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[Music]

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I'm fascinated with the way language

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is central to our world view 
as indigenous people.

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I'm a Naheo 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

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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

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about our Cree family because 
she was adopted out at birth

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as part of the '60s scoop.

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Twelve years ago, 
we met our Cree family,

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and since then I have been

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in a process of connecting 
with the community

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in Wabasca, Alberta, 
the place where my kokum,

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my grandmother Florence, 
was born.

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I recently met Nora Yellowmee,
an administrator

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at the local school,
Oski Pskiknowew 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, 
Florence.

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and her mother is Isabelle, and then,

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

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(Narrator) Um, Fancine.

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(Nora) Your first cousins or

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second cousins.
(Narrator) Ok.

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

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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) Yea, that's Isabelle.

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Nohkom Isabelle.

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

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

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hear about this, and 
talk about it

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it's going to stick and 
I know

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I'll 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

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our people who speak 
the language, speak it

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everyday, because we are not getting that.

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There are many Cree speakers working here,

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but they are not speaking it.

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For people, the young families now
the young mothers

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speak Cree to their children

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and all the rest of it all follow.

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Seeing a photo of my kukom Florence

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as a young woman 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

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has allowed me to connect 
deeper with my ancestors

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There is so much more to discover

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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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The reason that I do these things,

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like the coming of age because

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it's also my responsibility 
as a Naheo School

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to protect the children,

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

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we need to teach them those protocols.

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We need to teach those values.

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They need to know them so that they don't

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end up getting hurt in the future.

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And that shame of our language

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and who we are, and our ceremonial ways.

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Losing those has caused big destruction

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in our communities

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Because our children, 
as they're growing up,

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they know who they are,

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they came with the gift 
of knowing who they are.

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I have a responsibility to 
pass those teachings

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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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(Singing and drums)

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

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young manhood and young womanhood.

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I want to thank you and honor you for

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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

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as part of us, Naheo school.

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

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and always accept yourself for who you are

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and honor 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 honor to have you

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as a young Naheo iskwew (?),

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A young Naheo woman. Welcome.

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(children talking)

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(Lorraine) 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 and that

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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 that

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they're important 
and they'll start feeling

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good about themselves.

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

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(Narrator) 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? 
How do you feel about

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the future of the language in these

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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. 
We just need to do it.

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John Bigstone is a Wabiskaw elder

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

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

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(...?) coming back to the language 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 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 yur 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, 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 if this 
understanding of spirit

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It happens in spirit

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

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That's a deeper teaching.

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But the reality is (that) everyone 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 (...?) 
gathering I say it in Cree.