Six Nations Language Conference

By Kaweienón:ni (Margaret) Peters

A three day conference was held on the Grand River Territory in Ohswé:ken at the Six Nations Polytechnic starting from April 12th – 14th. What made this gathering unique was it was focused on the rejuvenation of our Six Nation languages.  There was no one talking in negative tones about the loss of our languages or showed any signs of fear that our languages were in any danger of disappearing.

Representatives from every nation across the Confederacy were in attendance to share the successes and to exchange ideas on what types of initiatives can be taken to ensure the continuance of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora languages.

Dr. Percy Abrams, Onondaga Nation was the first guest speaker to talk about the Certificate for Iroquois Linguistics program he currently teaches at Syracuse University.  The program is unique in that it focuses on the linguistic aspect of the Six Nation languages.

Several other workshops described how cultural educators such as Dave Williams work towards teaching the cultural and ceremonial language to their students at the Haudenosaunee Resource Centre.

Presenters from the Kawenní:io/Gawení:yo Private School demonstrated their usage of the Can 8 program, a recent addition to their resources through the K/G Language Preservation Project.

A panel of elders and researchers shared their work on the Hewitt Collection-Indigenous Methodology. They traveled to the Smithsonian in Washington to research archaic documents containing the written languages comprised of ceremonial content of all the nations of the Hotinonhsón:ni.

One workshop was a special screening of a film produced entirely in the Mohawk Language by Zoe Hopkins of Six Nations called Kahéhtakon (In the Garden).  Zoe is a student in the Adult Immersion program Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa whose father Brian (Owennatékha) Maracle is the founder and teacher of the very successful program.

Tom Deer, Regional Lead for Language and Culture in Six Nations, did a workshop on the use of TPR (Total Physical Response).  A group of instructors from the Kahnawà:ke Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa adult immersion program shared their successes in teaching Mohawk to adult learners in Kahnawà:ke. Also present from the KOR in Kahnawà:ke were the makers of the ever-popular Tó:ta tánon Ohkwá:ri series.  Konwennenhon Delaronde and Konwatsi’tsiá:wi Philips were on hand with the puppets from the show and talked about the initial production of the film to its present day success.  Konwennenhon described the many people involved in the production of the show and expressed gratefulness at the many people always willing to assist with the various aspects of the show.  They showed clips from their sixth series on DVD to the delight of the audience.

Andrea Cooke from the Seneca nation in Allegheny did a workshop on the Strategies and Experiences of their Master-Apprentice program.

One group led by Jeremy Green and Sean Thompson talked about the Everlasting Tree School on the Six Nations territory where students learn language in a home environment and not within the confinement of a classroom.  They have no formal program but teach the language in its natural form.

A group of the COOL, Cayuga Our Oral Legacy, comprised of mothers and sons Joanne & Ely Longboat and Tracy & Kehte Deer who were an integral part of initiating the conference, also talked about the amazing work they do to revitalize the Cayuga language within their community of Six Nations, but also share with other Cayuga programs if requested.

The audience was delighted by a film that was shown by the Onondaga language learners in which the students are heard talking about the Midwinter ceremonies.  Their teacher Gloria Williams described the various aspects of teaching the Onondaga language, and expressed the importance of teaching ceremonial content.

A group from the Kawenní:io/Gawení:yo Private School talked about the implementation of the Can 8 into their school.  The program is accessible to their students in the Mohawk and Cayuga languages.

Rick Hill of Six Nations showed a powerful power-point of a version of the Creation Story telling various aspects that many of the participants had not heard before.

Tekahiónhake (Teddy) and myself, Kaweienón:ni, were asked to conduct two workshops to talk about Learning Language as families and to share a Program Profile of the AMBE Skahwatsí:ra Tsi Ionteweienstáhkhwa.  We shared our experiences of our journey in giving our children and grandchildren the language and shared a short video of our grandson speaking the language at the age of two years old.  We shared our AMBE Kanien’kéha Proficiency Program in which we were able to show the audience several videos of student highlights speaking the language.  One of the videos, Kanien’kéha Stáio by Tekahiónhake’s grade 3 & 4 was a big hit with the conference attendees and even elicited audience participation.

Overall, it was an amazing, educational and informative conference that compiled information on how to implement more language strategies and to promote our languages within the communities across the confederacy.  The implementation of Language Laws at the council level to form language commissions and working teams, put up Bill Boards promoting our languages, more signage in the language at gas stations, restaurants, health centers, council buildings and on transportation and emergency vehicles such as police cars, ambulances and busses.  Have more community awareness days about language, in the language.  Bumper stickers, posters, brochures, the ideas were endless on how to promote our languages, and the group did not want to leave the gathering without having made some decisions to carry out some of the ideas that were suggested.  Some groups gave themselves a timeline to implement some of the ideas.  The participants and conference coordinators are busy working on some of the strategies as you are reading this article.