Red Rock Anishinaabemowin Boodawe Committee to continue Anishinaabemowin Language Class

By Rick Garrick

RED ROCK INDIAN BAND — The Anishinaabemowin Boodawe Committee plans to continue its Anishinaabemowin Language Class in the fall after holding it on Wednesday afternoons at the Red River Indian Band band office since this past January. The classes are held from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the boardroom with a virtual option via the Zoom platform.

“I teach the adults, they’re not all from our reserve but the majority are Red Rock Indian Band [citizens],” says Gilbert Deschamps, instructor of the Anishinaabemowin Language Class and Red Rock Indian Band citizen. “It’s been really good; there’s a lot of interest but the month of March has been difficult — there were two snow storms and then there was a death in the community. But we’re back at it as of the beginning of April, so we’re going right to the last Wednesday in June and then we’ll start again in September.”

Deschamps, an Anishinaabemowin translator and teacher and former policy lawyer who learned Anishinaabemowin from his parents, says the students are enjoying the Anishinaabemowin Language Class.

“Some of the participants remember a little bit of the language from their grandparents,” Deschamps says. “In my case, both of my parents spoke [Anishinaabemowin] at home, they’re both fluent, so I’m fairly fluent but not perfect like they used to speak a long time ago. My sister is helping me, she’s 18 years older than me so she really knows the language well.”

Deschamps says the Elders were very insistent that the local dialect of Anishinaabemowin is preserved, noting that the closest dialect of Anishinaabemowin that is spoken around the Lake Nipigon area is in Treaty #3 territory and across the United States border in Minnesota.

“I’ve met people from Minnesota and their dialect is quite close,” Deschamps says. “My mother spoke a somewhat different dialect because she was a [citizen] of Michipicoten. My mother could understand Cree that was spoken along the Moose River right up to Moose Factory (on James Bay). Her first language was [Anishinaabemowin] but if someone was coming up from Moosonee or Moose Factory on the river system, [she could understand them]. Those were our highways a long time ago because everybody went by canoe in those days.”

Deschamps says the Anishinaabemowin dialect in southern Ontario is different as well from his community’s dialect.

“And then there is Algonquin, which is very close to [Anishinaabemowin],” Deschamps says. “That is spoken in northeastern Ontario and western Quebec.”

Deschamps says one of the students who attends the Anishinaabemowin Language Class through the Zoom platform is participating from Banff, noting that she is originally from the Sioux Lookout area in northwestern Ontario.

“She said her grandmother would talk to her in [Anishinaabemowin] even though she didn’t understand what she was saying, just a few words here and there,” Deschamps says. “So now she wants to be able to speak the language.”

Deschamps says he has been teaching the students a variety of everyday phrases that they could use in the community.

“They just want to learn everyday [Anishinaabemowin],” Deschamps says, noting that he and his sister have developed a list of expressions such as let’s go, sit down, come and eat, and please be quiet for the Anishinaabemowin Language Class. “So it’s just building a base of [Anishinaabemowin] at the basic level. That’s how I relearned the language. I started getting interested in the language when I was in my early twenties, so I started buying books and textbooks. There’s quite a few materials out there and there’s a lot that’s been recorded.”