Top News - July - 2003
Island powwow honours nation's past and future
College forges Ojibwe language program
City of Toronto celebrates National Aboriginal Day
This is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the July 2003 issue of Birchbark. If you are not receiving your own copy of Birchbark, then you have missed out on a lot.Click here for Birchbark subscription information.
Island powwow honours nation's past and future
Margo Little, Birchbark Writer, Little Current
Favourable winds off the North Channel and near perfect temperatures greeted participants in the 12th annual Aundeck- Omni-Kaning Powwow held June 7 and 8. The theme of the gathering was "honouring our past, celebrating our future." It took place five miles west of Little Current on the reserve.
The Medicine Star singers performed during the grand entry and the N'Swakamok youth drum sang to honour veterans in attendance.
Elder Violet McGregor conducted the invocation. She called upon the community to strive for peace on both a personal and a community level.
"We need to have peace within ourselves in order to have peace in our community and our country," she said.
"We cannot obtain peace through alcohol or drugs; we need to show our young people the way so that they can find that peace within themselves."
Chief Patrick Madahbee welcomed visitors to the gathering.
"We have been holding ceremonies every morning," he said. "We have been praying for the sick in our community and we have been praying for guidance for our youth. We asked the Creator to care for our Elders and our children."
He paid tribute to a group of Aboriginal youth and Elders who are walking to Ottawa to seek action on the youth suicide crisis. The Youth Suicide Prevention Walk began in Nanaimo, B.C. on April 1.
A blanket dance was held on June 8 to show support for the cause, and $149 was collected.
Support for American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier was also demonstrated during the powwow. An honour song was dedicated to Peltier, who has been incarcerated since a shoot-out with FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1973. He was arrested and charged with murder after a 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee.
Wikwemikong veteran Angus Pontiac presented feathers given to him by Peltier and asked the gathering to send their positive thoughts to the long imprisoned warrior.
College forges Ojibwe language program
Joan Taillon, Birchbark Writer, Sault Ste. MarieSault College of Applied Arts and Technology is working out the details for a four-month language pilot project, which it hopes to have ready this month.
Because of the rapid decline of the use of Native languages, First Nations, the college and their partners in cultural and language education realize they have reached a critical juncture if Native languages are going to be preserved. The Native Education and Training Department of the college has implemented programs, training and services to help save Native languages, but it recognizes that these efforts are not enough. English is rapidly replacing the Ojibwe language as the dominant language in schools, communities and homes in the region served by the college and beyond.
That is why Sault College is planning to implement what it describes as the Anishinaabe Pane Pilot Curriculum from Jan. 12, 2004 to April 30, 2004.
The pilot project is being designed to produce Ojibwe language speakers, and it has the additional goals of measuring the effectiveness of immersion programs on language retention, as well as developing a language program that deals with the issue of language loss.
If the project goes ahead, it will be held on campus from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday to Friday, with one hour for lunch. The curriculum will include four themes: storytelling, writing, cultural identity and singing. Students will acquire six hours of class time per course and have the opportunity for independent study in the language lab.
The program will be facilitated by qualified Ojibwe language teachers and will include guest speakers who can add to students' exposure to the language.
Carolyn Hepburn, the Ojibwe language initiatives co-ordinator at Sault College, hopes prospective students will take note. The college wants to have a minimum of 15 students enrolled in the pilot program.
The college hopes this will lead, Hepburn said, to implementation of a one-year (32-week academic year) immersion program the college is developing, to be taught 95 per cent in Ojibwe. This certificate program would be open to people with some knowledge of Ojibwe or with no knowledge of the language.
"What we'd like to do is partner up with interested First Nations and Aboriginal organizations to see if they would commit to sponsoring a student to attend the four-month pilot, and then we'd measure the results after the four months."
Carolyn Hepburn said the pilot project is the idea of retired dean Mary O'Donnell, who now has a role as director of Native strategy planning at the college.
The 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples noted that only a "small number of Aboriginal people speak Aboriginal languages." By 2001, the number of people reporting an Aboriginal mother tongue had decreased 3.5 per cent from 1996. Ojibwe language speakers declined 6 per cent in the same five years. The 2001 Canada Census revealed there were only 21,267 fluent Ojibwe speakers in Canada, down from 22,625 in 1996.
Sault College hopes that by providing students with a sixteen-week immersion pilot program, they will want to continue striving to learn Ojibwe and improve their skills. It is hoped that sponsored participants will be able to bring the language and traditional knowledge they acquire back to their communities and workplaces.
When the pilot project is complete, sponsoring agencies will critique the program and make recommendations for a language program that meets the needs of their communities.
Last March the Chiefs of Ontario (in a special assembly) recognized and affirmed three language families (Ojibwe, Cree and Iroquoian) within Ontario as "indispensable components to the survival and sustenance of Indigenous nationhood." The chiefs voted to support in principle the implementation of language immersion centres and to support an Ontario First Nation-driven language strategy incorporating a number of recommendations from the Ontario language caucus. The recommendations they approved include implementing a First Nation language action group; gaining approval and endorsement for a First Nation language foundation; looking at protective legislation for Ontario's First Nation languages; lobbying the government for resources to implement language revitalization, and implementing a communications campaign.
City of Toronto celebrates National Aboriginal Day
Suzanne Methot, Birchbark Writer, TorontoToronto celebrated National Aboriginal Day with a week of events designed to bring attention to Aboriginal culture in the city.
The festivities began with the ninth annual Toronto Aboriginal City Celebration, which took place June 17 at Nathan Phillips Square, outside city hall. The event featured live music, vendors, and information tables. It was joined by the Neekawnisidok art exhibition, which ran from June 16 to 21 in the rotunda inside city hall. National Aboriginal Day was celebrated on June 21 with more events in the square, including a sunrise ceremony, flag-raising ceremony, and the Buffalo Jump Unity Walk from Nathan Phillips Square to Fort York.
The June 17 festivities featured live music programmed by Toronto's Aboriginal Voices Radio (106.5 FM). Actress Tamara Podemski, who played Mimi in the Broadway production of Rent, previewed songs from the album she's currently recording. The audience clapped and whistled for songs such as All My Relations, which Podemski sang in Hebrew and Ojibway in honour of her Jewish/Ojibway ancestry. Podemski was accompanied by musicians playing djembe drum and acoustic guitar.
TruRez Crew filled the square with their rap music. They were followed by Mohawk guitarist Derek Miller, who wowed the crowd with selections from his Juno Award-winning album, Music Is the Medicine. Traditionalists were treated to the music of the Eagleheart drum and Spirit Wind.
A mix of Aboriginal organizations and government departments filled more than two dozen information tables. Vendors included Tsimshian designer Ronald Everett, who showcased his original clothing featuring West Coast-style art and button blankets. He sells his clothing over the Internet and is a regular attendee at festivals.
"I'm reluctant to start selling in stores, because of the high markup. When I sell direct to the public, there's no retail markup," Everett said.
The Neekawnisidok art exhibition inside City Hall featured work produced by local and regional artists. Notable pieces included a 1995 print by Joseph Sagaj, Mike Couchie's 2003 digital abstraction of a buffalo, Lorraine Hughes' 2003 oils on canvas, and Curtis Wabie's 2003 mixed media installation/sculpture of a dreamcatcher made out of computer parts and featuring a wire fringe.
Although National Aboriginal Day fell on a weekend this year, organizer Mae Maracle said the Toronto Aboriginal City Celebration took place on a weekday because "it began as a day to increase awareness about Aboriginal culture for city workers, and we've continued to hold it during the week so city workers and local businesses can participate. We also don't want to take away from any of the celebrations planned by the community on June 21."
