WEBVTT 00:00:09.926 --> 00:00:18.435 I was a teacher for 10 years and made books for 14 years, 00:00:18.435 --> 00:00:21.896 altogether I worked for the Cree School Board for over 24 years. 00:00:21.896 --> 00:00:25.316 I taught Cree language but mostly Cree syllabics. 00:00:25.316 --> 00:00:36.036 When I first taught, the kids were still good at talking in Cree. 00:00:36.036 --> 00:00:40.290 Nowadays I see many kids not being able to talk in Cree. 00:00:40.915 --> 00:00:49.257 The first language I learned was Cree, before knowing English. 00:00:49.257 --> 00:00:52.302 A long time ago everyone spoke in Cree. 00:00:53.344 --> 00:01:00.185 When I was young, the English language wasn’t around. 00:01:00.185 --> 00:01:07.817 My parents didn’t speak in English or French, I only heard Cree when I was young. 00:01:08.068 --> 00:01:15.325 Nowadays, the Cree that’s spoken sounds very different from the old Cree 00:01:15.325 --> 00:01:19.662 because the old Cree isn’t spoken that much anymore. 00:01:19.662 --> 00:01:24.751 I think this is happening because people aren’t in the bush anymore. 00:01:24.751 --> 00:01:29.214 Most of the Cree language comes from hunters who live in the bush. 00:01:29.214 --> 00:01:32.884 People don’t live in the bush anymore, that's why the Cree spoken is a lot different. 00:01:33.093 --> 00:01:42.352 I’d be happy if we could take back our language and culture, because they go together. 00:01:42.352 --> 00:01:49.776 If we lose our culture, we lose the language. 00:01:49.776 --> 00:01:52.570 That’s how I look at it and it’s how I feel about it. 00:01:53.154 --> 00:02:03.123 I think there is a lot of exposure to non-indigenous cultures, which is why we’re losing the language. 00:02:03.123 --> 00:02:07.585 For example, when I taught in Cree, 00:02:07.585 --> 00:02:13.925 I saw that children who lived with their grandparents in the bush were more fluent in their language. 00:02:13.925 --> 00:02:17.804 When I began teaching Cree language, most of the kids were good at talking in Cree. 00:02:17.804 --> 00:02:22.725 Today, it isn’t comparable because other kids aren’t able to speak the language. 00:02:22.725 --> 00:02:29.941 Once they enter the school they stop talking in Cree, they use English when they talk. 00:02:30.859 --> 00:02:39.826 Children who were raised by their grandmothers were fluent in Cree when they entered school. 00:02:39.826 --> 00:02:44.038 I think many teachers who are teaching can say the same, 00:02:44.038 --> 00:02:51.379 when children entered school they were able to speak the language. 00:02:51.379 --> 00:02:54.424 Nowadays, it isn’t so. The kids only talk to each other in English. 00:02:54.424 --> 00:03:00.680 Many smaller kids aren’t able to talk in Cree, but are able to pick up English right away. 00:03:01.264 --> 00:03:09.230 The parents can help their children by cutting down on talking English to them. 00:03:09.230 --> 00:03:18.198 The kids use what language they see on tv, they learn a lot of it when they’re watching it. 00:03:18.198 --> 00:03:24.037 The first time I heard English was when I went to residential school, it was the first time I heard it. 00:03:24.037 --> 00:03:29.125 My late grandmother was able to talk in English but not all the time, 00:03:29.125 --> 00:03:33.046 I wasn’t able to understand whenever she used it. 00:03:33.046 --> 00:03:38.009 When I went to residential school I didn’t understand it. 00:03:39.135 --> 00:03:44.265 I only understood it later on whenever I was spoken to. 00:03:44.265 --> 00:03:49.520 I gradually understood it whenever we talked to each other. 00:03:49.687 --> 00:03:55.235 After being in residential school for a year I could say that I really understood it, 00:03:55.235 --> 00:03:57.904 it wasn’t hard for me to learn. 00:03:58.029 --> 00:04:05.578 I was 14 years old when I knew how to write with Cree syllabics. 00:04:05.578 --> 00:04:11.376 Back then a priest lived in Waswanipi for a very long time, he became fluent in Cree 00:04:11.376 --> 00:04:19.342 and what he did was he would hunt and trap for himself just like a Cree person. 00:04:19.342 --> 00:04:25.682 I never saw him doing that, because I wasn’t born yet. 00:04:25.682 --> 00:04:29.686 When I was 14 years old, he came back to Waswanipi 00:04:29.686 --> 00:04:33.815 and he was the person who taught me how to read the Cree bible. 00:04:33.815 --> 00:04:36.067 He would be in Waswanipi during the summer 00:04:36.067 --> 00:04:41.281 and we would go to his place where he would teach us how to read in Cree. 00:04:41.281 --> 00:04:49.247 He helped the Cree to read in Cree syllabics and he would say to us 00:04:49.247 --> 00:04:58.798 “don’t lose your Cree identity because it’s God’s gift to you.” 00:04:58.881 --> 00:05:02.593 The boys never went with us girls to learn how to read in Cree. 00:05:02.593 --> 00:05:11.894 The girls and I tried learning it and what really helped was going to church to read the bible aloud. 00:05:11.894 --> 00:05:16.983 This was while we had a Cree priest, everything was read in Cree. 00:05:16.983 --> 00:05:20.320 Going to church really helped me know the Cree language 00:05:20.320 --> 00:05:27.243 because I would hear singing and I would follow along with the bible reading. 00:05:27.243 --> 00:05:31.622 The elder that was first there didn’t teach me everything, 00:05:31.622 --> 00:05:35.877 not all of us knew how to read it in Cree syllabics. 00:05:35.877 --> 00:05:41.966 I only became better when I went to a church prayer. 00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:50.683 When I began teaching, we didn’t have learning material for us to use. 00:05:50.683 --> 00:05:52.685 We had to make our own. 00:05:52.685 --> 00:05:59.067 At the time, we had people make the Cree books we used for teaching, 00:05:59.067 --> 00:06:03.196 because there wasn’t anything available. 00:06:03.196 --> 00:06:13.623 There were only the Moose Cree bible and the Cree Hymn book. 00:06:13.623 --> 00:06:21.464 The books that people worked on were translated into English. 00:06:21.464 --> 00:06:27.595 Others students made short stories, 00:06:27.595 --> 00:06:37.647 we were told to make stories that would be used for teaching and that’s what we did. 00:06:37.647 --> 00:06:46.447 I was happy to see that there was learning material for kids to become better at reading in Cree. 00:06:46.447 --> 00:06:52.120 It was difficult to teach because nothing was written in standard Cree, 00:06:52.120 --> 00:06:56.582 each person wrote the book in their dialect. 00:06:56.582 --> 00:07:00.962 It was a difficult task that was requested from us, to write them in the standard dialect. 00:07:00.962 --> 00:07:07.385 We were told, “don’t write in your dialect, write everything in standard Cree.” 00:07:07.385 --> 00:07:12.807 It didn’t work out because the communities of Whapmagoostui, Chisasibi, and Wemindji 00:07:12.807 --> 00:07:17.770 have a dialect of their own and that was difficult to teach with. 00:07:17.770 --> 00:07:38.541 When the Cree lexicon was made, both the Northern and Southern dialects worked on it separately. 00:07:38.541 --> 00:07:44.964 We were told to use the standard Cree for the Cree lexicon. 00:07:48.718 --> 00:07:56.142 It was the first thing we were told to do so that we didn’t write it in our own dialect. 00:07:56.142 --> 00:07:59.061 Everyone of us wrote the Cree words differently 00:07:59.061 --> 00:08:04.525 but eventually we got used to writing it using standard Cree. 00:08:04.734 --> 00:08:08.654 The Cree lexicon that we worked on had Cree words used by elders, 00:08:08.654 --> 00:08:12.950 the Cree lexicon has old Cree in them. 00:08:12.950 --> 00:08:19.665 These words came from the elders and they were explained by them. 00:08:19.665 --> 00:08:26.047 We only wrote down what they said. 00:08:26.047 --> 00:08:33.429 In the Cree lexicon, the words didn’t come from us they come from the old Cree. 00:08:33.429 --> 00:08:43.689 The Cree youth should try and speak the language, they can become better Cree speakers. 00:08:43.689 --> 00:08:49.278 I think what’s stopping them to try is the lack of encouragement. 00:08:49.278 --> 00:08:53.074 I think they’re more comfortable talking in English and French. 00:08:53.991 --> 00:09:03.042 Whenever kids are in the bush, they learn a lot of Cree words. 00:09:03.042 --> 00:09:13.678 When I went to school in Moose Factory, everyone spoke in their Moose Cree dialect. 00:09:13.678 --> 00:09:18.266 I never heard our dialect while I was there. 00:09:18.266 --> 00:09:23.396 When I went back about 10 years ago, I didn’t hear their dialect spoken. 00:09:23.396 --> 00:09:28.693 I couldn’t hear anyone speaking in Moose Cree. 00:09:28.693 --> 00:09:36.909 I asked the older woman I stayed with, “where’s the spoken Moose Cree?” 00:09:36.909 --> 00:09:44.125 She replied, “we lost our language when the hunters stopped living in the bush, 00:09:44.125 --> 00:09:52.091 and we lost it quickly because our people married outside the community, 00:09:52.091 --> 00:09:56.596 so now we hear more people using your dialect." 00:09:56.846 --> 00:09:59.932 We’re going to go through that too 00:09:59.932 --> 00:10:07.315 because the children who aren’t born yet will not be spoken to in Cree. 00:10:08.024 --> 00:10:17.241 Maybe there can be a week or two where they say we’re only going to talk to each other in Cree. 00:10:18.784 --> 00:10:27.209 There are less syllabics on the Cree syllabic chart 00:10:27.209 --> 00:10:31.589 because the linguists condensed them and they did a very good job. 00:10:31.589 --> 00:10:37.345 When they heard us speak in Cree, they said 00:10:37.345 --> 00:10:46.312 “the Cree that’s spoken isn’t the same when you write it”. 00:10:46.312 --> 00:10:54.362 There were so many syllabics on the chart because it was in Moose Cree. 00:10:54.362 --> 00:10:59.867 People are able to understand the psalms and hymns whenever we pray, we still sing the songs 00:10:59.867 --> 00:11:02.620 in the Moose Cree dialect that have the longer vowels. 00:11:02.620 --> 00:11:08.376 When I first read it I didn’t understand the syllabics that have the longer vowels, 00:11:08.376 --> 00:11:12.296 eventually with time I was able to because the dialect is similar. 00:11:12.296 --> 00:11:22.098 The vowels we use aren’t too long, like the syllabic “maa” is okay, but when we say “ma” it’s too short. 00:11:22.098 --> 00:11:25.893 That’s why we use some of the vowels. 00:11:26.227 --> 00:11:31.023 There are some kids who are poor in the language 00:11:31.023 --> 00:11:35.903 because they go back and forth using English which has longer vowel sounds. 00:11:36.237 --> 00:11:37.863 We weren’t taught to do that. 00:11:37.863 --> 00:11:41.450 We were told to teach only using the Cree syllabics and not to follow the English letters. 00:11:41.450 --> 00:11:47.832 When the kids write, they follow along using the English letters. 00:11:49.041 --> 00:11:57.717 I saw other people who used English letters for writing. 00:11:58.050 --> 00:12:04.223 I think using them is distracting the kids who are learning how to write in Cree. 00:12:04.890 --> 00:12:09.729 Kids have a tendency to follow English letters more than Cree syllabics. I never used English letters. 00:12:10.229 --> 00:12:15.818 Others really improve their Cree by reading in Cree syllabics. 00:12:15.818 --> 00:12:21.323 If the kids read more Cree stories it will improve their Cree. 00:12:21.323 --> 00:12:24.326 The reading could even come from a meeting's minutes, 00:12:24.326 --> 00:12:29.623 because some of them are translated like those from the Cree Trappers Association. 00:12:29.623 --> 00:12:32.918 The reports are translated in Cree syllabics and people can read them. 00:12:32.918 --> 00:12:41.802 If they don’t understand what it says, they could read the English first then the Cree translation. 00:12:42.011 --> 00:12:47.975 I think this could really help someone improve their reading skills. 00:12:47.975 --> 00:12:52.104 I’m worried that we could lose our Cree language and culture. 00:12:52.104 --> 00:12:58.903 I think we should encourage our children and grandchildren to continue using the language. 00:12:58.903 --> 00:13:03.908 If we lose our Cree language and culture, we lose it forever. 00:13:03.908 --> 00:13:06.911 It could have a big effect.