Voices on the Rise: Indigenous Language Revitalization in Alberta - Episode 1

[Music]

I'm fascinated with the way language

is central to our world view
as indigenous people.

I'm a Naheo artist and curator living on
Lekwungen territory in Victoria, BC.

My personal research centers
around language revitalization

and how it connects us
to our cultures and lands.

Over the past few years I've been
on a journey to learn

the Cree language.

It's been a challenging and
incredibly rewarding experience.

Now I want to travel to Alberta,
where my ancestors are from

to discover the ways that
different communities

are revitalizing their languages.

My mother and I both grew up
not knowing anything

about our Cree family because
she was adopted out at birth

as part of the '60s scoop.

Twelve years ago,
we met our Cree family,

and since then I have been

in a process of connecting
with the community

in Wabasca, Alberta,
the place where my kokum,

my grandmother Florence,
was born.

I recently met Nora Yellowmee,
an administrator

at the local school,
Oski Pskiknowew Kamik.

After realizing that we
were second cousins

she offered to help
me learn about my family tree.

(Nora) You have your grandmother,
Florence.

and her mother is Isabelle, and then,

I'm here. And your
grandmother. And your mom.

(Narrator) Um, Fancine.

(Nora) Your first cousins or

second cousins.
(Narrator) Ok.

(Nora) And you're down here.
(Narrator) I'm down there.

Yeah, this is more than,

a lot more than I knew before
I met you, before I came up.

(Nora) Yea, that's Isabelle.

Nohkom Isabelle.

(Narrator) This means a lot to me
to see this.

Again, um, because
the more that I see it the more that I

hear about this, and
talk about it

it's going to stick and
I know

I'll understand more and
know more through that process

(Nora) My dream for the language here,

starting with the school, is to have

our people who speak
the language, speak it

everyday, because we are not getting that.

There are many Cree speakers working here,

but they are not speaking it.

For people, the young families now
the young mothers

speak Cree to their children

and all the rest of it all follow.

Seeing a photo of my kukom Florence

as a young woman created a sense of
healing and re-connection

after feeling disconnected
for most of my life

Knowing more about my family's history

has allowed me to connect
deeper with my ancestors

There is so much more to discover

but, like learning the language,

this will take time.

The Kapaskwatinak
Cultural Education Center

is a place for the Children of Wabaska

to connect to the land and their culture.

Knowledge Keeper Lorraine Cardinal

helps guide the children
through land based education

including coming of age ceremonies.

I'm excited to learn about these teachings

since I didn't have the opportunities
to experience them

Growing up disconnected
from community and family.

The reason that I do these things,

like the coming of age because

it's also my responsibility
as a Naheo School

to protect the children,

creator's children.
And when I'm protecting creator's children

we need to teach them those protocols.

We need to teach those values.

They need to know them so that they don't

end up getting hurt in the future.

And that shame of our language

and who we are, and our ceremonial ways.

Losing those has caused big destruction

in our communities

Because our children,
as they're growing up,

they know who they are,

they came with the gift
of knowing who they are.

I have a responsibility to
pass those teachings

on to other children too,

because they will experiment,
they will explore

and we want to prevent them

from hurting each other or
hurting themselves, right?

(Singing and drums)

(Lorraine) They call that
oskeskwew (?) oskinîkiskwew (?)

young manhood and young womanhood.

I want to thank you and honor you for

coming into this world.

You are a blessing to us.

We are so very honored to have you

as part of us, Naheo school.

Always remember to hold your head up,
don't be ashamed

and always accept yourself for who you are

and honor those gifts you brought with you

And welcome into womanhood

Welcome.

It truly is a blessing
and an honor to have you

as a young Naheo iskwew (?),

A young Naheo woman. Welcome.

(children talking)

(Lorraine) Somehow, someway

fear got instilled in us
as indigenous people.

Shame got instilled in us
as indigenous people.

Our children, what they
experienced here today

taught them how sacred they are,

how important they are,

how beautiful they are and that

they're not just
beautiful in physical form.

that they're beautiful
in spiritual form too.

All we need to do is believe in them,

to love them, and to tell them that

they're important
and they'll start feeling

good about themselves.

I'm proud of them.
Their spirit is still alive and well.

(Narrator) What do you see being
the way forward

so that these young ones in the
community

can not only understand the language

and its relationship to their spirit

and their relationship, to the land

and each other and themselves,

but be speaking it?
How do you feel about

the future of the language in these

next generations to come?

We have to believe in ourselves
to be able to do it

and we need to set our goal

and if it's revitalizing the language,
then let's do that.

How did we learn Cree?

We learnt it sitting around
with the old people,

visiting each other and

our parents speaking to us, you know?

So we can get it back.
We just need to do it.

John Bigstone is a Wabiskaw elder

who carries vast spiritual and
ceremonial knowledge

He invited me to the land where
he holds sweat lodge ceremonies

to share teachings about the spirit
within our languages.

[Music]

[inhales deeply]

It clears your mind when
you breathe in this smudge

English language is inadequate

if you're going to describe spirit.

Anything of spirit.

Its inadequate.

They named it according to their
connection to that plant.

because they spoke to the plant

They had a connection.

They had a connection to all of life.

They understood their environment.

They understood that everything was alive,

and your spirtit has a connection
with that spirit

of mother earth, and everything
that grows on her body.

Prior to contact, everything was
described in a more spiritual way.

Mitos (?) you know,
has a spiritual meaning.

Sifta (?) as in spiritual meaning
that's the poplar and the spruce.

(...?) coming back to the language where
our families have had these interruptions

of residential school, the 60s' scoop

I'm curious what your thoughts are about
those of us with this blood in us

and whose ancestors have
spoken the language

and whether you think that
we have it inside of us

just waiting to come out,

this bone memory or blood memory
of the language.

Yeah, it's in yur DNA.

It's programmed in there already.

You just have to wake up that programming.

That's why you're here.
See?

It's that programming,
and your spirit guide -

you've got to remember there's
a spiritual aspect to this

You're never alone.
You never walk alone,

your ancestors, your Cree
ancestors, walk with you,

they're assigned to you to guide you
where you need to be

That's the beauty if this
understanding of spirit

It happens in spirit

We are the result of spirit in action.
We become material.

That's a deeper teaching.

But the reality is (that) everyone of us
have spirit guides around us.

I was on kind of a lost path
before I found my way to my first lodge.

And it's interesting to think of these

European modalities or academic
ways of describing

how things are working.

And the way that I explain it to people is

I don't know how it's working,
I just know it is working for me.

And it's not something I'm trying
to figure out up here ,

I just know it's working
down here.

And I think it has connected
my heart and my spirit

in ways that weren't happening before.

When I say a prayer
in the social gathering,

I say it in Cree

because it's an insult to my ancestors
if I pray in English.

It's the very thing
that oppressed me as a child.

I can't do that.

I have to speak and pray in Cree.

That's what I do and
I explain, you know, why.

Because I'm not praying to the people.

I'm praying to the spirits
that are guiding me.

They don't have to understand
what I'm saying.

Because as long as a spirit hears,
the Spirit will come.

And they understand my language,
the Cree language.

Once I identify myself, they say,

"Huh, our grandson is playing.
Let's go support him."

That's the beauty of our language.

What happened to our language --

came from the time of
the residence in school,

the first time it was introduced, --

not only the Cree
but the many tribes themselves.

When they took away the children, --

they took the children away
from the land, --

the language, their ancestors,

their grandfathers, their grandmothers,

their teachers, their parents,
their aunts and uncles.

That's when the separation happened.

They broke that connection.

So when he took us away,

they severed that connection
to all of those things.

We were taught a foreign way of thinking that was programmed as a child now I have to deprogram myself sometimes referred to as decolonization as they gave us that colonize mentality and it just did not fit with our paradigm how we saw our place in creation.

at some point somebody's got to wake up.

somebody gotta say hey there's something wrong here this is the time that's why we're here to wake the people up the weak ourselves up.

to be the guiding light you know there is a different way so it's about connection that's what was severed in the time of the residential school.

we lost connection to our spirit it replace the Creator outside of us instead of it here.

we're trying to mend that rift.

that's what you did that rift that was caught you trying here to stitch as bringing those two worldviews but to where they start respecting her we decree way.

when you have love when you feel love and somebody tells you something that your spirit is looking to hear flake welcome home what do you feel it right here you're connecting.

you'll always have that sense of belonging because you come home so once you come home you know where to come next time you know what they're wondering they have connection there you've made some connections already here they're no longer disconnected.

I left my conversation with John feeling like I belong in a way that I've never felt before.

it was an incredibly powerful experience that made me feel more connected to my spirit.

tell me again like your your family story with with wall bisca.

My mother grew up there my father grew up and grew hard a couple hours away and she didn't want to raise me on reserve.

So as soon as they found out about me they moved away.

And when we move to him and ten through the teen years through my adult years that's when the reconnection really started to happen going home more happen before that I would only visit like holidays few times a year.

dusty Legrand is the creator of the clothing label mobilize Wasco Whelan.

Using the ancient writing system of Cree syllabics and his designs he's making the language visible to a new generation.

yeah so this was the it has the yeah the different languages tribes of the north mm-hmm.

yeah tells the story of a bunch of people and is really special to hear like the feedback from from different people that had never seen their nation represented on a policy.

And there were certain people that they had just this was like their first time they're like I'm just buying this just because I've never seen my nation represented and then put revolution down the arm just just a lot of know what's going on.

I've been always wanting to create a closing ground so to be able to create something that can empower indigenous youth and educate them on the indigenous history on the future values and what it means to be indigenous.

so mobilize was a way that I could give voice to the voiceless.

I could give a voice to the youth.

To do it in a different way than I had seen being done it was very important to me.

To do it completely different to represent the keep people to represent the different people to represent everybody that's ostracized that way and especially as indigenous people like that's been done to us.

okay so this is the first drawing of this shirt.

So a lot of like the pieces will come and they'll come at certain times when I'm driving when I'm listening to certain things.

And they'll come and if I don't write it the way it's supposed to be the idea won't stay.

I want to try to encompass all of Canada and I'm gonna try to reach his as many as I can.

So for me this was like a lot of studying a lot of research to try to see as far east as I could go and see what nations are there.

And that's what it is special about the language I find is that the stories and the purpose and everything exists within the language.

That's in kind of a place that it's been locked and it remains.

And even though the assimilation has taken a lot of like our connection to community our ceremonies our practices the language has kept all of that.

How did you get the decree word
yes well the the Cree word is on the back

of this one here okay.

so it I just keep it as like mobilized is the English version and then Wasco Whelan M which is the Cree word for movement is the key element that comes in

mobilized and have a translation but I also didn't want to just translate mobilise

I wanted to use movement as a as the word.

So one thing that I really liked about the word was Kui when was was the the presence of the triangular symbols and for me he's represented like two teepees and represented the tribe that way.

Being apart of Reubens class was really special to understand the fundamentals of and to learn the history of the star chart and to learn the history of syllabics.

And yeah I was like learning indigenous history through the through the spirit mechanism that's a it was really special.

He kind of just takes you back and he tells you the stories and he takes you through a journey through story of the significance of the numbers of the grandfather directions the grandmother directions.

yeah he knew.

and what what does that mean you.

it's a collapsed word you know actually is the way I'd say it you know see.

from what I understand talk a little bit about colonization and taking over lands the lands of original people

what I understand first thing you got to do is you got to get rid of those peoples deity that name and replace it with yours when you're colonizing people.

so our name for nihilo people was ie and we have a different paradigm as far as a dogma is concerned.

you are is I am is so a diminutive of ie so is II know so that's it yeah so that's it's a

but it this is a collapse version of that you know II knew ya

o3d is until this Goodell

fantastic so we have a relationship with the earth and that relationship is that we relate to her as mother.

so she when she brings forth those different people that plant the plant people the different once that's soggy bug all coming order the trees out of the grass.

And so she's showing us what love is.

It's a it's practical.

So she'll give us all of this.

We will be nurtured by it the dandelion somewhere and different grasses.

The four-legged people will eat from it from that.

We will in turn get our sustenance from the four-legged people but she's giving us all of that showing us that love.

now soggy is the morpheme of that word.

And if I were to say to you I love you I would say it soggyt didn't.

Some people say key soggy it didn't and and I say kissaki it didn't.

that's how I've been taught Kisaragi it then I love you or you are loved by me.

so that's a good word to learn to say to your to your loved ones.

That's one of the only if.

that's one of the only words that I know to say to my partner.

yes and see how that it's coming into bloom it's gonna start blossoming it'll continue to grow and then it'll go through its cycle just like we will come into a relationship with others.

yeah cuz I know just this really sticks out to me when I got to when I came here last summer as a special place not only Amy's piece but the other artwork and it's kind of perch over the river.

when did you begin learning about Slovaks and the spirit marker system.

when we were liberated from residential school probably 1970 or 71 I don't remember.

I was just young and the late Rosana whole and late Caroline hunter would come in and teach us about them me and my peers.

so that's when I started learning the system that I was that I know about.

And into a soul mate so simply for me to learn it that I pass it on the weight I was taught to me and I guarantee that people will master that writing system.

So always tell us tell the ones that are coming in to learn like this

take your page and go to the center I tell them that's where we're gonna start off

because we're used to writing from the top to the right left to right left to right

but in this one it's you go from the center and you start from inside.

So there's the center there I'll go to left the center and right the first one and that's this one here.

This one is a phonetic language.

So that one says ah.

And it's all sort of sound the first sound that people will make when they're when they're praying and worshiping.

they'll say something like ah you say I'm on earth or

they'll describe that Supreme Being and the supreme beings name this part of this as well ah

i'm summonin will say ah ma ma da oui ma describing again.

they'll endear themselves to that Supreme Being by calling that Supreme Being father of all

ah mom won't bow mo

So I say ah hi and recognition nurse you me and the Supreme Being.

I love people say hi hi that's why that's probably how you've heard it quite a bit.

So it I don't near says ah this one says baa there's that poppet.

So who's ah ba la and there's fordham like I said going off into the east Miki nice ET wreath

and there's seven of them like I said there's seven tectonic plates going off into the South is the same vowel sound and then into the southwest

this what I like to call the anomaly

it's a a balsamic yeah man yeah say yeah yeah

a vowel sound ooh

and thank you dr. James McCool cos for correcting me on that

I used to go all borrowing from English

he said it oh isn't it ooh and I said yeah that's right boo boo - Lulla.

and then they're smaller smaller and these are way smaller than the big ones big spirit marker

small spirit markers here to complete the what dr. Marilyn shirt has called the star chart.

So the one I talked told you

kissaki hittin that's how you are loved by me or I love you

you suck yeah then yeah okay I guess I did it then

so that's the writing system there.

my hope is that it will help to instill pride and those for those young people Missy not like

because this is a racist country and it was born out of racism

and of course racism disconnects people this one connects us from exes

And all all have access to whatever whatever ethnicity or from yeah we all have that it all makes sense to everybody it can make sense to everyone and we can start connecting.

what they taught us in the residential schools is that we were worth worth less then than Europeans

and this one teaches us that Papa went deeper on measured will have the same measurements as far as humanity our DNA says that we're all the same.

I want to thank you so much for sharing about this because I can see the the brilliance and sophistication lifts within this the way you've you know shown and explained

and it piques my interest and makes me want to learn more it makes me want to move out here so I could take one of your classes.

yeah

thank you so much for sharing this.

honor and a privilege.