Going with the current

St. James-Assiniboia

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This article was published 05/07/2023 (1014 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tannishi kiya?

Waterways Recreation, a non-profit organization that specializes in providing summer canoe programming for Indigenous youth and communities around Manitoba, is dipping into language revitalization in the fourth year of its On the Land aañ Michif programs

The On the Land sessions, executed in partnership the Louis Riel Institute and the Manitoba Métis Federation, last four or five hours — four hours on weekday evenings, with five-hour sessions on weekends — and are being offered across southern Manitoba, including in Winnipeg, throughout the summer months. No prior canoeing experience is necessary.

Using canoes as a foundation for learning, the program aims to immerse new, silent or casual speakers in Michif — an Indigenous language which mixes French, Cree and Ojibwa, depending on the region.

The language will be taught both on the water and on-land through talk and music.

“It’s this idea that canoeing is so much more than a rec program that you do in the summer,” said James Lavallée, co-founder of Waterways.

“Canoeing is uniquely Indigenous, and explicitly ties to culture, tradition, land and water. It is like, literally a vehicle to explore and experience those different facets of life, for all the Indigenous youth that we’ve worked with.”

“I think (using canoeing) is something that is very synonymous with the culture,” added Julien Tetrault, program lead in Bloodvein First Nation. “Like, historically, in terms of how we came to be. I think that using paddling as a way of introducing the language to people … is something that’s really beautiful.”

Through the language program, Louis Riel Institute, which promotes Métis culture and education, aims to introduce or reintroduce Michif to families and people who have not been able to speak the language for some time, whether for social or familial reasons. The goal is get people using Michif in casual conversation at home, for example.

This sort of goal is familiar to Waterways. Since beginning in 2020, the non-profit has seen exponential growth, expanding programming from six to 30 different communities, and has helped kids and their families feel more comfortable and open with themselves and their culture while out on the water.

“I have a colleague and a friend who remarked to me after our second year of being in Black River (First Nation), he just remarked how wonderful it was to have youth from the programs show up in the evenings at his office, asking to borrow a canoe so they could take their parents out and show them where they had been paddling during the day,” said program leader Tristan Schneider.

“(Kids) are passing on discovery to their parents, which is really cool.”

There was a similar shift in how the participants viewed the water in Bloodvein, Tetrault said.

“There’s a lot of trauma involved with water in some of these communities, Bloodvein included. So there’s definitely this anxiety about it,” he said.

“On the first morning, like a Monday or Tuesday, (the kids will) be super shut down, they won’t be talking to anyone. But then by the end of the week, they’re the most excitable person. They’re jumping in the water, laughing, having so much fun. And that’s just something that is really beautiful to see.”

Waterways hopes to expand outside Manitoba in the future. But that’s years down the road, said Schneider.

For more information on On the Land aañ Michif, including locations, scheduling and registration, visit online at onthelandaanmichif2023.my.canva.site

For more on Waterways programming or to donate,visit www.waterwayscanada.com