Nipissing University Student Union honours Nipissing First Nation Language Keeper

By Kelly Anne Smith

NIPISSING FIRST NATION – “Language is the culture and culture is the language,” Muriel Sawyer-baa’s son Michael remembers. “That was one of her lines that she always used.”

Michael says it is fitting that his mother’s name designates the boardroom at the new Nipissing University Student Centre.

“She created the name on the boardroom. She translated all the names into Nishnaabemwin in that building.”

She named the boardroom Enji-Debaamjigeng before she began her journey into the Spirit World earlier this year on Feb. 6.

On Oct. 7, Nipissing University Student Union officially named the boardroom to honour former Nipissing First Nation Deputy Chief, Dr. Muriel Sawyer-baa.

Michael Sawyer, the new Deputy Chief of Nipissing First Nation, is pleased his mother’s legacy has been honoured.

“I really like it. She has a long history with Nipissing U on so many great initiatives.”

She was friends with former staff, some who are no longer there like Dr. John Long, says Mike. She was referenced in Long’s Treaty 9 – Making the Agreement to Share the Land in Far Northern Ontario as an Ojibwe language keeper.

“They would talk outside of work hours, always having communication between each other in regards to Indigenous worldviews, academia and preserving our languages and cultures across many different territories. It’s not just Anishinaabe. It’s Mohawk. It’s Cree. It’s Oji-Cree,” says Sawyer. “With John Long being in academia, and working with community himself, he was able to amplify those messages in the academia world. He was able to talk to non-Indigenous people to show them what our Indigenous leaders and educators are doing to revitalize and retain their culture and language on various levels within their own community.”

Michael spoke of his mother’s close working relationship with Dr. Chris Hachkowski being co-creators of the Teacher of Indigenous Languages as a Second Language program at Nipissing University. Anishinaabemowin, Cayuga, Mohawk, Lunaape and Cree are offered. Dr. Hachkowski calls his co-creator instrumental in the development and launch of the program, which continues to provide opportunities for language speakers to earn a Certificate of Qualification from the Ontario College of Teachers.

“Dr. Sawyer recognized the importance of training a new generation of language teachers in the province. As one of the program’s team leaders, she brought the language students onto the land and into her home so that they learned how to teach the language from a cultural context. Dr. Sawyer invited other language speakers and Elders from Nipissing First Nation to share their stories in Anishinaabemowin so that the teacher candidates broadened and deepened their language acquisition and recognized the importance of learning the language within and with the community,” he expresses. “During the short time that Dr. Sawyer was with Nipissing University, the influence and impact she had on the graduates of the Teacher of Anishnaabemwin as a Second Language Program will be felt for years to come. Her legacy will live on through these Anishinaabemowin language teachers as they share her strategies and passion for the language with their students, whether in First Nation or public schools across the province.”

Michael remembers that both his mother and his father John Sawyer worked as a team, teaching culture and language and how they go hand-in-hand.

“Because if we learn our language, it’s so descriptive. If we learn it, each word explains exactly how we are supposed to do certain ceremonies; how we are supposed to conduct ourselves; how are our ways of living,” he explains. “It’s not saying that we have to be cultural and do all these ceremonies. We will know of our own culture if we learn our language because it will be so descriptive. And then once we know how to do the process, then culture will be able to be achieved.”

Michael says both of his parents influenced his path.

“My dad was deputy chief in the nineties and he held the education portfolio back then. Years later, my mother was deputy chief and held the education portfolio and just recently, I was voted deputy chief and I hold the education portfolio. We were always heavily involved in the education sector. Everything that we did from Band administration at the provincial and federal level, we were always involved, on and off-reserve in Indigenous education.”

Michael’s mother taught at all levels of education from Junior Kindergarten to post-secondary. Michael says she was holistic in educating students and that her work opened up education and history culture. She was also instrumental in establishing Nbisiing Secondary School.

“She worked so hard and she developed so many teaching materials to help with policy, to help with agreements for education on every level. She’s always been involved to get the Indigenous perspective and worldviews noticed by the rest of Canada and that our languages aren’t just one language. It’s various Nations’ languages and dialects that she’s always promoted; ‘Let’s get them to teach their languages in their communities.'”

Nipissing First Nation Chief Scott McLeod calls his former Deputy Chief, “the driving force behind the community’s preservation and revitalization of its first language, Anishinaabemowin.”

Michael recalls the countless hours his mother consulted with other language speakers in Nipissing First Nation to see if the meanings were true.

“It wasn’t just one aspect, ‘Did I spell this right?’; it was, ‘Does this describe this room how we see it?’ Not the non-Indigenous.”

When Michael attended the special ceremony for his mother’s family, friends and colleagues, he was talking with language speakers Geraldine McLeod and Evelyn McLeod who shared the meaning of the name of the boardroom with him.

“They said the name [in Nishinaabemwin] and then looked out the window. The word translates, ‘You can see far off into the distance.’ And that’s exactly what the view is. You can see far out to the lake, and all the islands.”

Michael says he is picking up all of her work from where it left off when she passed.

“It’s getting pushed through a different level now.”