WEBVTT
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♪[Music]♪
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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 '60s 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.
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 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 playing.
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 --
00:15:55.143 --> 00:16:00.096
but to where they start
respecting our way,
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the Cree way.
00:16:03.404 --> 00:16:06.340
When you have love, when you feel love --
00:16:07.821 --> 00:16:12.328
and somebody tells you something
that your spirit is looking to hear
00:16:12.489 --> 00:16:14.242
like, "Welcome home."
00:16:14.242 --> 00:16:15.830
Where do you feel it?
00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:19.227
Right here. You're connecting.
00:16:19.505 --> 00:16:21.834
You'll always have
that sense of belonging --
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because you come home. Yeah.
00:16:25.875 --> 00:16:28.317
So once you come home,
you know where to come
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next time you're out there, wandering, --
00:16:30.929 --> 00:16:34.522
you have a connection there.
00:16:34.626 --> 00:16:37.263
You've made some connections already here.
00:16:38.782 --> 00:16:40.365
You're no longer disconnected.
00:16:41.944 --> 00:16:45.368
I left my conversation with John
feeling like I belong
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in a way that I've never felt before.
00:16:48.794 --> 00:16:50.816
It was an incredibly
powerful experience
00:16:50.816 --> 00:16:54.032
that made me feel more
connected to my spirit.
00:16:57.835 --> 00:17:02.606
Tell me again, like,
your family story with Wabasca.
00:17:02.830 --> 00:17:06.280
My mother grew up there,
my father grew up in Grouard, --
00:17:07.304 --> 00:17:08.430
a couple hours away,
00:17:08.430 --> 00:17:11.066
and she didn't want
to raise me on the reserve.
00:17:11.197 --> 00:17:13.963
So as soon as they found out
about me, they moved away.
00:17:14.254 --> 00:17:16.355
And when we move to Edmonton,
through the teen years,
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through my adult years, that's when
the reconnection really started to happen,
00:17:19.446 --> 00:17:20.948
going home more happen.
00:17:21.075 --> 00:17:25.332
Before that, I would only visit,
like, holidays, few times a year.
00:17:27.167 --> 00:17:32.262
Dusty Legrand is the creator of
the clothing label Mobilize Waskawēwin.
00:17:32.662 --> 00:17:36.387
Using the ancient writing system
of Cree syllabics and his designs,
00:17:36.579 --> 00:17:39.378
he's making the language
visible to a new generation.
00:17:42.066 --> 00:17:43.815
Yeah, so this was the --
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- it has the --
- Oh yeah,
00:17:47.471 --> 00:17:51.227
the different languages,
tribes of the north.
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Yeah, it tells the story of --
00:17:53.882 --> 00:17:55.759
a bunch of people.
And it was really special to hear, like,
00:17:55.759 --> 00:17:58.623
the feedback from different people
that had never seen
00:17:58.623 --> 00:18:01.055
their nation represented on a ....
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There were certain people that;
this was like their first time.
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They're like, "I'm just buying this just because
I've never seen my nation represented."
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.
00:18:12.206 --> 00:18:13.303
[Laughs]
00:18:14.104 --> 00:18:15.782
I've been always wanting
to create a clothing brand.
00:18:15.782 --> 00:18:19.507
So to be able to create something that
can empower indigenous youth
00:18:19.507 --> 00:18:22.749
and educate them
on the indigenous history,
00:18:22.749 --> 00:18:27.300
on the future, on values
and what it means to be indigenous.
00:18:28.998 --> 00:18:32.833
So Mobilize was a way that
I could give voice to the voiceless.
00:18:33.130 --> 00:18:34.856
I could give a voice to the youth.
00:18:35.017 --> 00:18:37.884
To do it in a different way
than I had seen being done, --
00:18:38.481 --> 00:18:39.899
it was very important to me.
00:18:39.971 --> 00:18:41.995
To do it completely different,
00:18:41.995 --> 00:18:45.399
to represent the funky people,
to represent the different people,
00:18:45.399 --> 00:18:48.628
to represent everybody
that's ostracized that way
00:18:48.628 --> 00:18:51.695
and especially as indigenous people,
like, that's been done to us.
00:18:52.786 --> 00:18:53.725
Okay.
00:18:53.725 --> 00:18:58.963
So this is the first drawing of this shirt.
00:18:59.109 --> 00:19:02.390
So, a lot of, like, the pieces will come,
00:19:02.390 --> 00:19:04.743
and they'll come at certain times,
when I'm driving,
00:19:04.743 --> 00:19:06.437
when I'm listening to certain things.
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,
00:19:09.125 --> 00:19:10.634
the idea won't stay.
00:19:11.266 --> 00:19:14.334
I want to try to encompass all of Canada
00:19:14.334 --> 00:19:17.218
and I'm gonna try to reach
as many as I can.
00:19:17.218 --> 00:19:20.156
So for me this was like a lot of studying,
00:19:20.156 --> 00:19:24.849
a lot of research to try to see
as far east as I could go
00:19:24.849 --> 00:19:26.717
and see what nations are there.
00:19:27.073 --> 00:19:29.247
And that's what is special
about the language I find.
00:19:29.247 --> 00:19:36.206
It's that the stories, and the purpose,
and everything exists within the language.
00:19:36.206 --> 00:19:38.695
That's in kind of a place
that it's been locked.
00:19:38.695 --> 00:19:41.445
And it remains, and even though --
00:19:41.833 --> 00:19:44.450
the assimilation
has taken a lot of, like, --
00:19:44.647 --> 00:19:49.350
our connection to community,
our ceremonies, our practices.
00:19:49.350 --> 00:19:51.457
The language has kept all of that.
00:19:52.395 --> 00:19:54.138
How did you get the Cree word?
00:19:54.138 --> 00:19:58.103
Yes, well, the Cree word is
on the back of this one here.
00:19:58.297 --> 00:19:59.103
Okay.
00:20:00.270 --> 00:20:03.817
So I just keep it as like Mobilize
is the English version
00:20:03.817 --> 00:20:05.310
and then Waskawēwin,
00:20:05.648 --> 00:20:09.536
which is the Cree word for movement,
is the Cree element that comes in.
00:20:11.074 --> 00:20:14.631
Mobilize didn't have a translation.
00:20:15.141 --> 00:20:18.228
But I also didn't want to
just translate mobilize,
00:20:18.228 --> 00:20:21.784
I wanted to use movement
as the word.
00:20:22.113 --> 00:20:25.162
So one thing that I really liked
about the word waskawēwin
00:20:25.611 --> 00:20:28.648
was the presence of
the triangular symbols,
00:20:28.648 --> 00:20:31.824
and for me these represented,
like, two tipis
00:20:32.241 --> 00:20:34.297
and kind of represented
the tribe that way.
00:20:34.442 --> 00:20:37.103
Being a part of Reuben's class
was really special to understand
00:20:37.103 --> 00:20:40.812
the fundamentals of and to learn
the history of the star chart
00:20:40.812 --> 00:20:43.178
and to learn the history of syllabics.
00:20:43.494 --> 00:20:45.793
Yeah, it was like learning
indigenous history
00:20:45.793 --> 00:20:47.854
through the spirit mechanism.
00:20:47.854 --> 00:20:49.548
That was really special.
00:20:49.548 --> 00:20:52.319
He kind of just takes you back
and he tells you the stories.
00:20:52.598 --> 00:20:55.445
And he takes you
through a journey through story
00:20:55.635 --> 00:20:59.547
of the significance of the numbers
of the grandfather directions,
00:20:59.547 --> 00:21:01.095
the grandmother directions.
00:21:12.673 --> 00:21:14.683
Yeah, înîw.
00:21:17.545 --> 00:21:20.358
And what does that mean, înîw?
00:21:20.482 --> 00:21:22.475
It's a collapsed word.
00:21:23.239 --> 00:21:26.861
... actually is the way it's said.
00:21:31.544 --> 00:21:33.448
From what I understand; --
00:21:35.076 --> 00:21:37.798
talk a little bit about colonization --
00:21:38.808 --> 00:21:42.949
and taking over lands,
the lands of original people; --
00:21:43.308 --> 00:21:46.044
what I understand,
first thing you got to do is
00:21:46.044 --> 00:21:49.412
you got to get rid of
those people's deity, the name,
00:21:49.412 --> 00:21:52.780
and replace it with yours
when you're colonizing people.
00:21:53.685 --> 00:21:58.735
So our dename for Néhiyaw people was aî, --
00:21:59.369 --> 00:22:05.083
and we have a different paradigm
as far as a dogma is concerned.
00:22:06.652 --> 00:22:10.193
You are aîs, I am aîs,
00:22:10.193 --> 00:22:12.746
so a diminutive of aî.
00:22:13.270 --> 00:22:16.679
So aîsînîw.
00:22:20.363 --> 00:22:25.665
But this is a collapsed version
of that ??? înîw.
00:22:29.703 --> 00:22:32.520
o3d ???
00:22:37.495 --> 00:22:39.051
Fantastic.
00:22:41.754 --> 00:22:44.562
So we have a relationship with the earth,
00:22:44.893 --> 00:22:50.346
and that relationship is that
we relate to her as mother.
00:22:51.531 --> 00:22:58.249
So she when she brings forth
those different people --
00:22:59.439 --> 00:23:01.906
the plant people, the different ones,
00:23:01.906 --> 00:23:06.203
that's ??? coming
out of the trees, out of the grass.
00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:09.342
And so she's showing us what love is.
00:23:10.666 --> 00:23:12.602
It's practical.
00:23:12.891 --> 00:23:14.718
So she'll give us all of this.
00:23:15.232 --> 00:23:17.778
We will be nurtured by it.
00:23:18.415 --> 00:23:23.689
The dandelion somewhere
and different grasses.
00:23:23.689 --> 00:23:27.353
The four-legged people will eat from that.
00:23:27.353 --> 00:23:33.123
We will, in turn, get our sustenance
from the four-legged people,
00:23:33.123 --> 00:23:36.874
but she's giving us all of that,
showing us that love.
00:23:36.874 --> 00:23:42.416
Now, ??? is the morpheme of that word.
00:23:42.496 --> 00:23:48.050
And if I were to say to you,
"I love you," I would say ???.
00:23:49.258 --> 00:23:52.070
Some people say ???,
00:23:52.499 --> 00:23:55.517
and I say ???.
00:23:55.736 --> 00:23:58.744
That's how I've been taught: ???.
00:23:58.744 --> 00:24:01.362
I love you or you are loved by me.
00:24:01.855 --> 00:24:08.138
So that's a good word to learn
to say to your loved ones.
00:24:10.575 --> 00:24:13.763
That's one of the only words
that I know to say to my partner.
00:24:13.763 --> 00:24:14.763
[Laughs]
00:24:15.939 --> 00:24:19.671
Yes, and see how that
it's coming into bloom.
00:24:20.156 --> 00:24:22.046
It's gonna start blossoming.
00:24:22.046 --> 00:24:26.391
It'll continue to grow and then
it'll go through its cycle, --
00:24:26.752 --> 00:24:32.118
just like we will come into
a relationship with others.
00:24:38.956 --> 00:24:42.820
This really sticks out to me,
when I came here last summer, --
00:24:44.616 --> 00:24:45.632
as a special place.
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.
00:25:01.698 --> 00:25:09.603
When did you begin learning about
syllabics and the spirit marker system?
00:25:10.521 --> 00:25:13.189
When we were liberated
from residential school,
00:25:13.189 --> 00:25:16.986
probably 1970 or 1971,
I don't remember.
00:25:17.177 --> 00:25:18.281
I was just young.
00:25:18.677 --> 00:25:23.455
and the late Rosana Hole and
late Caroline Hunter would come in
00:25:23.455 --> 00:25:27.175
and teach us about them, me and my peers.
00:25:28.970 --> 00:25:33.023
So that's when I started learning
the system that I know about.
00:25:33.389 --> 00:25:38.543
And it was made so simply
for me to learn it --
00:25:38.950 --> 00:25:42.395
that I passed it on
the way that was taught to me,
00:25:42.395 --> 00:25:49.757
and I guarantee that people
will master that writing system.
00:25:54.527 --> 00:25:59.271
I always tell the ones
that are coming in to learn,
00:26:01.979 --> 00:26:04.124
"Take your page and go to the center."
00:26:04.124 --> 00:26:06.188
I tell them, "That's where
we're gonna start off."
00:26:06.188 --> 00:26:09.841
because we're used to writing
from the top to the right,
00:26:09.841 --> 00:26:11.692
left to right, left to right.
00:26:12.434 --> 00:26:13.646
But in this one, --
00:26:14.784 --> 00:26:18.505
you go from the center
and you start from inside.
00:26:18.571 --> 00:26:20.142
So there's the center there.
00:26:20.142 --> 00:26:23.343
I'll go left of center
and write the first one, --
00:26:24.282 --> 00:26:25.920
and that's this one here.
00:26:27.576 --> 00:26:29.611
This one is a phonetic language.
00:26:29.834 --> 00:26:32.066
So that one says ah.
00:26:33.264 --> 00:26:35.868
And it's also the sound.
00:26:36.782 --> 00:26:39.922
The first sound that people will make --
00:26:42.842 --> 00:26:45.869
when they're praying and worshiping.
00:26:46.285 --> 00:26:50.179
They'll say something like, "ah ???."
00:26:50.474 --> 00:26:54.469
They'll describe that supreme being --
00:26:54.922 --> 00:27:00.133
and the supreme being's name,
this part of this as well. ā.
00:27:00.810 --> 00:27:05.027
Ā someone then will say, "???", --
00:27:05.771 --> 00:27:07.057
describing again.
00:27:08.976 --> 00:27:12.236
They'll endear themselves
to that supreme being
00:27:12.236 --> 00:27:15.453
by calling that supreme being father of all.
00:27:15.453 --> 00:27:18.359
Ā ???.
00:27:18.590 --> 00:27:24.581
So I say, "???" in recognition.
There's you, me and the supreme being.
00:27:24.686 --> 00:27:26.121
???.
00:27:26.121 --> 00:27:28.303
A lot of people say, "???"
00:27:28.303 --> 00:27:31.486
That's what I've learned.
That's probably how you've heard it quite a bit.
00:27:31.486 --> 00:27:35.413
So that one near says, "???",
this one says "???"
00:27:35.413 --> 00:27:37.462
There's that ???.
00:27:38.668 --> 00:27:41.702
So who's ah ba la
00:27:43.117 --> 00:27:46.649
And there's four of them, like I said,
going off into the east:
00:27:46.649 --> 00:27:50.219
Miki nice ET wreath
00:27:50.219 --> 00:27:54.041
And there's seven of them, like I said.
There's seven tectonic plates --
00:27:54.862 --> 00:27:58.667
going off into the south,
is the same vowel sound.
00:27:58.802 --> 00:28:03.696
And then into the southwest,
there's what I like to call the anomaly.
00:28:04.290 --> 00:28:05.876
It's a a vowel sound.
00:28:05.876 --> 00:28:16.374
???
00:28:16.764 --> 00:28:18.626
A vowel sound ooh.
00:28:18.626 --> 00:28:23.018
And thank you Dr. James Makokis
for correcting me on that.
00:28:23.018 --> 00:28:27.480
I used to go o, borrowing from English.
00:28:28.551 --> 00:28:31.052
He said that, "Oh isn't it ooh?"
00:28:31.052 --> 00:28:35.254
and I said, "Hey yeah, that's right."
???.
00:28:36.979 --> 00:28:39.026
And then they're smaller --
00:28:41.586 --> 00:28:45.512
and these are way smaller
than the big ones, big spirit markers,
00:28:45.512 --> 00:28:47.618
small spirit markers here.
00:28:49.089 --> 00:28:50.340
To complete --
00:28:53.518 --> 00:28:59.586
what Dr. Marilyn Shirt
has called the star chart.
00:29:03.749 --> 00:29:06.570
So the one I told you --
00:29:20.568 --> 00:29:23.517
??? --
00:29:24.478 --> 00:29:29.686
that's, "You are loved by me or I love you."
00:29:30.618 --> 00:29:31.618
???
00:29:32.272 --> 00:29:35.229
Yeah, ???
00:29:38.059 --> 00:29:40.207
So that's the writing system there.
00:29:40.963 --> 00:29:45.250
My hope is that it will help
to instill pride in those --
00:29:45.705 --> 00:29:49.580
for those young people --
00:29:49.866 --> 00:29:52.550
because this is a racist country --
00:29:53.686 --> 00:29:56.431
and it was born out of racism.
00:29:57.067 --> 00:30:00.705
And of course racism disconnects people.
00:30:01.329 --> 00:30:02.902
This one connects us.
00:30:04.432 --> 00:30:07.282
And all have access to it, --
00:30:08.660 --> 00:30:11.890
whatever ethnicity you are from.
00:30:13.271 --> 00:30:15.256
It all makes sense to everybody.
00:30:15.256 --> 00:30:19.508
It can make sense to everyone
and we can start connecting.
00:30:22.176 --> 00:30:25.223
What they taught us
in the residential schools
00:30:25.223 --> 00:30:32.255
is that we were worth less than Europeans.
00:30:33.271 --> 00:30:37.652
And this one teaches us that ??? --
00:30:40.895 --> 00:30:45.209
will have the same measurements
as far as humanity.
00:30:45.209 --> 00:30:48.591
Our DNA says that we're all the same.
00:30:53.898 --> 00:30:58.265
I want to thank you so much
for sharing about this because --
00:30:59.054 --> 00:31:02.827
I can see the the brilliance
and sophistication --
00:31:03.744 --> 00:31:09.435
within the way you've shown and explained,
00:31:09.813 --> 00:31:13.279
and it piques my interest
and makes me want to learn more.
00:31:13.279 --> 00:31:16.489
It makes me want to move out here
so I could take one of your classes.
00:31:16.489 --> 00:31:17.705
Yeah.
00:31:20.272 --> 00:31:22.078
Thank you so much for sharing this.
00:31:22.861 --> 00:31:24.404
An honor and a privilege.
00:31:26.872 --> 00:31:27.902
♪[Music]♪