'It feels like home': Southwestern Manitoba camp connects language to land
Nestled in a ceremony site east of Southwestern Manitoba's biggest city, a group of language keepers is working to strengthen and grow fluent Dakota, Cree, Anishinaabemowin and Michif speakers.
They're part of the Brandon Friendship Centre's Eagle Healing Lodge's first land-based language camp. Four teepees have been set up between the forest and prairies, each home to an Indigenous language in Westman.
"Language has always been connected to the land," says Denise Sinclair, program co-ordinator for the healing lodge. "Everything that we're doing here is specifically land-based ... in the language so that you can hear it [and] you can pass that on."
The three-day camp, held Tuesday through Thursday, was an opportunity for participants to learn and speak Dakota, Cree, Anishinaabemowin and Michif, she said. They would speak their languages for different activities like setting up tents, smoking meat or medicine picking.
It's powerful seeing connections forged as people learn and speak their languages, Sinclair said. It's important work that has to carry on to help with language revitalization.
"Whatever you're learning you're going to remember … you're building that core memory with the language, that you needed growing up," Sinclair said.
Language as strength
The healing lodge has been cultivating a community centred on strengthening Indigenous languages since 2021, Sinclair said. It began as a program for Sixties Scoop survivors and grew to include residential school survivors and others.
Language serves to reconnect people with their culture and identity in a safe place centred on healing, Sinclair said.
"We have to remember that there's still that sense of …. something being taken," Sinclair said. "Now they feel safe to talk to us as learners because they feel that importance of passing on that language."
Martina Richard, from Waywayseecappo First Nation, camped out at the site for two days to immerse herself and her family in language and culture. Participants could choose to camp, or to go home for the night.
Richard's focus was on learning Anishinaabemowin. As she gets older, Richard says, she feels the need to be a fluent learner to help strengthen the language for future generations.
"Just like how it was spoken around me, I'm starting to use the language more around my children and they're starting to understand and use the words too," Richard said.
"It feels like home ... It's good to be around what feels like family."
Julia Brandon, also from Waywayseecappo, was one of the language helpers at the camp. She teaches Anishinaabomowin through cultural activities like smoking moose meat, beading and crushing chokecherries.
It's exciting getting out of the classroom and onto the land, Brandon said. It's a more hands-on experience for everyone involved no matter their language skill level.
She still considers herself a learner, because other women are expanding the words she knows in Anishinaabemowin.
"I'm getting strength from being around the other speakers to keep going," Brandon said.
Building Community
Lacey Hotain from Sioux Valley Dakota Nation is a Dakota speaker who works as a cultural support worker at the healing lodge.
Hotain visited each of the teepees to participate in different cultural activities and learn about different Indigenous languages.
"I definitely feel a sense of importance here because everybody who comes here has a role," Hotain said. She says she's always felt "a calling, of an obligation" to go back to language as a priority.
Hotain wants to help teach Dakota to young people in the future. She says her knowledge is being strengthened by working on the land at the camp.
The Eagle Healing Lodge is planning on hosting a second language camp in the spring. It's important to keep activities like this accessible – through being welcoming and available – for those struggling with their identity and their connection to language and culture, Sinclair said.
Brandon hopes the next camp will be fully immersive for participants, with Indigenous language spoken the whole time, to help keep languages thriving in the community.
She wants her grandchildren and the next generations can help carry the language forward, Brandon said. But, it's challenging because she wants them to be engaged and curious about Anishinaabemowin, but doesn't want to force them to learn the way she was forced to learn English.
This means they need more language options outside the camp so First Nation children can stay connected to their culture and traditions.
"The First Nations, we don't have our language because it's not promoted," Brandon said. "How do you promote your own language if you're if you're not talking it yourself?"
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