Preserving past secures natives' future (fwd)

[Susan Penfield]

Has anyone done a newspaper article about the CRIT Mohave singers?? This is
similar news ...should be done if it hasn't....
Have a happy 4th...

By the way, I was blown away by the increased fluency you CLEARLY have
achieved in micro-teaching -- I shared that at the faculty meeting --- how
much your confidence in teaching the language had improved since the first
time at AILDI (remember that??...)
Keep up the good work...See you soon I hope....

Susan

On 7/3/07, phil cash cash <cashcash at email.arizona.edu> wrote:
>
> Preserving past secures natives' future
>
> Katie May  /  Standard Freeholder
> Local News - Tuesday, July 03, 2007 @ 08:00
>
> http://www.standard-freeholder.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=595682&catname=Local%20News&classif=
>
> Theresa Kenkiohkoktha Fox loves to sing. And she sings to keep her culture
> alive.
>
> As one of the founding members of the Akwesasne Women's Singing Society,
> Fox
> said singing is her way of supporting the unity of First Nations people
> across Canada.
>
> "It's part of our culture to sing," she said.
>
> The women's musical group formed roughly 10 years ago. It now has
> approximately 13 members, six of which performed traditional songs during
> the National Day of Action festivities last week. Fox said the songs,
> mainly written about peace, are ways for all community members to learn
> the
> Mohawk language and experience aboriginal culture.
>
>
> Elizabeth Kahontihson Nanticoke, a fellow member, agreed.
>
> "When we hear the children singing the songs we know the language is going
> to survive," she said. "They don't just sing the words - they know the
> meaning behind the words."
>
> Language is the key to preserving Mohawk culture for future generations,
> said Akwesasne's grand chief.
>
> Tim Thompson spoke about the damaging effects of a November 2006 $160
> million government-funding cut for aboriginal language programs on the
> First Nations community as part of the Day of Action ceremonies.
>
> "If there's no language, there's no culture," he said.
>
> Steevi King, 18, of St. Regis, Que., said students in the Akwesasne area
> need more opportunities for cultural education in school.
>
> "A lot of it comes from our elders and our parents," said the recent
> Massena
> High School graduate.
>
> "We have to go off the reserve to go to high school and that's where, I
> think, the tradition and language get lost."
>
> Thompson pointed to a ban on aboriginal languages enforced in residential
> schools generations ago as a major reason why maintaining language classes
> is important for today's youth.
>
> He said today's children are learning the Mohawk language Kanienkeha in
> school and re-teaching their parents.
>
> "They are our future and they are learning the language to preserve it for
> the future," said Thompson. "That's a big success for the community."
>
> The Assembly of First Nations organized the National Day of Action last
> Friday to provide First Nations people with a unified opportunity for
> peaceful protest and to raise awareness of aboriginal rights across the
> country.
>



-- 
____________________________________________________________
Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language
and Literacy (CERCLL)
Department of English (Primary)
American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI)
Second Language Acquisition & Teaching Ph.D. Program (SLAT)
Department of Language,Reading and Culture
Department of Linguistics
The Southwest Center (Research)
Phone for messages: (520) 621-1836


"Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought,
an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities."

                                                          Wade Davis...(on a
Starbucks cup...)
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