'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.
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