Anishinaabemowin shown love in Little Current

By Kirk Titmuss

WEWEBJIWANG, LITTLE CURRENT FIRST NATION – Youth are the future to the revival of Anishinaabemowin. That conclusion was evident during the Zaagitoodaa Gdinwewininaa Nkweshkidaadiwin (Love Our Language) meeting held appropriately enough, on Valentine’s Day, in Wewebjiwang, Little Current, Ontario.

About 60 Anishinabek Nation citizens, many of them traditional language teachers, attended the gathering hosted by the Anishinaabemowin Boodawe Committee in partnership with the Anishinabek Nation’s Anishinaabemowin Department and the Anishinabek Education System – Kinoomaadziwin Education Body (AES-KEB) to explore Anishinaabemowin, what is being done to teach the language, future goals, and recommended methods to further support revitalization and growth. Renowned language speaker, teacher, and Anishinabek Nation Anishinaabemowin E-niigaanwidood (Anishinaabemowin Commissioner) Barbara Nolan, emceed the proceedings, speaking mostly in Anishinaabemowin. Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory Ogimaa Kwe Rachel Manitowabi said she was very pleased having the event take place in her neighbouring community and commended organizers for growing the use of traditional language and understanding.

Anishinaabemowin teachers from the Anishinaabemowin Revival Program (ARP) – a three-year, full-time, language program (currently unavailable due to funding) where students learn to speak, understand, read, and write Anishinaabemowin – explained how their unique curriculum aided in students’ understanding and retention of the language.

One former ARP teacher and curriculum writer, Gayle Payette, principal of Lakeview School in M’Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island, described how “scaffolding” – a teaching technique in which instructors deliver lessons in distinct segments and gradually take away support as students master new material, in this case  language – was a major component of how ARP was creating and implementing the curriculum and lessons at her school.

“So students are provided with a foundation of vocabulary, initially through whole group and small group instruction. After, they were able to develop some of that vocabulary on their own. So, we had Go Fish games, we had memory games, we had BINGO games, we had one game called Around the World which the students just loved.”

Clarice Pangowish, an Anishinaabemowin teacher who helped create a language curriculum while working with Payette for ARP in M’Chigeeng First Nation, also found great success using the scaffolding method for teaching students about traditional clans in the language.

“When we taught clans, we started with the subject because they need to know those  words first because they’re not hearing it anywhere, so we had to introduce that. Then the verb. We also taught them how to turn that verb inside towards them and adding in a location. And when we add all these ingredients together, our sentences change. And our students were able to make those changes through lots of games and practice.”

The scaffolding approach to teaching Anishinaabemowin was praised by Near North District School Board secondary school teacher and Nipissing First Nation citizen Falcon McLeod. He says he uses the technique at the three high schools where he teaches. McLeod heads up the Ojibway Language Department at the school board and teaches Anishinaabemowin part-time at Nipissing University. He says it makes learning Anishinaabemowin, an admittedly complex language, much easier and faster.

“Anishinaabemowin is what is known as a polysynthetic language meaning it’s constructed through the combination of affixes and root words. So, like Latin when we combine root words like arachnid and phobia to form words like arachnophobia. It’s a difficult language to acquire, but with the right attitude, guidance, and access to materials, it is possible to acquire a high degree of fluency.”

Anishinaabemowin continues to face the challenges present within intergenerational sharing of the language. Elders are often the fluent speakers within the community; however, their numbers are in a steep decline.

Wiikwemkoong citizen Marian Peltier says valuable, traditional knowledge is lost as community Elders pass away.

“When we’re losing the Elders, we’re losing the language also. What they have, their teachings, we’re losing that and as they pass on, so too does the language.”

One survey – the Anishinabek Nation Socio-Demographic Profile – conducted in 2018 by Prologica Research Inc., based on data collected from the 2016 Census of Canada, revealed some unsettling trends for the state of Anishinaabemowin use within the Anishinabek Nation. It found 96 percent of Anishinaabe do not speak Anishinaabemowin at home. Only 12 percent of Anishinaabe identify Anishinaabemowin as the first language they learned. Most concerning was the 60 percent decline in Anishinaabemowin speakers in the last 20 years. Anishinaabemowin

E-niigaanwidood (Anishinaabemowin Commissioner) Barbara Nolan has taught and promoted Anishinaabemowin almost all her life. She says the only time she stopped was during her Indian Residential School years when Anishinaabemowin was forbidden. Nolan now has her own website, barbaranolan.com, which provides online Anishinaabemowin immersion videos for adults and students alike. She says the best way for students to learn the language is through hearing it.

“For many years in the school system, we’ve been trying to make them speak first.  I’m guilty. I talk like that. I made the kids say what I was saying. I didn’t know anything. I still don’t know anything. But that’s how this goes. We have to hear the people speak,” she said.

Nolan led the attendees through a discovery exercise examining the current state of Anishinaabemowin learning. People were split into groups made up of education levels including Early Childhood, Primary, Junior, Intermediate and Secondary Education, and Lifelong Learning. Groups then looked for the Anishinaabemowin education successes and how they could be identified.

Each group took turns presenting their findings to the gathering listing the activities and practices that are working in teaching Anishinaabemowin to students and broadening the use of language in their communities.

One Secondary Education panellist and KEB’s Language Strategy Project Coordinator, Greer Atkinson of Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation, pointed to the feedback she received from students that indicated language learning success.

“Some of the things that we talked about as working were trying new things and how we know when those new things are working is we hear the kids they come back and tell us that they’ve taught their friends sort of outside of the classroom.”

Presenter Marie Bebamikawe became emotional as she talked about her own journey rediscovering and learning Anishinaabemowin after years of fearing use of the language.

“I started to feel more whole. Like something came back that was gone for a long time. So… my heart is just beating. Do you know who is with me right now when that happens? It’s our ancestors. Our ancestors are here right now. And we always have to remember them when we’re learning our language. Don’t ever forget them because when they left here, they didn’t leave us empty-handed.