Oji-Cree, Ojibwe languages getting stronger

While older youth seem to be using their languages less frequently, especially in urban centres, more elementary school children are learning Oji-Cree and Ojibwe and that has instructors optimistic for the future of the languages.
“It’s coming back full blast in the school system, where there’s a variety of choices to take either French or our First Nation language,” said Nathaniel Moses, the BIWAASE’AA youth outreach worker at Our Lady of Charity School who has worked in the public school system in Thunder Bay for the past nine years. “I think it’s going to bloom from there.”
Moses has seen a significant change among students over the past nine years regarding their heritage, being proud of who they are and achieving success for themselves.
“The native language program we have in our school assists them in all ways,” Moses said.
Moses didn’t learn Ojibwe when he was growing up, but he has been learning more as an adult from the children at school and on the powwow trail.
“They didn’t really speak it to us when we were growing up,” Moses said. “Being First Nations and a dancer for almost four decades, my challenge is with my speech and with the dance it is the language I use.”
Gull Bay’s Casie Mathewson said many youth have lost their language in the Nipigon area.
“I can understand words but I’m not fluent in it, which is part of the reason behind my opinion that the language is being lost,” said the Grade 11 student at St. Patrick High School in Thunder Bay. “I know people from my reserve, especially the older people like my mom can speak it and understand it, but as for my friends from around the area I am from and even my friends here on the Mission (Fort William), I can’t see any of them that can speak fluently.”
Webequie’s Amanda Suganaqueb was a fluent Oji-Cree speaker when she moved to Thunder Bay about three years ago for a better education but she barely speaks her language now.
“It’s a problem,” said the Grade 9 student at Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute in Thunder Bay. “A lot of kids lose their language, and that leads them to losing their culture sometimes too.”
Suganaqueb said it is different living in the city because most people speak English first instead of Oji-Cree.
“You feel like you’re all alone,” Suganaqueb said.
Webequie’s Matilda Suganaqueb finds it “kind of hard” to speak Oji-Cree while living in Thunder Bay.
“Back in the community (Webequie), I speak Oji-Cree to my friends, family and everyone else,” said the Grade 11 student at Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute in Thunder Bay. “Sometimes I speak English over there, but not really.”
Matilda said there should be more language programs for native youth who want to learn and keep their language in the city.
“I’m losing a little bit of my language,” Matilda said. “I understand it but I can’t speak as well as before.”
Grand Chief Stan Beardy said the Indian Act put very little value on First Nations culture.
“We need to decolonize using techniques from Maori people and other people that have survived in spite of obstacles and challenges,” Beardy said, noting his recent trip to India for the 4th International World Conference of Elders of Ancient Traditions and Cultures opened his eyes to some of the challenges Nishnawbe Aski Nation is facing. “The Maori people have agreed to come in and share their techniques. You focus on cultural identity, you focus on your language, you focus on your history.”
Beardy said Oji-Cree and Cree are land-based languages that describe activities on the land.
“The communities that focus a lot on land-based training concepts are where the language is becoming strong again,” Beardy said. “But in the last five years, a lot of the younger people that have gone to secondary institutions for learning begin to realize that to be fully functional in today’s society that’s integrated, they need to be very strong culturally.”
Beardy said people need to be able to speak their language and understand their history and culture.
“What I want to focus on is trying to create that awareness to young people that it is OK to be a native person, it is OK to speak Anishinabemowin, it is OK to be who you are.”