Woodland Cultural Centre announces Beauty of Languages Exhibit

Kenkiohkwa…Sewatahonhsi:iohst (People Listen Well)

The Beauty of Language transcends time and space. Time because language is so fragile that it can be lost in a matter of one generation and space because those who are able to still speak it are sometimes lost in a demographic sphere of an indigenous land base. All too often, we tend to take our languages for granted and suddenly we come to the realization that there are only fragments of it left.

But the Hotinonhson:ni are a confederation of strong nations all bound together by a common purpose and determined to survive no matter what the conditions. The Hotinonhson:ni will never choose to assimilate and will accommodate to their surroundings to fit their needs and purposes like that of the natural environment. Languages, like nature, will change in order to survive but survive they will.

This exhibit will walk you through the path of that will to survive and you will hear it in the voices of our elders and in our youth.

You will hear the tears of a generation who were placed in the harshest environments and were physically prevented from speaking their mother tongues. You will feel their sense of bereavement, but then you will enter the era of their rebirth through the visualizations of the womb and in the faces of a new generation. A more tranquil existence of warmth, safety and love that lasts forever.

A step into the modern day language classroom will provide you with a sense of what we now have in existence. You will see some of the various language resources available that most curriculum designers are willing to share.

Remember when it was said that television helped to take away our languages ? Now, we use the concept of the Kaswenhtha, the Two Row, that as true as that may be, we can use technology to maintain our languages. The little boxes will entertain you with an abundance of Hotinonhson:ni languages being spoken by both young and old from across the confederacy.

Language is also present in our social and ceremonial songs and dances and you will have the opportunity to see and hear the musical repertoires and keep the tradition alive by sitting on the bench and singing your favorite social song using the (Kaneho:ron tanon Ohstawen:sera) Water Drum and Rattle.

As you exit you will have the opportunity to add a little bit of your language onto the Tree of Peace…a harmonious construct that was initiated by elder and orator Jake Swamp, a Wolf Clan Mohawk of the Ahkwesahsne Territory. Jake Swamp travelled the globe to promote his vision of world peace and did so by planting the pine tree both in the physical and theoretical sense. For as long as we promote our indigenous cultures through our beautiful languages we as a people will flourish into the Seventh Generation.

Come and join us on the evening of Friday, March 25th at 7:00 pm to celebrate the Beauty of Our Languages at the Woodland Cultural Museum, Brantford, Ontario.

Eh kati nikawen:nake. Ta:ne Tho. (Those are how many words and that is all for now)

Peters & Powless 2011