For McGill University Indigenous Language Revitalization master’s student Arihwisaks Colin Benedict, who is Kanien’kehá:ka from Akwesasne, last week’s Tsitewatá:ti: Let Us Speak Again language symposium achieved the goal he had set out to achieve - to bring language revitalizers together in one place to share ideas and experiences.
“I really liked how inspired everyone was by the different language projects and initiatives that were going on in different communities,” said Benedict, who planned the symposium in collaboration with Mia Fischlin, who is Inuvialuk/Dene/settler; Caleb Moses, who is Māori; Noelani Arista, the director, who is Hawaiian; and Zoe Regnier, who has heritage from Akwesasne.
“Through our pool’s personal connections, we were able to bring a really amazing and diverse group of Indigenous language revitalization practitioners and academics together,” said Benedict.
One of the panelists that inspired Benedict was Keao NeSmith, a Hawaiian scholar and translator, who has worked on translating popular series like the Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings books into the Hawaiian language.
“We always need more written resources, especially at that kind of reading level where it’s more for just entertainment. It’s not strictly for curriculum purposes,” said Benedict.
He said it also inspired some of the elders from Akwesasne in attendance, who thought it would be a great project to bring back to their community.
“To me, that was really awesome. And that’s just one example,” said Benedict.
Other panels were more focused on the organizational side of things - the implementation of new technologies in language revitalization as well as how to apply for private and government funding.
Callie Hill, CEO of the Tsi Tyónnheht Onkwawén:na Language and Cultural Center in Tyendinaga, was one of the funding panelists, and explained how local support as well as provincial and private was important to its success, as it would be in a community like Kahnawake.
“Building good relationships is really important. Even locally at home, our band council is supportive, but we also have band elections every two years. So, you take the chance that we won’t have supporters from one year to the next. We have been very fortunate to have a majority of supporters always,” said Hill.
But perhaps the biggest success of the symposium was the final panel on language futurisms, done entirely in Kanien’kéha with elders, teachers, and students, along with Benedict as a moderator.
Otsì:tsia Sunday, Benedict’s friend and former Kanien’kéha teacher, provided a rough translation into English on the big screen as the panelists spoke.
“She would just be capturing the overall message of what the elders and other panelists were conveying to the audience, so that the audience can follow along,” said Benedict.
He said that the plan came together just a few days before the symposium began. First, the idea was to have the discussion be only in English, to make sure the audience could understand. Then, it shifted to answering questions first in English and then in Kanien’kéha, before his linguistics department advisor Jessica Coon suggested the live transcription based on other panels she had seen.
“Personally, I really liked the idea and was reaching out to a couple of different people to see if they liked that,” said Benedict.
They did, and when he saw that those in attendance could follow along and even react to what was being said essentially in real time, he was happy it had worked out after feeling nervous about it.
“Otsì:tsia was amazing with the translation and the transcription work that she provided, and all the panelists did an amazing job with the language that they provided, as well as the ideas,” said Benedict.
“And I feel like even a lot of the humour that came up in the panel wasn’t lost on the audience, thanks to the live transcription. It was nice to have that communicated in live time and hear the audience laugh as well.”
Billy Sunday, an elder and residential school survivor from Akwesasne, was grateful to be able to share his language with the other panelists and those in attendance.
“I’m lucky, I still have my language. When I went to school, before I left, we only spoke Kanien’kéha at home. When I got to school, we were told we couldn’t speak our language,” said Sunday.
“But, there were quite a few students there from Kahnawake. They spoke their language, so we used to hide and tell stories in our language. That might be why I only forgot a little bit of our language. I feel fortunate that I still have it and I still use it.”
What the future of language preservation looks like came in the form of the panel itself, with elders speaking with younger language learners throughout. Another point was raising children in the language, demonstrated through a video of panelist Oheróhskon Ryan DeCaire’s young daughter speaking in Kanien’kéha while playing.
“I thought that was really powerful in terms of the collective work that we’re trying to push forward in thinking about language futurisms and how we want our language to look 20, 40, 60, 100 years down the road,” said Benedict.
Further down the road, he hopes that this kind of symposium will return to McGill, potentially even biannually.
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