Cree language gets 21st-century reboot from First Nation Canadians

With entries ranging from pwâkamo-pahkwêsikan, the Cree word for pizza – “the throw-up bread” in literal English – to môniyâw-matotisân, a sauna or a “white-man sweat”, a crowdsourcing project documenting the vitality and evolution of the most widely spoken indigenous language in Canada is about to be published.

Neal McLeod, a poet and indigenous studies professor at Trent University, set out to connect with other Cree speakers on Facebook, aiming to gather together classical Cree vocabulary and to “coin and develop” words relating to contemporary life. According to a 2006 Canadian census, there are around 117,000 Cree speakers.

McLeod, who is from the James Smith Cree First Nation in Saskatchewan, received responses from across Canada and the US and, after working on the book with Arok Wolvengrey, will release 100 Days of Cree through the University of Regina Press later this week.

In his introduction to the book, McLeod writes that “one of the key things about learning a language is that people assist each other in the process”, but that “unfortunately, there have been many ruptures and breaks in the threads of our language through time: residential schools, collective trauma, and the influence of television and mass communication.

“Some of us no longer have grandparents – mosômak and kôhkomak – who can guide us in the process of learning language and stories. We need the stories and philosophy to drive and fuel our understanding of the language. It is by a collective effort that we can bring the power of the echo of the voices of the Old Ones, and the old stories, into the contemporary age,” he writes.

“All too often, people think that technology and television are negative factors leading to the decline of indigenous languages, including Cree. However, I would say the internet, including Facebook … can help with language retention. Social media played a key role in the writing of this book. Words were posted, and then people from all over Canada and the US contributed .”

The book contains sections on everything from household items and horses to Star Wars, poker, Facebook and Johnny Cash songs (wâsakâm-iskôtêwan is Ring of Fire and kwayask ê-pimohtêyân is I Walk the Line).

“One of the things on my bucket list … is to translate Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope into Cree,” writes McLeod, before laying out Cree for Attack of the Clones: kâ-môskîstâkêcik aniki kâ-nipahi-nâh-naspitâtocik, “literally, ‘when the Ones who resemble each other in an uncanny fashion attack’”, and tâpwê mamâhtâwisiw awa, “the Force is strong with this one”.

McLeod hopes that the book will “make a small contribution to the continued vitality of the Cree language, and to help provide people interested in the language to be able to use it to describe the world around them”.

“Terms were developed for things such as internet use and computers, demonstrating the great flexibility and adaptability of the language. It is hoped these gathered terms will offer something to the new, large, emerging generation of Cree speakers, in whose minds and bodies the future of the language now rests,” he writes. “I am a poet, and in this book I have attempted to push the Cree language to its limits. To quote the old Cree expression, kâya pakicî! âhkamêyimo! (‘Don’t quit! Persevere!’).”

The book’s release comes a year after the publication of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report, which found that Canada had pursued a policy of “cultural genocide” against the country’s aboriginal people, and that children in residential schools were forbidden to speak their native languages.

The University of Regina Press, which launched three years ago, is attempting to address this in its own small way, with a programme that includes readers in different languages, as well as 100 Days of Cree. A mix of stories, prayers and essays, the readers provide the text in a native language and in English, and the publisher has worked with elders in communities to gain their approval. So far, it has published five readers, most recently one in Lillooet, which publisher Bruce Walsh says has around 200 speakers left. His goal is that the series will cover more than 60 aboriginal languages.

“Canadians like to tell ourselves that we’re nice, but there is nothing in the historical record to demonstrate that to be the case. We’re shaking things up, at a time when people are anxious to know the truth,” he said. “Some of the stories in the readers are quite funny and bawdy, which is a part of some indigenous traditions. The stories are both traditional and new, and can be used by a reader of any age – they’re the sort of thing an eight-year-old might sit with their aunt and read together, and they’re also being used in classrooms.”

Walsh hopes they will also have wider appeal. “We recently did an 800-unit print run in Blackfoot and it sold out. There are not a lot of Blackfoot speakers, but there are a lot of people who want to learn the language … These books are filling a need. And even if you’re not learning the language, you can read the stories in English. They’re so insightful.”