Mohawk language student project at Concordia University - Students exam revitalization of endangered language for course credits
MONTREAL, March 20, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - As Concordia University's Journalist-in-Residence, I tasked six students over the course of the winter 2018 semester with a special project: examining efforts in two Mohawk communities to revitalize and preserve one of Canada's oldest languages, Kanien'kéha (Mohawk).
These students have, since January, interviewed a host of first-language Mohawk speakers, second-language learners, and the teachers who are desperately trying to bring it all together, among others.
Two of the many questions we have been looking into are:
- In this age of reconciliation why is it so hard to fund a three-year program in Kanesatake, where facilitators have to apply and beg for every little bit?
- Why is an important and popular children's TV show in Kahnawake, told through the eyes of creatively cute puppets who speak only Mohawk, having such a hard time just to stay afloat, in this age of supposed reconciliation?
Our multi-media project talked to the grassroots, the Mohawk-language fighters, the ones who refuse to let money get in the way of their children's right to speak Kanien'kéha ? and their community's future.
We hope to complete our project by May, but in the meantime there is an opportunity to come with us to see what kind of work we are doing, and to interview those involved, on both sides of the camera/recorder/pen.
The students, each with their own multi-media expertise, are:
Lindsay Richardson: [email protected]
Kelsey Litwin: [email protected]
Miriam Mokrusa: [email protected]
Natalia Fedosieieva: [email protected]
Ambre Giovanni: [email protected]
Brian Lapuz: [email protected]
We spoke to, among others:
Elder Harvey Gabriel (Kanesatake), who has released two editions of a Mohawk dictionary,
Second-language learner and teacher Akwiratékha Martin (Kahnawake), who teaches our youth,
Two students studying the language in Kanesatake (Wenhni'tiio Will Gareau and Megan Harding),
Key Kanesatake resource person and fluent speaker Hilda Nicholas,
Mohawk teacher Kanastatsi Nancy Howard, who came out of retirement to teach,
We will also be speaking to (and media is welcome to tag along):
Liberal MP for Ville-Marie-Sud-Ouest-Nun's Island Marc Miller, who made history by speaking Mohawk in the House of Commons last year,
NDP MP for Abitibi-James Bay-Nunavik-Eeyou Romeo Saganash, who has fought hard for Native rights, including language,
Phillip Meilleur, Executive Director of Native Montreal.
SOURCE The Eatsern Door
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