Local Ojibwe Speakers Tapped at Recent Language Camp

Sarah Cummins

9/21/2000 12:00:00 AM

A recent language camp helped local cultural representatives tap one of the community's rare resources - Ojibwe speakers.

The event took place Aug. 13 to 18 at the Saginaw Chippewa Campgrounds. Attendees were encouraged to camp on site and to bring their tape recorders. The "Ojibwe Mowin Gawbayshiwin" or Ojibwe Language Camp is an annual event. The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe volunteered to host this year's activities.

"We wanted to try to identify some of the speakers in our community," explained Charmaine Benz, publications specialist/editor for the Ziibiwing Cultural Society. "We want to use language in the center in some of the exhibits we are currently developing and designing." The site of the Ziibiwing Center, and it's completion are still in planning stages.

The people who came to the camp attended each day of class consistently, according to Ojibwe Language Instructor Brian McInnes of Fort Frances, Ontario. He said that the dedication and commitment of individuals to language is important.

The participants in the program were from many different age groups ranging from toddlers to Elders.

"The drive to continue the language comes from both ends," said McInnes. "Elders are forever urging us to remember the importance of language. There is also a very strong interest in speaking the language among five, six to seven-year-olds - not just 20-year-olds."

Twelve-year-old Saginaw Chippewa Tribal member Samantha Ekdahl said she enjoyed attending the event and would go again.

"It was kind of hard, but it was fun too," she said.

Ekdahl explained why she thinks learning Ojibwe is important.

"Not a lot of people know the language anymore," she said. "We learn, so we can keep carrying on the traditions."

McInnes said he believes immersion programs could effectively fight the loss of Native language in children.

"We are going to have to create our own school systems that sustain this, promote this," he said. "We have to get back to immersion. Parents need to have faith and commitment to their kids schools."

McInnes said he was confident that the participants from all age groups had achieved a growth process from attending the language camp.

"Some of them have come here with no language," he explained. "They have learned to give voice to feelings, emotions and desires."

Speaking to the Creator and fellow Anishinabe in Ojibwe is empowering, according to McInnes. However, not all Anishinabe speak Ojibwe the same way, although they are speaking the same language.

"People from different regions have different accents," he said. "I think it's important that we don't get hung up on that."

Despite differences in accents, Ojibwe speakers can understand each other, according to McInnes.

An Elder from Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario, where McInnes previously worked, gave some advice regarding this issue at a community meeting. McInnes said he has never forgotten her words: It's not important about dialect; it's important that we keep speaking.

Native languages have a lot of cultural significance, according to McInnes. Ojibwe is used at powwow, ceremonies and namings.

"Even names come from dreamers who speak the language," he said. "How do we dream names in a language we don't speak anymore?"