A place where our language lives
November 9, 2015 8:18 PM   Subscribe

A short film: The winter stories of the Ojibwe are vital narratives that offer a historical and moral guide for understanding the environment and our people’s place within it. One of these stories tells of the first maple sugar gathering. A tree offered its life-force (sap) for use by the people to help keep them alive through a difficult winter when many were starving to death. This tree asked to be cared for in return and to be thanked properly for this gift. Each spring the students at Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Immersion School open the school sugar bush with a retelling of this story and an opening feast of thanks.
posted by rtha (6 comments total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
Mod note: Several comments deleted. Please rewind to discuss the actual link rather than comprehensively derailing from the very first comment. This is about revitalizing indigenous languages.
posted by taz (staff) at 5:53 AM on November 10, 2015 [6 favorites]


Thanks for the post rtha, it is pretty inspiring. I noted the ways.org has a lot of video content so I'll explore.

One thing that interested me is that I had so thoroughly associated sugaring off with Quebecois culture, now it seems that perhaps that is an erasure of first nations history?
posted by chapps at 7:02 AM on November 10, 2015


I think of it as very much a Vermont thing (I mostly grew up in New England), but when I take a second to think about it, I'm not surprised that indigenous peoples would have found ways to extract the deliciousness that is maple sap and turn it into syrup. I'm glad that their customs and language around it are being revived and documented. (I'm also looking forward to exploring a lot more of the site, which looks full of interesting stuff.)
posted by rtha at 7:09 AM on November 10, 2015 [3 favorites]


Yes I noted a video in language preservation and hip hop!
posted by chapps at 7:37 AM on November 10, 2015


Thanks for posting this.

While the map ends at the existing Canada/US border, it's worth noting that this scenario:

The United States federal government began sending American Indian children to government-run schools in the late 1870s as part of an effort to solve the “Indian problem....

...was really part a contiguous attempt to extinguish First Nations language and culture irrespective of national borders, even if the authorities carrying those out did so under different flags.

That said, attempts to preserve and revive indigenous languages like this one in Kenora, Ontario are happening on this side of the border as well.

Here's some interesting language census data from both countries:

US (pdf): Native North American Languages Spoken at Home in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2006–2010

Canada: Aboriginal languages in Canada
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:34 AM on November 10, 2015 [2 favorites]


Just going to point out that there is a very interesting writer called David Treuer, who is half Ojibwe (and half Austrian Jew whose family survived the Holocaust). He writes about the language, literature and other issues around the relationship between Ojibwe culture and mainstream culture. I also think he and is brother are involved with language preservation.

wikipedia David Treuer

NPR review of "Prudence" (his last novel)

Appropos of nothing, I love Ojibwe country of Northern Minnesota.
posted by C.A.S. at 9:44 AM on November 10, 2015 [2 favorites]


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