Ojibwe lesson
Examiner reporter joins in on Ojibwe language class
National Aboriginal Day marked
BOOzhOO (HellO). Galen Ndi zhnikaaz. (My name is Galen).
PeterbOrOugh NdOOn Jibaa. (I am frOm PeterbOrOugh).
The Examiner Ndi nOkii. (I wOrk at The Examiner). Enwek na gO? (HOw are yOu)? Ndi gchi nendam maa yaa yaan. (I am happy tO be here). Miigwetch. (Thank yOu). Nga waabmin minwaa. (See yOu again).
It’s one thing to write Anishinaabemowin, the Ojibwe language, using a handy cheat sheet. But don’t ask me to pronounce it.
As Curve Lake elder and public school board language instructor Merritt Taylor informed me Thursday, the Ojibwe language is one of the hardest forms of communication to master in the world.
When Taylor, 61, was growing up, Anishinaabemowin was the prominent language in Curve Lake and Hiawatha First Nations. Today, it’s a language mostly persevered by elders.
One of the many shameful legacies of the residential school system was the systematic effort to destroy aboriginal culture and language. It was horrifyingly effective. Native languages were nearly lost to an entire generation of Canada’s aboriginal peoples. As Taylor points out, there are few Curve Lake residents today between the ages of 30 and 50 who can fluently speak Anishinaabemowin.
Taylor remembers attending school in Grade 1 to be told he couldn’t use his mother tongue. The state threatened to remove children from homes where the Ojibwe language was nurtured, he added.
“The teachers punished us,” he said. “They literally strapped us, hit us, made us ashamed of speaking that way.”
And, as he points out, the language and the culture are one and the same thing.
“It’s everything. It tells us who we are. It defines how you go about life. It’s the glue that puts everything together,” he said.
But something amazing is occurring. The words Taylor grew up speaking are gradually beginning to return to Curve Lake, spoken by the community’s next generation, its youth.
Taylor beams with pride as he talks about exchanging words with his grandchildren. “It’s great,” he said. His daughter Emma, a 31-yearold lawyer who works for the Ministry of Natural Resources aboriginal policy branch, understands the language, but isn’t bilingual, she said.
Her children, three and five, are learning it and she hopes to keep their passion for it alive.
“There is not the same level of fluency in my generation but there are efforts and commitments to keep it strong,” she said. “Part of our culture and ceremonies is really grounded in the language, so it’s important to have that knowledge.”
Emma and her father offered a free Ojibwe language clinic Thursday at the Robinson Place provincial government building on Water St. as part of celebrations for National Aboriginal Day. About 25 people, mostly non-native, took part.
The MNR aboriginal policy branch welcomed ministry employees and the public in a celebration that included the Métis Fiddler Quartet, the Armour Hill Singers, a Métis jigging and clogging workshop, traditional dancing, and displays from Curve Lake, Alderville, and Hiawatha First Nations, the Nogojiwanong Friendship Centre, the Anishinabek/ Ontario Resource Management Council, Petroglyphs Provincial Park and interactive displays on wild rice and maple syrup.
Hiawatha Chief Greg Cowie said he’s buoyed by efforts in his own community to rejuvenate the native language.
The 53-year-old doesn’t speak the language himself, but his children are beginning to and that bodes well for the future, he said.
“I don’t think I’m as worried as I was five or ten years ago. With the introduction of the language in schools, that’s coming back. The younger generation are learning it and you’re hearing it more and more in the community,” he said. “The hardest part is a lot of our parents don’t have that, so we have to try to bring that up. Just like any language, if you have it and you can’t practice it at home, it makes it difficult.”
The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board offers Ojibwe language programs at Ridpath Junior Public School in Lakefield, North Shore Public School in Keene and Roseneath Centennial Public School as well as Lakefield District Secondary School and Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School. Classes can also be taken Monday nights as part of its continuing education programing at the former PCVS building.
Board-wide, 175 students are taking Ojibwe language studies.
“It’s desperately i mportant to save the language,” Curve Lake Chief Phyllis Williams said. “Our language is so beautiful. It’s so descriptive. When I speak in my language, it’s almost like you see colours, you see pictures.”
In addition to offering more exposure to the community’s youth, Williams said there is a social movement within the community to get the middle generations back into the fray.
“If we don’t take those measures locally, we will soon lose our language. I don’t see it happening for us. I’m optimistic. We have a good circle of people who do speak it and they appreciate that we are in the midst of losing it or at least that it’s diminishing,” she said.
Cowie said Hiawatha First Nation council is considering options to make the community more bilingual, starting with traffic signage.
“That way we can practice it just coming up to a stop sign,” he said. “That’s what it’s going to take to bring it back to life.”
NOTE: Canada’s National Aboriginal Day is annually held on June 21 to celebrate the unique heritage, diverse cultures, and outstanding achievements of the nation’s aboriginal peoples — the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.
National Aboriginal Day:
Photograph from local celebration.