Kodiak residents bring lessons from Native culture conference (fwd)

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Kodiak residents bring lessons from Native culture conference
NEW ZEALAND: More than 3,000 delegates attended the event.

By KRISTEN INBODY
Kodiak Daily Mirror
(Published: December 27, 2005)
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7315253p-7227056c.html

KODIAK -- As painted Maoris landed in war canoes on the shores of
Waikato River, they began a dance that left a group of Kodiak residents
stunned, it was so perfectly in synch.

"You could tell they practiced all the time," said April Laktonen
Counceller, in New Zealand for a Native culture conference.

The Maoris have been unusually successful at maintaining their language
and culture.

Their language is recognized as an official language of New Zealand,
they are influential in the government, and their children grow up
fluent in Maori.

"It seems everything they do, they've got the golden touch," Counceller
said.

The Kodiak delegation attended the World Indigenous Peoples Conference
on Education in Hamilton, New Zealand, in late November and early
December, hoping to return home with ideas to mirror that success.

"We wanted to learn how the Maori people preserve their language and
culture and are economically successful," Counceller said.

Seven locals involved in the Alutiiq language program attended the
conference to make a presentation on collaborative leadership.

The delegates aimed to represent a broad swath of the island, with
Counceller, Alisha Drabek, Florence Pestrikoff, Julie Knagin, Mary
Haakanson, Peggy Stoltenberg and Susan Malutin.

More than 3,000 international delegates attended. Counceller said it was
a morale boost to see people all over the world fighting the same
battles to continue their cultures.

"We ended up being able to learn from everyone, to get that worldwide
perspective on indigenous people," Counceller said.

"It felt really good to be around so many people trying to improve their
community. It didn't matter if they were from an island in the South
Pacific or an island in the North Pacific, like Kodiak," she said.

If only a smattering of adults study a language, it will fade away, she
said. Only if children are raised speaking a language will enough new
speakers replace the older speakers.

Kodiak Island has 35 fluent Alutiiq speakers. Their average age, 74,
exceeds the life expectancy for Alaska Natives.

"There's a lot of urgency to what we do," Counceller said.

In the past year, several Alutiiq speakers have died. In a decade, they
could all be gone.

"We're fighting against the tide," Counceller said.

She said that since the Native language evolved on Kodiak Island, it is
the most perfect way to describe elements here and is worth
maintaining.

For Counceller, the most significant element of the conference was the
language symposium. There she learned of a technique used to teach
Arapaho astonishingly fast.

One element of the Maoris' success is their preschools, which teach in
the native language.

Stoltenberg, a teacher in Old Harbor, said that in addition to touring
the preschools, the group visited a Maori teacher training center.

One of the teachers demonstrated the silent method, where instruction
takes place only in the language being taught and uses different
colored rods to illustrate words.

"She had found success with that method teaching adults and children,"
Stoltenberg said. "People who learn that method learn it quickly."

She was also impressed, and hopes to institute in Old Harbor, the way
Maoris incorporate the language into every aspect of their lives.