Applied Languages

    Posted by Jaiken Struck on September 7th, 2009

Tasheena Sarazin lost her native language at the age of 10. But she’s determined not to let the same thing happen to her two boys.

“I know some words, but my partner knows Cree and I get him to speak it around our children as much as he can,” she said Sunday at the Nipissing First Nation Traditional Powwow on Jocko Point. “I may not be able to understand what he’s saying, but I really want them to learn it.”

Sarazin, of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan near Golden Lake, Ontario, Canada said she spoke the language regularly until she turned 10. “When I started to go to school I lost it completely. My mother tried desperately to save it, she would even put labels on everything, but (it didn’t work).”

Language was the theme at this weekend’s gathering where more than 3,000 people attended, including 160 native dancers from across the province.

Coun. Perry McLeod-Shabogesic, powwow committee chairman, said a language strategy is being put together to find ways to save it. “If we lose our language we become a shell, because we’re missing an important part.“

“The ones who use the language are getting older and dying. We have to immerse our little ones in it and try to stop it from disappearing.”

McLeod-Shabogesic said his 18-year-old son Falcon Skye is attending school to become an Ojibway language teacher and plans on returning to his community to teach.

Nipissing First Nation Chief Marianna Couchie said she was hoping the Prime Minister’s apology to First Nations people about the treatment they endured in residential schools would come with some money to help people relearn their language. Couchie said no funding has been delivered yet, but she is remaining optimistic.

Peter Beaucage, a teacher at Canadore College, said he’s seeing a revival of the lost languages amongst young people, however the damage done to four or five generations from the residential school system will be hard to reverse.

He said about 99% of native people don’t speak their languages anymore, which poses a real challenge in getting it back. “Parents and grandparents don’t have the language to pass on. They were disciplined harshly (in residential schools) and told not to follow their culture.”

Read more: North Bay Nugget

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