Opinion: Nipping Anishinaabemowin in the bud rather than facilitating ‘budding trilingualism’

By Dr. Mary Ann Corbiere

Laurentian University President Dr. Robert Haché recently sought to settle the question of “whether the sacred character of its cultural identity” stemming from its tricultural mandate “will be preserved as we navigate a restructuring” its insolvency necessitates. On March 26, 2021, he informed the Laurentian federated community that the “new Laurentian… emphasizes and values Indigenous and Francophone programming… [and] offers us the possibility to live up to…our tricultural mandate by further immersing ourselves in our budding trilingualism.”

That trilingualism involves Anishinaabemowin courses on which— per the news received late afternoon April 1, 2021, just before Easter weekend— Laurentian University will, after April 30, no longer count toward a Laurentian University degree. President Haché’s decree applies to all courses taught by the federated universities, one of which, the University of Sudbury, is home to the Indigenous Studies department.

Later that night, 10:01 pm, President Haché made official Laurentian University’s unilateral termination of its federation agreement with Huntington University, Thorneloe University, and the University of Sudbury “which…will become effective on May 1, 2021,” claiming that Laurentian University “has the capacity and the faculty required to teach all students in a more efficient delivery model.” In this missive, he makes no mention of the course credit issue, namely that if the federated universities were to proceed with the courses they scheduled for spring, their students wouldn’t get the course credits. And of course, the transfer of 60% or so of tuition revenues to those federated for their courses that would have occurred, will not. The possibility Darrel Manitowabi and I mentioned in our opinion piece a few weeks ago is now sadly reality: Laurentian University is starving federated universities. To add insult, he fails to at least acknowledge the University of Sudbury’s ground-breaking role in post-secondary Anishinaabemowin curriculum development.

President Haché promised a few weeks ago that clarity would begin to emerge by April 15, but one thing is clear now: there is no Anishinaabemowin-speaking professor at Laurentian University, let alone any course on Anishinaabemowin, contradicting on this aspect, Laurentian University’s claim regarding its capacity and faculty. Yet, it seems to be continuing the Anishinaabemowin revitalization strategy it initiated a year ago – incidentally, without any prior consultation with Indigenous Studies, the department that has Anishinaabemowin resources built up over decades. The University of Sudbury has taught Anishinaabemowin courses, an integral component of the Native Studies program (its former name) since its inception over 40 years ago. In 1988, the University of Sudbury also began developing distance courses on our language, a major and ongoing project of the sole Anishinaabemowin-speaking professor within the Laurentian federation (this writer, slated to retire this July). Writing the latest distance course being developed, Advanced Nishnaabemwin A, commenced in January.

With massive Laurentian University faculty cuts looming, Laurentian University’s contradictory actions beg the question of how it expects to contribute to Anishinaabemowin revitalization. Will it be hiring full-time tenure-track faculty to expand Anishinaabemowin resources? I say expand since as noted above, detailed distance courses on Anishinaabemowin exist already thanks to the University of Sudbury’s longstanding investment in a full-time Anishinaabemowin professor. Plus, there are community-based initiatives such as the Wiikwemkoong Heritage Organization’s longstanding projects, Eshki-Nishnaabemjig’s summer immersion program, and projects being done at Nimkii Aazhbikoong. Will Laurentian University’s revitalization measures complement such initiatives and produce highly proficient second-language speakers of this exceedingly intricate language of ours?

Or is Laurentian University’s notion of revitalization creating another version of introductory Anishinaabemowin courses? If so, that’s hardly an efficiency gain; the University of Sudbury’s courses have always been available to Laurentian University students. Even those are not enough to revitalize our language fully. Moreover, if recreating the wheel is Laurentian University’s notion of revitalization, when would it be able to mount such courses? Given the time hiring faculty takes – if Laurentian University plans to do so for Anishinaabemowin – it appears any “new” Anishinaabemowin distance courses it may want to be created would be impossible to finish developing before Fall 2022. Students who’ve completed introductory Anishinaabemowin and want higher-level courses are now left dangling.

All these unanswered questions suggest that rather than immersing itself in a budding trilingualism, Laurentian University will be in effect nipping Anishinaabemowin in the bud. Just as offensive is the view it seems to have of the value of Indigenous programming, in particular the Anishinaabemowin aspect. Its view seems to be purely of Anishinaabemowin as a veneer to burnish its public image. Witness the inordinate pride it takes on Anishinaabemowin signage as a sign of its commitment. President Haché seems to think Anishinabek will not see the monumental hypocrisy of dropping Nishnaabemwin courses from its credit-course inventory a year after it began trying to get an Anishinaabemowin revitalization strategy off the ground, and 40 years after the University of Sudbury broke ground on Anishinaabemowin teaching.