Elders stress the importance of Anishinaabemowin during virtual language conference
By Rick Garrick
ANISHINABEK NATION TERRITORY — Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek Elder James Mishquart kicked off the Anishinaabemowin Boodawe’s virtual Ojibwe Language Conference with an Elder Storytelling session on March 4.
“I always like opening up with a song and I usually sing this quite often when I open forums and I get involved with stuff like this, and it’s called, Looking for the Good Life,” Elder Mishquart says. “I think that’s what each and every one of us really want, our communities, our families, ourselves and our future, and that’s looking for the good life.”
Elder Mishquart, who is also the Northern Superior Region member of the Anishinabek Nation Getzidjig Advisory Council, says his father used to say that Anishinaabemowin is a spirit.
“He says it’s a spirit in the language, the reason being is because we get a visual,” Elder Mishquart says. “And when we tell stories in Anishinaabemowin, they’re more humorous too because you can just picture.”
Elder Mishquart says each Anishinabek area has their own dialect but people from different areas can usually understand each other when speaking Anishinaabemowin.
“I remember my dad, he came from Long Lake #58, and he talked to an elderly man from Rat Portage reserve in Kenora, and they were talking in their language,” Elder Mishquart says. “After they finished talking, I asked my dad [if he understood]. ‘Oh yeah,’ he says, ‘I understood everything.’ They didn’t use not one word of English to each other, and they didn’t tell each other, ‘That’s not how you say it.’ They just held a conversation.”
Elder Mishquart says Anishinabek in the Lac La Croix area near the Minnesota border and into Manitoba have similar dialects.
“Where it starts to get a little bit different is when you get around into Manitoulin Island, they do have some Potawatomi and Odawa influence in their dialect,” Elder Mishquart says.
The Ojibwe Language Conference also featured two Ojibwe Songs sessions by Anishinabek Nation Language Commissioner Barbara Nolan.
“These are some songs we translated a while back,” Nolan says. “Some of them I translated myself.”
Nolan recalls sharing an Anishinaabemowin song, Boozhoo, Boozhoo, with a group of five or six-year-old children while she was taking care of a summer program at Sault College many years ago.
“They all knew this song,” Nolan says. “But we sang it to a ceremonial tune. I’m going to sing that to you so that maybe you can incorporate it when you have children who want to be ceremonial-ish. Sometimes when they have ceremony they want to sing a ceremony song.”
Peter Shebagabow, Anishinaabemowin Boodawe e-wiikijitood (coordinator) who delivered Commands and Common Phrases (Beginner), Commands and Common Phrases (Intermediate) and Anishinaabemowin Bingo sessions during the Ojibwe Language Conference and a Long Lake #58 citizen, thanked the Elders who attended and shared during the conference.
“It always warms my heart to see our Elders and for them to come and share these moments with young people,” Shebagabow says. “I also want to thank the presenters — it’s great that you are doing what you are doing out there. To me, it feels like we have fighters for our language out there, giving that fight and trying to preserve that language, Anishinaabemowin.”
Shebagabow also thanked the Anishinaabemowin Boodawe Committee for their efforts and stressed how important Anishinaabemowin is.
“It’s just amazing what we’re capable of doing when we all come together,” Shebagabow says. “What I want to share is how important the language is, and by us doing these initiatives, to all the people across Turtle Island that are trying to revive and maintain our language, we’re at such a fragile time right now when it comes to our language. And it’s scary, it really is, it’s a race against the clock, but we keep pressing on forward and trying to maintain Anishinaabemowin.”
Other scheduled speakers were Clarice Pangowish with Anishinaabemodaa (Beginner) and Anishinaabemodaa (Intermediate) sessions; Shy-Anne Bartlett with two Games, Head and Shoulders sessions; and Sonya Belisle, Yvonne Kowtiash, Jen Rissanen and Ashley Muir during a Community Feedback on Anishinaabemowin Boodawe language initiatives session.