Peggy Revell
Working together to revitalize the Ojibwe language was the clear message brought forward during a first-time conference held here last week.
Entitled “Connecting Language, Communities and Classrooms,” the conference brought together more than 100 people—including educators, elders, and community members—from different school boards, provinces, and parts of the United States on April 8-9 at La Place Rendez-Vous.
“[Language] is the most important part of First Nations,” noted Brent Tookenay, aboriginal education leader for the Rainy River District School Board who helped organize the conference.
“Aboriginal culture is the language,” he stressed.
But languages are being lost every day in the world, said Tookenay, “and we don’t want to see that happen.”
“I think the best thing that’s come out of this conference is the networking and the sharing of curriculum, sharing of resources, sharing of ideas, and that was the whole idea behind it,” enthused Tookenay, calling the conference’s two days “phenomenal.”
“A lot of it was in the presenters and engaging the people, but I think the people came here all with the same goal—trying to better teach the language, better preserve the language, and better revitalize the language,” he remarked.
“We’ve got a lot of positive feedback already,” he added, hoping the conference can run again next year.
In fact, Tookenay said there already have been people coming forward asking to help out with it.
Presenters for the inaugural conference included educators such as Pat Ningewance Nadeau and Dr. Anton Treuer, a panel of elders speaking about the language revitalization project being co-ordinated by the Seven Generations Education Institute and Lakehead University, and Brian Smith from Seven Generations on using technology to teach Ojibwe.
“What it did was it energizes people and people that are involved with the field already,” explained Dennis Jones, who also presented at the conference.
“They get a chance to talk with other people, sharing curriculum, sharing ideas, and just basically recharging your batteries,” he noted. “And also it gave us an opportunity to showcase what we’ve been doing.”
Jones, who teaches at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, had the chance to present about Bagakendamowinikaaning—the Ojibwe language camp he runs during the summer on Rainy Lake.
“What I do is I take different organizations that teach the Ojibwe language and I immerse their students in [Ojibwe],” he explained, stressing that learning a second language requires more than just a classroom setting, but immersion.
Jones said one positive aspect of the conference itself was how much Ojibwe was spoken.
“Everybody presented in the language, which was really impressive,” he said. “The language is still alive and well, and just hearing it, people presenting in the language, is a good indication of where the language is at.”
Also presenting was Nicickousemenecaning Coun. Jason Jones, who is on leave from teaching for the Rainy River District School Board.
“I wanted the language to survive,” stressed Jones. “[So] while I was teaching, I did a lot of Ojibwe language curriculum along the way.”
Money is sometimes a barrier to people learning, he noted, which is why he’s made sure the curriculum he’s created is given out for free to those who want it.
For last week’s conference alone, he had made up 100 discs with his curriculum to hand out.
Conferences like this one definitely are an opportunity for people who are developing curriculum like him to collaborate and work together, Jason Jones noted.
“One of the things that we run into that tends to be a problem is we tend to reinvent the wheel,” he argued. “Say I do something on colours and numbers, all of a sudden you have another teacher out there who did the same thing.”
And not only do conferences allow educators to connect and share their resources, they also “light the fire” to get them even more motivated to share the language, he reasoned.
“From the comments, I think it was very good,” emcee Gary Medicine said about the response he had heard from conference participants.
Medicine praised how the conference brought together everyone from young elementary students who participated with the opening and closing ceremonies to the various organizations—school boards, Seven Generations, and more.
“We still have a long way to go, but it’s a start,” he remarked.
“I think one of the things we need to look at, as well, is see how we implement the language in our formal education system and that is valued as such,” he said. “I think that’s important.”
That the Ojibwe language is alive and a living language, and with great value, is something Medicine also stressed.
“I think that in the society that we live in today, once we grasp that idea, I think it will be a lot more accessible,” he explained. “Because the comments being made [Thursday], and that were echoed [Wednesday], is that the language is out there, and as aboriginal people, Ojibwe people, this is one of the things that they need to explore and also use.”
The importance that the language holds for the Ojibwe culture is something that also was greatly stressed by other participants.
“One of the most impressive things that I’ve heard, and that I’ve always advocated, too, is that the language is who we are. It makes up our spiritual identity,” said Dennis Jones.
“Without our language, we are only descendents of the Anishinaabe people, so language is the distinction between cultures,” he explained. “It makes a people unique.”
