Sky above.
Earth below.
Fire within.
That’s the best description I can express about slow dancing with the spirit of the Anishinaabemowin language.
The poetics, the romantics, the art, the potential, the promise and the clarity. They are all present.
When you carefully cradle and carry a burning passion for something meaningful beyond words, inexhaustible wonder counterbalances dreaming without slumber.
Relatives and reminders
As far back as memory can extend its reach, Anishinaabemowin has been alive, vibrant and incandescent within our family.
Mom (a fluent woman who didn’t know English until she was five) taught the language for many years. Her mother, our Grandma Elsie, was also an Anishinaabemowin educator here in Borderland.
Our grandparents, Sandy and Maggie Horton (lifelong medicine people at Manitou Rapids and Long Sault Rapids), carried and treasured our sound, never wavered and spoke each syllable with care and love.
I still remember the multicoloured vocabulary packets Mom would bring home from her language classes for me to build a strong foundation early, even when I was in Velcro shoes.
As fluent language carriers, language technicians, and educators across generations, they provided guidance and support for which I am forever grateful as I continue to carry such a treasure.
Then there was the kitchen table at the late Willie and Carol Wilson’s house, so close to the Rainy River that the winding rapids and the current’s flow became the backing soundtrack to years of visits. Among cigarette smoke and wafer cookies, over 15 years of laughter and memories (and sharing that a gentleman from the Lake of the Woods area had reached out and told me there were very few resources reflecting our area), a task was given to create ways for learners to learn the language faster and more easily without losing its inner light of meaning.
At first, I froze.
When elders task you with a responsibility, the commitment is embedded in the heart.
Trying to understand how to unlock long-term memory without losing complexity, I began studying neurology, educational psychology, linguistics and marketing. The COVID lockdown provided some room to move and explore new understandings.
When put into action, it worked like a charm.
Weaving methods like beautiful braids of sweetgrass began to support new learners in new, distinct ways.
Anishinaabemowini-ogichitaag
Not long after recruitment out of the Twin Cities, I was asked to teach for Seven Generations Education Institute in an exciting new language initiative, Anishinaabemodaa.
Supported by our institute’s leadership (as well as SayItFirst owner Mike Parkhill), the responsibility soon grew into an architectural task to develop these insights into a multi-year, post-secondary program that would be unique, different, and highly effective.
This has grown into the Anishinaabemowini-ogichitaag program, which utilizes cross-methods, follows the dream of Chief Saagajiwe (a leader present at Treaty #3 in 1873) of bringing the best of both worlds together, and grows skills such as speaking, listening and understanding, reading and writing. Incremental immersion, embedding and fostering teaching methodology and pedagogy, and ensuring a strong foundation in history and cultural teachings make this program, conjured from the ether, highly unique. The third rotation of language learners will be completing the program in December, with graduation in June.
The unique and cutting-edge methods were presented at the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education in Auckland, New Zealand, last November and will be presented in Toronto next month.
Exoterica and esoterica
Three generations of our family were taken to St. Margaret’s Indian Residential School here in Fort Frances.
While there, many of our family and relatives relentlessly held onto the language (even in the face of horrendous abuse and the subsequent falling dominoes that would follow). However, I began keying in on a challenge that was emerging. Although many relatives held onto the language, the deeper meanings that exist at the heart of our sound were not transmitted for many. The goal became to learn from lines of language speakers and technicians who avoided disruptions of deeper dimensions.
I am forever grateful to these remarkable people who shared their time, wisdom, and intensely complex and core understandings that are remarkably difficult to internalize without the proper eyes, hearts and minds.
Perhaps one of the last major frontiers of language revitalization, I call these deeper understandings the esoterics. As exoterics refer to the surface and straightforward language, the deeper meanings require far more exploration. This area is what I am absolutely in love with as we slow dance through rhythm, intonation, and melody.
For instance, mino-ayaawin means “health” or “wellness” on its surface. However, a deeper understanding is using one’s life energy within their vessel to put one’s visible and invisible dimensions of self in balance with one’s universe to ensure one’s vessel will carry us through life.
Ogichidaa is often translated as “warrior.” However, descending away from the exoterics into the beautiful esoterics reveals a soul that has come from the other side and embedded itself within a bodily vessel where it currently resides while doing something significant to enhance life, peace and unity.
It is important to know that this is not defined by interpretation (as personal interpretations may be valid for someone exploring), but rather a way to follow conceptual breadcrumbs back to original and ancient understandings that were almost lost.
When the linguistics, etymologies, philosophies, and protocols point to one North Star (similar to how philologists find deeper understandings in Hellenistic Greek), esoterics are revealed, and they are beautiful.
Carrying and honouring the details while, at the same time, protecting them from tumbling into abstractions and interpretations can create a fine line to walk. At times, critique follows unfamiliarity for some, but the beauty seals the commitment to continue.
Borderland Anishinaabemowin
I began to hear from many in our beautiful town that there are many residents who want to know more about Anishinaabemowin (especially the beauty at the often-hidden core), but are working full-time jobs, supporting families, and may not have adequate time to commit to full-time learning. The same concern was shared by civic leaders, organizations and businesses. Acknowledging such a disconnect, I wanted to create something to meet their interest and the demand for more avenues to learn.
Borderland Anishinaabemowin is a gift created for our region and learners beyond. It is a resource hub, created and maintained on my own time, that is updated every day to support those who have voiced interest in learning Anishinaabemowin. Utilizing visuals, video, audio and explorations into deeper esoterics, daily updates are made each morning.
This resource hub can be located across social media platforms:
Facebook Group: Borderland Anishinaabemowin
TikTok: BorderlandAnishinaabe
Instagram: BorderlandAnishinaabemowin
X: BorderlandNish
YouTube: BorderlandAnishinaabemowin
Commitments and cadences
The love for our region, our town, and our community has led to a few projects to ensure there are adequate resources for anyone who may not have the time or current capability to pursue part-time or full-time studies.
The first project was the book The Song of the Stars: Starry Skies, Anishinaabe Stories, Scientific Insights, and More!, which explores star constellations, events in the cosmos and Anishinaabemowin utilized in cultural perspectives while exploring what science, the scientific method and contemporary insights can share about such topics. This was published last October.
Among the upcoming releases is the first textbook, The Sound of Our Heart, which reflects our region’s Anishinaabemowin while honouring our variation and dialect from the Border Lakes homeland.
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Slow dancing with the spirit of Anishinaabemowin is something where time melts away, where the energy of sound pours inexhaustibly from the heart, and where memory reaches for us in return each time we reach for it.
I intend for this dance to last forever.
Appropriate sparks are being made.
Cue the power ballad, my friends.
Niimidaa! (Let’s dance!)
Robert Horton is an educator, author, orator, and linguist. He is a member of Rainy River First Nations.
