[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 (...?) gathering I say it in Cree.