(Submitted photo/Evanjaline Young, Cumber House Cree Nation Daycare)

By Ben Tompkins

Maintaining the culture

Cumberland House Cree Nation to offer Cree language teachings through daycare

Nov 5, 2021 | 3:31 PM

Starting this December, the Cumberland House Cree Nation will offer Cree language teachings through their daycare.

The program will be a Swampy Cree language nest, which will educate young children from the age of six months to five years old.

With the Cree language in a critical state, according to Marlene McKay, Chief Executive Officer of Cumberland House Cree Nation, the time was now to regain the awareness of their culture, within their younger generation.

“The goal of the Swampy Cree language nest is to immerse six month to five-year-olds, who are in the daycare, in the language. The goal is to not speak English, it will be full Swampy Cree. Right now, we’re at a point in time where the indigenous languages are being spoken less and less,” McKay said.

“In my generation, we all spoke Cree and there’s a lot of younger people who understand it but can’t speak it and there are some who can’t even understand it, so we need to do whatever we can to revive and revitalize it, to bring it back, because it is our worldview. It contains how we associate with each other, our values and our beliefs. If the language dies, a part of our culture dwindles. We need to do what we can to bring it back. I see this as valuable and helpful to our community.”

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McKay also told northeastNOW about her childhood and how the efforts of some to assimilate her culture, now have to be reversed.

“I didn’t know English when I was growing up, because Cree was my first language and there were moments when I was learning English, where people would laugh at me as if it were a major flaw. It made me feel very foolish and that there was no pride in my ability to talk Cree. It has just become so unfair,” McKay said.

“We live in a country where the English language is celebrated and little value has been put on the Indigenous languages and they were shamed out of us. In residential schools they weren’t allowed to talk Cree, a lot of effort went to taking the indigenous languages away and now we’re at a state where we need all that effort to bring the language back.”

McKay also mentioned these language nests won’t be strict teaching but will be more modelling of the culture that they have within. She also said she hopes that something like this can continue on, as the future plans are not set in stone.

“Daycare involves teaching, learning and socialization. The goal is for it to be about modelling and speaking it and not shaming anyone for speaking it. Modelling the care, the language and the culture. It would be great for this to be ongoing and that will be my next mission. This is a grant and it will come to an end, so the future of this language nest is I guess, in question. I’ll do what I can to keep it going.”

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8