Maddie and Carol-Rose speak of their experiences with Mi’gmaq retention efforts.
For the full post click here.
Maddie and Carol-Rose featured on the Canadian Language Museum Blog
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Author Archives: Carol Rose
Bilingual Mi’gmaq-English Podcast
The first episode of “Pjila’si Mi’kma’ki” [Welcome to Mi’kma’ki], a bilingual Mi’gmaq-English podcast, debuted May 22, 2015. The podcast discusses issues relevant to Mi’gmaq people in the 21st century as well as furthers the preservation and conservation of Mi’gmaq language and culture. The podcast’s creator, Annie Claire, is from Elsipogtog, New Brunswick.
The first episode talks about child apprehension and foster care in Canada.
First episode can be here here
Check out podcast’s blog here
[Untitled] by Carol Dana
Pensive in her rocking chair
stiff and straight faced.
The hard line of her mouth
I would wait to see crack
To know what was inside.
Sometimes I felt I should hide
from her sternness and harsh ways,
Although there were many days
she would talk and smile with her friends,
passing the while
speaking in Passamaquoddy,
their eyes smiling with fun
when directed at me.
I wondered, now what have I done
to amuse them so?
I would be perturbed to no end
for some understanding.
Little did I know the ladies joked
about having fun, teasing, and sex.
They talked about human qualities,
What the neighbors said or done.
We were the age-old stream
of lndian people
Yet I couldn’t participate
because of my lack of native language.
Born and raised on Indian Island, Carol Dana has six children and nine grandchildren. In 2008 she earned her MAin education at the University of Maine. She has devoted years to Penobscot language revitalization, working with linguist Frank Siebert on the Penobscot dictionary project during the 1980s and teaching Penobscot at the Indian Island School during the 1990s. At present she is the cultural historical preservation officer for the Penobscot Nation, where she has helped to produce several workbooks, videos, and other cultural materials. The following poems first appeared in her chapbook When No One Is Looking.
from Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England (2014)
Douglas Gordon featured in McGill Reporter “Notes from the Field”
Douglas Gordon, who spent his first summer in Listuguj last summer, has published a piece in the McGill Reporter’s “Notes from the Field”. Douglas writes about his experiences in Listuguj and the efforts of the Mi’gmaq language revitalization project ongoing there. View his story here.
“Notes from the Field” features posts by McGill students and professors who have done fieldwork and research across the world.
Janine Metallic and Michael Hamilton on CKUT’s All Things McGill
On Monday September 1st, MRP members Janine Metallic and Michael Hamilton were featured on 90.3FM CKUT’s show “All Things McGill“. CKUT invited them to talk about the community-linguistics partnership between Listuguj and the McGill Linguistics Department.
Janine spoke on how the project began as a linguistics Field Methods course. “In sharing a knowledge about my language, I would also expect the class as a whole to share something with the community and so that’s where the partnership really started to take hold. All the students’ projects in the class were directed at parts of the Mi’gmaq language where they could come back to the community and present. And that’s what they did at the end of the semester.”
Michael spoke on the changing nature of research and fieldwork. He discussed the unfortunate tradition in many academic disciplines where there is “a lot of taking of knowledge and not a lot of sharing” adding that “recently this trend has been changing and we wanted to be part of this changing trend where knowledge can flow both ways.”
You can listen to the show here (scroll to minute 6 for the programme to begin).
Updates from the Partnership: Workshop, Instagram Contest, Quizlet & More!
The Second Mi’gmaq Language Summer Workshop is being held Tuesday August 5, beginning at the Listuguj Bingo Hall. Guest speakers Starr Paul of Eskasoni and Diane Mitchell of Listuguj will speak on the importance of learning the Mi’gmaq language and programs that help support language learning. The theme of the workshop is learning language through social media. There will be fun cultural booths set up around the workshop that include basket-making, language learning resources and replicas of Mi’gmaq language classrooms. Breakfast and lunch is provided. All events are free. This workshop would not be possible without the organizing committee of the high school graduate and post secondary students attending Mi’gmaq classes.
Win an iPod s
huffle by posting a video of you speaking Mi’gmaq on instagram with the hashtag #migmaqcontest or post the video to the Listuguj Mi’gmaw Language Club on Facebook.
huffle by posting a video of you speaking Mi’gmaq on instagram with the hashtag #migmaqcontest or post the video to the Listuguj Mi’gmaw Language Club on Facebook.Only 3 weeks in and already 27 sets and 258 words and phrases ready to be studied have been created in Quizlet, the flashcard app and website! Mary Ann Metallic has been adding words after each class that coincide the content she teaches in the class. Community members from around Listuguj have lent their voices to record terms and phrases to help you learn Mi’gmaq. We welcome any community members to volunteer to record a set! Contact the Education Directorate to record.
See whose voices you recognize already!
Voices on there are Lola Vicaire, River Ajig, Vicky Metallic, Joyce Barnaby, Mary Ann Metallic, Janice Vicaire, Joe Wilmot, Donna Lexi Metallic and many more!
Daily dose of Mi’gmaq words with #migmaqwordoftheday on the LearnMigmaq twitter.
Douglas, Silver, Joe and Diane have been working to reorganize and continue to develop content on CAN 8. This includes a more interactive user interface with more ways to test and improve knowledge of Mi’gmaq. This places an emphasis on showing rather than telling users patterns in the language.
Day 1: Greetings from Eskasoni!
Douglas, Carol Rose, Lola, Yuliya and Alan on Goat Island, Eskasoni, NS.
Our latest venture has brought us (Alan, Carol Rose, Douglas, Lola, and Yuliya) 739 km southeast of Listuguj to Eskasoni, a Mi’gmaq First Nations Reserve in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Eskasoni is a model community where the Mi’gmaq language is alive and spoken daily between its community members. Leaving on Sunday, we set out to meet with community members and Mi’gmaq teachers who are helping preserve the language.
The first day we met with our host, Blaire Gould, the Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey Mi’gmaq Language Coordinator. Blaire Gould works with all programs related to education and the Mi’gmaq language. These tasks include working with Mi’gmaq online dictionary, leading professional development workshops, presenting on the Mi’gmaq language programs around the continent, coordinating Mi’gmaq language programs in and around Eskasoni and between all that she organizes the bienniel L’nuisultinej conference at St. Francis Xavier University.
Retired teachers (a.k.a. The Pioneers of the Immersion Program) Barbara Joe and Fran Young and former Mi’gmaq immersion teacher Mary Propser-Paul joined us over tea to talk about their experiences teaching Mi’gmaq.
Goat Island pathway
We talked to them about our newest development, learnmigmaq quizlet, which they received with enthusiasm. Grade 1 Mi’gmaq immersion teacher Cindy Poulette, has been using a flashcard game in her classroom. The grade 1 children sit in groups while Cindy holds up a card with a picture on it. Whichever group gueses the correct Mi’gmaq word first receives a point. She liked the audio and image function that quizlet provides. Due to its versatile and accessible nature, quizlet can be used in classrooms via the internet and projected on a screen for such games. When offline, the quizlet app can also be accessed with a smartphone or tablet and any list that had been opened beforehand can be used. The quizlet interface can accommodate a game such as Cindy’s for classes of all ages and all levels.
Meeting at the Elder Centre, we talked with retired and current teachers about the state of the Mi’gmaq language in Eskasoni as well as the programs in effect and under development. Eskasoni has an immersion program up to grade 4. The immersion program is taught at the community school in Eskasoni where all courses are transmitted in the Mi’gmaq language. Grade 4 is the transition year where classes are bilingual English and Mi’gmaq to prepare them for grade 5 where all classes are in English.
Storage lodge on Goat Island.
In the afternoon we took a tour of Goat Island, a cultural walking experienced located in Eskasoni. We walked around the island which had various mini villages set up along the way, each one having different theme. The themes of the mini villages included basket-making, waltes (a traditional Mi’gmaq game) and replicas of wigwams.
Twitter, instagram, language club and more!
There are many new developments going on this summer to spread the Mi’gmaq language. Follow us on instagram, twitter and facebook to stay involved!
Twitter – @learnmigmaq follow word of the day #migmaqwordoftheday
Instagram – @learnmigmaq weekly videos with vocabulary and dialogue in the Mi’gmaq language. Also check out Savvy Simon’s videos on instagram (@msnativewarrior). L’nuisi, it’s that easy!
Listuguj Mi’gmaw Language Club – Weekly conversation group meeting every Thursday at 6pm at the Listuguj Education Directorate. All activities are solely in Mi’gmaq – a great way to practice conversation in Mi’gmaq.
Mi’gmaq Language Summer Workshop 2 - Check out our webpage under the workshop section for more information. This event will take place August 5th at the Listuguj Bingo Hall.
How to get involved
Be a part of our social media team! For Mi’gmaq videos, posts or pictures just use the hashtag #SpeakMikmaq or #SpeakMigmaq
What do Beyoncé and Buzzfeed have in common with the Mi’gmaq language? Read on!
Summer 2014, the McGill students are back. Yuliya, McGill PhD Candiate, and Carol Rose, beginning her doctoral studies at Cornell University in the fall, will both be traveling to Listuguj for their second and third summers, respectively. Douglas Gordon, an undergraduate in the linguistics department, will also be joining them after having been awarded the McGill Arts Scholarship.
The team plans to continue projects like the wiki, language-learning software, and research.
New possibilities for summer 2014 are the following:
- Twitter word of the day
- Instagram/vine video of the day featuring a conversation or vocabulary word in Mi’gmaq
- A new web site, separate from the linguistic-y one, devoted to Mi’gmaq learning resources
- Buzzfeed-esque top 10 lists (e.g. top 10 essential words in Mi’gmaq, five ways to say hello)
- Weekly language club
- Surveys posted around in visible places of students learning Mi’gmaq similar to the survey posted below for AMEX by Beyoncé (except “why I learn Mi’gmaq” rather than “my card..”)
Surveys for students of Mi’gmaq, but less AMEX-y and more language-y
Please comment with thoughts about this below. All input is greatly appreciated!
Writing in a second language
A recent New York Times article brings up an interesting trend of authors writing in a second language. This is very common in the academic sphere as many academics chose English as the language for publication. However, in the literature sphere, writing in a second language is becoming more common. And it is not just English they are writing in.
The authors say a second language gives them a different perspective, some say even freeing them from the automaticism of a native language. They are able to play with words in ways that native speakers may not do. For example, Bosnian writer, Aleksandar Hemon, has invented new phrases like “clouds and cloudettes”.
Italian writer, Francesca Marciano, says about writing in a second language: “You discover not just words but new things about yourself when you learn a language…I am a different person because I fell in love with English…”
How does Mi’gmaq factor into this? Learners of Mi’gmaq should not think of their second language skills as a crutch. Rather, they can bring new and exciting flavour to the language they are speaking. There have been many successful writers and orators who use a non-native language as their language of choice. A second language can be a new and exciting medium of expression. Not only do you learn about another culture and history but you can also learn about yourself.
