38,695
That's in kind of a place
that it's been locked.
302
00:19:38,695 --> 00:19:41,445
And it remains, and even though --
303
00:19:41,833 --> 00:19:44,450
the assimilation
has taken a lot of, like, --
304
00:19:44,647 --> 00:19:49,350
our connection to community,
our ceremonies, our practices.
305
00:19:49,350 --> 00:19:51,457
The language has kept all of that.
306
00:19:52,395 --> 00:19:54,138
How did you get the Cree word?
307
00:19:54,138 --> 00:19:58,103
Yes, well, the Cree word is
on the back of this one here.
308
00:19:58,297 --> 00:19:59,103
Okay.
309
00:20:00,270 --> 00:20:03,817
So I just keep it as like Mobilize
is the English version
310
00:20:03,817 --> 00:20:05,310
and then Waskawēwin,
311
00:20:05,648 --> 00:20:09,536
which is the Cree word for movement,
is the Cree element that comes in.
312
00:20:11,074 --> 00:20:14,631
Mobilize didn't have a translation.
313
00:20:15,141 --> 00:20:18,228
But I also didn't want to
just translate mobilize,
314
00:20:18,228 --> 00:20:21,784
I wanted to use movement
as the word.
315
00:20:22,113 --> 00:20:25,162
So one thing that I really liked
about the word waskawēwin
316
00:20:25,611 --> 00:20:28,648
was the presence of
the triangular symbols,
317
00:20:28,648 --> 00:20:31,824
and for me these represented,
like, two tipis
318
00:20:32,241 --> 00:20:34,297
and kind of represented
the tribe that way.
319
00:20:34,442 --> 00:20:37,103
Being a part of Reuben's class
was really special to understand
320
00:20:37,103 --> 00:20:40,812
the fundamentals of and to learn
the history of the star chart
321
00:20:40,812 --> 00:20:43,178
and to learn the history of syllabics.
322
00:20:43,494 --> 00:20:45,793
Yeah, it was like learning
indigenous history
323
00:20:45,793 --> 00:20:47,854
through the spirit mechanism.
324
00:20:47,854 --> 00:20:49,548
That was really special.
325
00:20:49,548 --> 00:20:52,319
He kind of just takes you back
and he tells you the stories.
326
00:20:52,598 --> 00:20:55,445
And he takes you
through a journey through story
327
00:20:55,635 --> 00:20:59,547
of the significance of the numbers
of the grandfather directions,
328
00:20:59,547 --> 00:21:01,095
the grandmother directions.
329
00:21:12,673 --> 00:21:15,018
Yeah, înîw.
330
00:21:17,545 --> 00:21:20,358
And what does that mean, înîw?
331
00:21:20,482 --> 00:21:22,475
It's a collapsed word.
332
00:21:23,239 --> 00:21:26,861
Iyiniw actually is the way it's said.
333
00:21:31,544 --> 00:21:33,448
From what I understand; --
334
00:21:35,076 --> 00:21:37,798
talk a little bit about colonization --
335
00:21:38,808 --> 00:21:42,949
and taking over lands,
the lands of original people; --
336
00:21:43,308 --> 00:21:46,044
what I understand,
first thing you got to do is
337
00:21:46,044 --> 00:21:49,412
you got to get rid of
those people's deity, the name,
338
00:21:49,412 --> 00:21:52,780
and replace it with yours
when you're colonizing people.
339
00:21:53,685 --> 00:21:58,735
So our dename for Néhiyaw people was aî, --
340
00:21:59,369 --> 00:22:05,083
and we have a different paradigm
as far as dogma is concerned.
341
00:22:06,652 --> 00:22:10,193
You are aîs, I am aîs,
342
00:22:10,193 --> 00:22:12,746
so a diminutive of aî.
343
00:22:13,270 --> 00:22:16,679
So aîsînîw.
344
00:22:20,363 --> 00:22:25,665
But this is a collapsed version
of that iyiniw, înîw.
345
00:22:29,381 --> 00:22:30,912
Wow, 3D.
346
00:22:30,968 --> 00:22:32,293
Iskotew.
347
00:22:34,854 --> 00:22:36,096
Iskotew.
348
00:22:37,495 --> 00:22:39,051
Fantastic.
349
00:22:41,754 --> 00:22:44,562
So we have a relationship with the earth,
350
00:22:44,893 --> 00:22:50,346
and that relationship is that
we relate to her as mother.
351
00:22:51,531 --> 00:22:58,249
So she when she brings forth
those different people --
352
00:22:59,439 --> 00:23:01,906
the plant people, the different ones,
353
00:23:01,906 --> 00:23:06,203
that's sâkipakâw coming
out of the trees, out of the grass.
354
00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:09,342
And so she's showing us what love is.
355
00:23:10,666 --> 00:23:12,602
It's practical.
356
00:23:12,891 --> 00:23:14,718
So she'll give us all of this.
357
00:23:15,232 --> 00:23:17,778
We will be nurtured by it.
358
00:23:18,415 --> 00:23:23,689
The dandelions somewhere
and different grasses.
359
00:23:23,689 --> 00:23:27,353
The four-legged people will eat from that.
360
00:23:27,353 --> 00:23:33,123
We will, in turn, get our sustenance
from the four-legged people,
361
00:23:33,123 --> 00:23:36,874
but she's giving us all of that,
showing us that love.
362
00:23:36,874 --> 00:23:42,416
Now, sâki is the morpheme of that word.
363
00:23:42,496 --> 00:23:48,050
And if I were to say to you,
"I love you," I would say ki-sākihitin.
364
00:23:49,258 --> 00:23:52,070
Some people say ki-sāki-itin,
365
00:23:52,499 --> 00:23:55,517
and I say ki-sākihitin.
366
00:23:55,736 --> 00:23:58,744
That's how I've been taught: ki-sākihitin.
367
00:23:58,744 --> 00:24:01,362
I love you or you are loved by me.
368
00:24:01,855 --> 00:24:08,138
So that's a good word to learn
to say to your loved ones.
369
00:24:10,575 --> 00:24:13,763
That's one of the only words
that I know to say to my partner.
370
00:24:13,763 --> 00:24:14,763
[Laughs]
371
00:24:15,939 --> 00:24:19,671
Yes, and see how that
it's coming into bloom.
372
00:24:20,156 --> 00:24:22,046
It's gonna start blossoming.
373
00:24:22,046 --> 00:24:26,391
It'll continue to grow and then
it'll go through its cycle, --
374
00:24:26,752 --> 00:24:32,118
just like we will come into
a relationship with others.
375
00:24:38,956 --> 00:24:42,820
This really sticks out to me,
when I came here last summer, --
376
00:24:44,616 --> 00:24:45,632
as a special place.
377
00:24:45,632 --> 00:24:51,419
Not only Amy's piece, but the other artwork
and it's kind of perched over the river.
378
00:25:01,698 --> 00:25:09,603
When did you begin learning about
syllabics and the spirit marker system?
379
00:25:10,521 --> 00:25:13,189
When we were liberated
from residential school,
380
00:25:13,189 --> 00:25:16,986
probably 1970 or 1971,
I don't remember.
381
00:25:17,177 --> 00:25:18,281
I was just young.
382
00:25:18,677 --> 00:25:23,455
and the late Rosana Hole and
late Caroline Hunter would come in
383
00:25:23,455 --> 00:25:27,175
and teach us about them, me and my peers.
384
00:25:28,970 --> 00:25:33,023
So that's when I started learning
the system that I know about.
385
00:25:33,389 --> 00:25:38,543
And it was made so simply
for me to learn it --
386
00:25:38,950 --> 00:25:42,395
that I passed it on
the way that was taught to me,
387
00:25:42,395 --> 00:25:49,757
and I guarantee that people
will master that writing system.
388
00:25:54,527 --> 00:25:59,271
I always tell the ones
that are coming in to learn,
389
00:26:01,979 --> 00:26:04,124
"Take your page and go to the center."
390
00:26:04,124 --> 00:26:06,188
I tell them, "That's where
we're gonna start off."
391
00:26:06,188 --> 00:26:09,841
because we're used to writing
from the top to the right,
392
00:26:09,841 --> 00:26:11,692
left to right, left to right.
393
00:26:12,434 --> 00:26:13,646
But in this one, --
394
00:26:14,784 --> 00:26:18,505
you go from the center
and you start from inside.
395
00:26:18,571 --> 00:26:20,142
So there's the center there.
396
00:26:20,142 --> 00:26:23,343
I'll go left of center
and write the first one, --
397
00:26:24,282 --> 00:26:25,920
and that's this one here.
398
00:26:27,576 --> 00:26:29,611
This one is a phonetic language.
399
00:26:29,834 --> 00:26:32,066
So that one says ah.
400
00:26:33,264 --> 00:26:35,868
And it's also the sound.
401
00:26:36,782 --> 00:26:39,922
The first sound that people will make --
402
00:26:42,842 --> 00:26:45,869
when they're praying and worshiping.
403
00:26:46,285 --> 00:26:50,179
They'll say something like, "â-kisemanito".
404
00:26:50,474 --> 00:26:54,469
They'll describe that supreme being --
405
00:26:54,922 --> 00:27:00,133
and the supreme being's name,
this part of this as well. Ā.
406
00:27:00,810 --> 00:27:05,027
Ā someone then will say,
"Â-Mâmaw-ôhtâwîmâw", --
407
00:27:05,771 --> 00:27:07,057
describing again.
408
00:27:08,976 --> 00:27:12,236
They'll endear themselves
to that supreme being
409
00:27:12,236 --> 00:27:15,453
by calling that supreme being
father of all.
410
00:27:15,453 --> 00:27:18,359
"Â-Mâmaw-ôhtâwîmâw".
411
00:27:18,590 --> 00:27:21,497
So I say, "ah-hay" in recognition.
412
00:27:21,497 --> 00:27:24,253
There's you, me and the supreme being.
413
00:27:24,528 --> 00:27:26,121
[Eli] "Ay-hay".
[Reuben] "Ay-hay".
414
00:27:26,121 --> 00:27:28,183
A lot of people say, "hi-hi"
415
00:27:28,183 --> 00:27:29,770
- That's what I've learned.
- That's probably --
416
00:27:29,770 --> 00:27:31,486
how you've heard it quite a bit.
417
00:27:31,486 --> 00:27:35,413
So that one near says, "â",
this one says "pa"
418
00:27:35,413 --> 00:27:37,462
There's that "pah-pe"
419
00:27:38,668 --> 00:27:41,702
So, it goes: "â", "pa", "ta", "la".
420
00:27:43,117 --> 00:27:46,649
And there's four of them, like I said,
going off into the east:
421
00:27:46,649 --> 00:27:50,219
"Mi", "ni", "yi", "si", "ki", "ji", "ri".
422
00:27:50,219 --> 00:27:54,041
And there's seven of them, like I said.
There's seven tectonic plates --
423
00:27:54,862 --> 00:27:58,667
going off into the south,
is the same vowel sound.
424
00:27:58,802 --> 00:28:03,696
And then into the southwest,
there's what I like to call the anomaly.
425
00:28:04,290 --> 00:28:05,876
It's a e vowel sound.
426
00:28:05,876 --> 00:28:08,244
"Me", "ke", "ne", --
427
00:28:09,301 --> 00:28:10,715
"ye",
428
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:16,374
"se", "je", "re".
429
00:28:16,764 --> 00:28:18,626
A vowel sound "o".
430
00:28:18,626 --> 00:28:23,018
And thank you Dr. James Makokis
for correcting me on that.
431
00:28:23,018 --> 00:28:27,480
I used to go "oh", borrowing from English.
432
00:28:28,551 --> 00:28:31,052
She said that, "O isn't it ooh?"
433
00:28:31,052 --> 00:28:35,254
and I said, "Hey yeah, that's right."
"O", "wo", "po", "to", "lo".
434
00:28:36,979 --> 00:28:39,026
And then they're smaller --
435
00:28:41,586 --> 00:28:45,512
and these are way smaller
than the big ones, big spirit markers,
436
00:28:45,512 --> 00:28:47,618
small spirit markers here.
437
00:28:49,089 --> 00:28:50,340
To complete --
438
00:28:53,518 --> 00:28:59,586
what Dr. Marilyn Shirt
has called the star chart.
439
00:29:03,749 --> 00:29:06,570
So the one I told you, --
440
00:29:20,568 --> 00:29:23,517
"Ki-sâ-kih-itin", --
441
00:29:24,478 --> 00:29:29,686
that's, "You are loved by me or I love you."
442
00:29:30,618 --> 00:29:31,618
Kisâkihitin.
443
00:29:32,272 --> 00:29:35,229
Yeah, "Ki" - "Kisâkihitin".
444
00:29:38,059 --> 00:29:40,207
So that's the writing system there.
445
00:29:40,963 --> 00:29:45,250
My hope is that it will help
to instill pride in those --
446
00:29:45,705 --> 00:29:49,580
for those young people --
447
00:29:49,866 --> 00:29:52,550
because this is a racist country --
448
00:29:53,686 --> 00:29:56,431
and it was born out of racism.
449
00:29:57,067 --> 00:30:00,705
And of course racism disconnects people.
450
00:30:01,329 --> 00:30:02,902
This one connects us.
451
00:30:04,432 --> 00:30:07,282
And all have access to it, --
452
00:30:08,660 --> 00:30:11,890
whatever ethnicity you are from.
453
00:30:13,271 --> 00:30:15,256
It all makes sense to everybody.
454
00:30:15,256 --> 00:30:19,508
It can make sense to everyone
and we can start connecting.
455
00:30:22,176 --> 00:30:25,223
What they taught us
in the residential schools
456
00:30:25,223 --> 00:30:32,255
is that we were worth less than Europeans.
457
00:30:33,271 --> 00:30:37,652
And this one teaches us that:
"Pahpeyakwan iyikohk".
458
00:30:40,895 --> 00:30:45,209
We all have the same measurements
as far as humanity.
459
00:30:45,209 --> 00:30:48,591
Our DNA says that we're all the same.
460
00:30:53,898 --> 00:30:58,265
I want to thank you so much
for sharing about this because --
461
00:30:59,054 --> 00:31:02,827
I can see the the brilliance
and sophistication --
462
00:31:03,744 --> 00:31:09,435
within the way you've shown and explained,
463
00:31:09,813 --> 00:31:13,279
and it piques my interest
and makes me want to learn more.
464
00:31:13,279 --> 00:31:16,489
It makes me want to move out here
so I could take one of your classes.
465
00:31:16,489 --> 00:31:17,705
- [Reuben] Yeah.
466
00:31:20,272 --> 00:31:22,078
Thank you so much for sharing this.
467
00:31:22,861 --> 00:31:24,404
An honor and a privilege.
468
00:31:26,872 --> 00:31:27,902
♪[Music]♪