I replay the words in my mind. The ones I have. The few. I make up an introduction. A greeting. I repeat. Repeat. Repeat. It echoes down. Hollow empty into some far away cavern.
I can feel the barriers in my mind. The chains of assimilation weaved with such intricacy, billions and beyond of cables and wires and nerve endings twisted and connected and firing one into another.
I had a dream in the language. It was as simple as breathing. The work of manifesting dream into reality is somewhere between learning to swim and learning to breath underwater.
The Ease of English. The numbing narcotic ease of the english world. The blaring, demanding white bleating bleach. The tsunami of language and culture that is swallowing up the whole world.
Go with the wave. Go with the flow. Go with the wave. Go with the flow.
Go with the wave. Until we are all washed away.
I've come to understand the complexity within the few words that I have. A mastery of Tansi would be an accomplishment. It is "Hello" and it is "How are you?" It is inflection and connection.
I smoked fish this week. I am idle no more and continue to seek out and practice our oldways wherever possible.
I was repeating my words and I paused on Fish. My mother had told me in a story and as the story unfolded the word Kinehsayou came quickly. Embedded in the story.
The language is in the story. The story is in the language.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
The words I know. As best as I can spell them.
Tansi - Hello
Tansi - How are you
Niminoyan - I am well
Moe nan doe -No problem
Ni - I
Ni Na - I am
Ni Na Napayo - I am Man, I am The Man
Kinimah - Who are you?
Key Gon - What is it?
Mootz - No
Eh huh - Yes
Mootz Kistanstan - I don't know. I don't understand
Ashtum - Come here
Kinesayou - Fish
Ota - Here
Neta - There
Awahs - Go away
Tansi - How are you
Niminoyan - I am well
Moe nan doe -No problem
Ni - I
Ni Na - I am
Ni Na Napayo - I am Man, I am The Man
Kinimah - Who are you?
Key Gon - What is it?
Mootz - No
Eh huh - Yes
Mootz Kistanstan - I don't know. I don't understand
Ashtum - Come here
Kinesayou - Fish
Ota - Here
Neta - There
Awahs - Go away
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Ashtum Kinesayew - There's an App for that
There are an incredible wealth of online resources for the Cree language. There is even an APP for that. The Cree dictionary is at the APP store for Iphone. So that forced me to actually set up an Apple ID account. I tried in the past but became so frustrated with the signing in process I gave up. Then everytime I tried to finish the registration process, I always ran into hurdles and I would give up. I'm not technologically challenged in anyway. I just don't have much desire to further digitize my life. I feel my relationship with my Iphone is already unhealthy. So I tried a few times to download APPS that then required me to reset my Apple ID and then I wouldn't. I cannot remember what the APPs were that I wanted to download.
The thing is I didn't care enough to download APPs or iTunes or anything. After awhile I just ignored, denied or not allowed any requests to download any APP's. Now, I've done it, I wanted to check out the Cree Dictionary APP and so I went through the rigamarole of resetting my Apple ID. It was worth it. It's a pretty cool gadget. I called my Mom and check a few words. They didn't all match, but she said it was still a good thing. "People who speak Cree can figure out what words mean."
I told her that I was planning on smoking some fish. "The Sugar Shack is going to be a Smoke Shack for a couple of days." I asked her how to say Fish. "Geego", they say out here in Ojibway land, I'm thinking, I wonder how close the words are to each other. In Cree, we say "SeeSeeb" for duck, the Ojibways in this territory say, "Sheesheeb". Just like we say, "Soonyah" for money and they say "Zhoonya". In this case it wasn't that close. "Kinsayew", says mom. I repeat. She repeats. I repeat.
"That's it," she says.
She is reminded of a story with her granddaughters. "The twins were little. Their dad had taken them to Lockport to some fishing along the riverbank. I told them. "You have to call the fish." I said, "Ashtum Kinesayew." I through my fishing line in the water and sure enough, I got a fish. The rest of the afternoon, the twins would say, "Ashtum, Kinesayew", and cast their lines into the water."
After I get off the phone I check the APP. "Kinosêw".
The thing is I didn't care enough to download APPs or iTunes or anything. After awhile I just ignored, denied or not allowed any requests to download any APP's. Now, I've done it, I wanted to check out the Cree Dictionary APP and so I went through the rigamarole of resetting my Apple ID. It was worth it. It's a pretty cool gadget. I called my Mom and check a few words. They didn't all match, but she said it was still a good thing. "People who speak Cree can figure out what words mean."
I told her that I was planning on smoking some fish. "The Sugar Shack is going to be a Smoke Shack for a couple of days." I asked her how to say Fish. "Geego", they say out here in Ojibway land, I'm thinking, I wonder how close the words are to each other. In Cree, we say "SeeSeeb" for duck, the Ojibways in this territory say, "Sheesheeb". Just like we say, "Soonyah" for money and they say "Zhoonya". In this case it wasn't that close. "Kinsayew", says mom. I repeat. She repeats. I repeat.
"That's it," she says.
She is reminded of a story with her granddaughters. "The twins were little. Their dad had taken them to Lockport to some fishing along the riverbank. I told them. "You have to call the fish." I said, "Ashtum Kinesayew." I through my fishing line in the water and sure enough, I got a fish. The rest of the afternoon, the twins would say, "Ashtum, Kinesayew", and cast their lines into the water."
After I get off the phone I check the APP. "Kinosêw".
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Vow of Language - Day One
This is the first day of a 30 day period in which I will commit one hour of everyday learning, speaking, thinking in Cree.
It's not very much time at all when you put it on paper like that. I think that is the appeal of the idea. If it works then it's not a major sacrifice of time. It really is the least that I can do to try and keep my Mother Tongue alive.
I was preparing my preparations and my mother called. She started talking to me in Cree right away. I was trying to explain to her that the purpose of last night's phone call was to explain the idea to her. I was taking a Vow of Language and I had this idea and stuff. I was going to put it on the internet on my blog. She like the idea right away. I realized I was moving forward already.
When she called last night, I realized that I had already begun this journey. Tansi. Niminoyan. Tansi Monah Nahndoe.
It's not very much time at all when you put it on paper like that. I think that is the appeal of the idea. If it works then it's not a major sacrifice of time. It really is the least that I can do to try and keep my Mother Tongue alive.
I was preparing my preparations and my mother called. She started talking to me in Cree right away. I was trying to explain to her that the purpose of last night's phone call was to explain the idea to her. I was taking a Vow of Language and I had this idea and stuff. I was going to put it on the internet on my blog. She like the idea right away. I realized I was moving forward already.
When she called last night, I realized that I had already begun this journey. Tansi. Niminoyan. Tansi Monah Nahndoe.
Friday, April 19, 2013
The Plan
I don't want to begin my vow without putting some preparation into the way the hours will be spent. I want to go ahead and complete my vow with the least that I could do, that's not a vow that's community service.
First step, who is in my Language Circle. The speakers I know, starting with family and then friends and associates. Fortunately, with Cree as my mother tongue, it one of a handful of languages where there are still many speakers. Although like all Indigenous languages it remains under continuous and relentless attack.
Starting with my Mother and spreading out from her, I have a very good Language Circle of aunts, uncles, cousins and then friends and associates. It would be excellent if I lived up north amongst that circle of speakers, but I am in the South where the language is Ojibway and the dialect is Pottawottami.
I also have a textbook but the dialect is the James Bay Cree and our dialect is Swampy. I want to utilize as many options as possible, but am careful to stay within the lines.
Digital resources both online and broadcast are also present. I am aware of two radio stations that broadcast in Cree and there are programs, I assume in Cree on APTN. There are CBC and National Film Board archives.
I don't want to get too hung up on the dialect during these upcoming 30 days. I am going to focus on vocabulary. My measuring stick is going to be the same one I use with my grand kids; how big and complex is their vocabulary. When the 5 year old came up to me the other day and used "incidently" in conversation. That's a high bar to set. Come to think of it.
First step, who is in my Language Circle. The speakers I know, starting with family and then friends and associates. Fortunately, with Cree as my mother tongue, it one of a handful of languages where there are still many speakers. Although like all Indigenous languages it remains under continuous and relentless attack.
Starting with my Mother and spreading out from her, I have a very good Language Circle of aunts, uncles, cousins and then friends and associates. It would be excellent if I lived up north amongst that circle of speakers, but I am in the South where the language is Ojibway and the dialect is Pottawottami.
I also have a textbook but the dialect is the James Bay Cree and our dialect is Swampy. I want to utilize as many options as possible, but am careful to stay within the lines.
Digital resources both online and broadcast are also present. I am aware of two radio stations that broadcast in Cree and there are programs, I assume in Cree on APTN. There are CBC and National Film Board archives.
I don't want to get too hung up on the dialect during these upcoming 30 days. I am going to focus on vocabulary. My measuring stick is going to be the same one I use with my grand kids; how big and complex is their vocabulary. When the 5 year old came up to me the other day and used "incidently" in conversation. That's a high bar to set. Come to think of it.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
What is a Vow of Language?
What is a Vow of Language? The same thing as a vow of silence except with the purpose of learning your Indigenous Language. A Vow of Silence is usually an act of protest or an act of contrition. A Vow of Language could be both and more. It is certainly an act of protest against the ongoing cultural genocide of Indigenous Peoples. It may be an act of contrition to your parents or grand parents who tried or didn't try to pass the language onto you before they passed on.
It part I believe it is how we defend Indigenous rights in Canada. If there are no Indigenous rights, then the last human defenders of the Earth, the Waters, the Wind will have been taken care of and moved aside. The death machine of government, religion, media and corporations will swallow everything up. A blind insatiable monsterous snake who cannot open its mouth wide enough, cannot choke down fast enough enough, enough, enough to quell it's junkie hunger.
The movement to cash in on generations of genocide has begun. Stephen Harper apologized. Compensation has been paid for Indian Residential Schools. Now, the end game has begun.
Government and corporations are playing our people, left and right and all the time. It is hard to build the unity with our histories of oppression and division. There are many amongst us who have given up the faith. Who do not believe that Mother Earth must be protected. Who do not believe that we owe our great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren a healthy environment. Who believe that money and all that it buys is the only thing that matters. That is one of the front lines.
The other front line has been the same for over 150 years. The attack on the spiritual and cultural of the people continues. But now the question is being openly debated, "if they don't practice their culture, if they don't speak their language, why should they have special rights." The idea being the genocide worked or is nearing completion.
The Idle No More movement started quickly and burned fiercely and moved on wings like a bush fire chased by 100 kilometres winds. Speeding across the tops of trees, jumping rivers and roads like lines in the sand. Invigorating and inspiring, our eyes opened widest in its light.
But a fire can only burn fierce for so long. If it is to be our fire, it must be tended. A fire that must always be fed cannot feed. A fire can live in many ways. As a dancing light on a warm summer night. As a roaring welcome companion on a cold one. As embers in the morning, that with wisps of tinder and a breath of air become fierce fire once again. As the sign on the horizon that we are not alone.
Now, then, how do I take this fire and turn it into something that I can use and not fuel something that burns me up from the inside out?
This spring, I collected Maple Sap and made my own Maple Syrup. It took about three weeks and it was a beautiful thing.
And now this. The Vow of Language. I haven't made it yet. I only know what it is. This time. A vow to speak or meditate or listen to my mother tongue, Cree, for one hour everyday for one Month.
I have to figure out how I am going to work it. Check back now and then to see how I'm making out.
It part I believe it is how we defend Indigenous rights in Canada. If there are no Indigenous rights, then the last human defenders of the Earth, the Waters, the Wind will have been taken care of and moved aside. The death machine of government, religion, media and corporations will swallow everything up. A blind insatiable monsterous snake who cannot open its mouth wide enough, cannot choke down fast enough enough, enough, enough to quell it's junkie hunger.
The movement to cash in on generations of genocide has begun. Stephen Harper apologized. Compensation has been paid for Indian Residential Schools. Now, the end game has begun.
Government and corporations are playing our people, left and right and all the time. It is hard to build the unity with our histories of oppression and division. There are many amongst us who have given up the faith. Who do not believe that Mother Earth must be protected. Who do not believe that we owe our great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren a healthy environment. Who believe that money and all that it buys is the only thing that matters. That is one of the front lines.
The other front line has been the same for over 150 years. The attack on the spiritual and cultural of the people continues. But now the question is being openly debated, "if they don't practice their culture, if they don't speak their language, why should they have special rights." The idea being the genocide worked or is nearing completion.
The Harper Government strikes coordinated attacks on the environment and on First Nations as they are one and the same. But wait. Some how. Four women in Saskatchewan built a fire that went viral.
The Idle No More movement started quickly and burned fiercely and moved on wings like a bush fire chased by 100 kilometres winds. Speeding across the tops of trees, jumping rivers and roads like lines in the sand. Invigorating and inspiring, our eyes opened widest in its light.
But a fire can only burn fierce for so long. If it is to be our fire, it must be tended. A fire that must always be fed cannot feed. A fire can live in many ways. As a dancing light on a warm summer night. As a roaring welcome companion on a cold one. As embers in the morning, that with wisps of tinder and a breath of air become fierce fire once again. As the sign on the horizon that we are not alone.
Now, then, how do I take this fire and turn it into something that I can use and not fuel something that burns me up from the inside out?
This spring, I collected Maple Sap and made my own Maple Syrup. It took about three weeks and it was a beautiful thing.
And now this. The Vow of Language. I haven't made it yet. I only know what it is. This time. A vow to speak or meditate or listen to my mother tongue, Cree, for one hour everyday for one Month.
I have to figure out how I am going to work it. Check back now and then to see how I'm making out.
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