This blog really started as a Cree language blog over two years ago. Back then, all I wanted to do was celebrate and explore nêhiyawêwin. It was a way for me to keep using my language even though I had moved to Montreal and was far from my home territory. I have spoken often of…
Tag: indigenous resurgence
The reports of our cultural deaths have always been greatly exaggerated
To hear non-Indigenous people tell it, we’ve been teetering on the edge of extinction since not too long after Contact. That narrative hasn’t changed much over the years, though the cause of our cultural and perhaps even physical demise has varied somewhat in the details. There have been moments of colonial guilt over past policies,…
What revolution looks like to me, sovereignty summer schools?
It is so easy to get bogged down by all the problems indigenous peoples face. Poverty, suicide, addiction, disease, incarceration, homelessness, violence — where does one even begin to address these things? We can cast our nets widely, and see the big picture in all its ugly colonial horror. This is absolutely necessary; but philosophically…
Hunters/gatherers to trappers/harvesters. Does it matter what they call us?
The Inuit make no bones about it. Theirs is a hunting culture; but what does that mean? Most Inuit still eat a solid diet of country food, which is just like it sounds, traditional foods such as caribou, whale, seal, fish and so on. Hunting remains a central practice in Inuit communities. So is that…
Idle No More: some ideas for Cree language revitalisation (resource focus)
Though it hasn’t been much apparent in the past year, this blog started as a Cree language blog, and I’m going to take us back into that today to discuss Cree language revitalisation. First, if you haven’t checked it out yet, I have compiled many resources to help people access Cree language materials. There are…