Carrying the torch
Tehya Milliea is part of a new generation of Mi’kmaq people keeping their language alive
BIBLE HILL, N.S. – For Tehya Milliea, speaking the Mi’kmaq language is both a matter of pride and a way of keeping her grandmother’s memory alive.
Milliea’s pride in her heritage was on full display at the Mawio’mi held at the Nova Scotia Community College last week, when she danced in full regalia.
“My grandmother taught me all about respect and our culture; she’s how I got started and she gave me my first regalia,” said Milliea, of Millbrook First Nation. “I would tell her that I love her and I’d thank her for teaching me everything that I know about my culture.”
Before s he passed away, Muriel Denny often spoke Mi’kmaq to Milliea during childhood. She also learned the basics of Mi’kmaq culture, such as the importance of honouring elders and never wasting food.
Now a student at Truro Junior High, Milliea is no longer quite as fluent in Mi’kmaq. She said her parents often speak it with her, “especially when they’re getting mad at me.”
Despite racist taunts she received from other children when she was younger, Milliea said, “I’m very proud to be a Mi’kmaq.”
Milliea is making an effort to renew knowledge of her ancestral language, helped by her aunt Mary Sylliboy.
Sylliboy came to watch her niece perform at the Jan. 29 Mawio’mi. Another legacy of Milliea’s grandmother is a close relationship she enjoys with Sylliboy and her other aunts.
Sylliboy said her own grandchildren have a good role model in Milliea, saying “the pride lives inside.”
“I’m excited for them, that they want to learn the language,” said Sylliboy of Milliea’s generation. “Mi’kmaq is a very beautiful language. It’s very animated and for them to pick it up is amazing.”
Plenty of Mi’kmaq was spoken at the Mawio’mi, which attracted hundreds of spectators from all backgrounds. In the Mi’kmaq language, the word “mawio’mi” means “gathering” and is a major social event, similar to powwows held by First Nations groups.
Announcements at the Mawio’mi were made in both Mi’kmaq and English.
Efforts to revitalize the Mi’kmaq language were on display, not just in Truro but across Nova Scotia. Shelley Young, who attended the Mawio’mi from her home of Eskasoni First Nation in Cape Breton, said she has heard the Mi’kmaq language spoken in communities across Nova Scotia. At home, she speaks it fluently with her parents.
“I feel like it’s our sacred responsibility to learn and keep the language,” Young said, before hurrying off to another Mawio’mi dance.
Eskasoni is Nova Scotia’s largest First Nation. In 2017, its chief, Leroy Denny, expressed the hope of Mi’kmaq becoming one of Nova Scotia’s official languages.
According to the 2016 federal census, 34,130 Nova Scotians claimed an ethnic Mi’kmaq identity. Of these, 4,340 said the Mi’kmaq language was their mother tongue. This figure climbs to just over 5,500 when respondents were asked about their knowledge of the language.
In the 2006 census, 4,925 Nova Scotians said they spoke Mi’kmaq.