Children's program aims to preserve Maliseet (fwd)

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Children's program aims to preserve Maliseet

Last Updated: Thursday, March 22, 2007 | 1:52 PM AT
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2007/03/22/nb-maliseet.html

The First Nations community in Fredericton is hoping a new immersion
program for aboriginal children and their parents will help preserve
its language.

[photo inset - A child helps celebrate the grand opening of the Under
One Sky Maliseet language headstart program in Fredericton. (CBC)]

Imelda Perley has devoted her life to connecting Maliseet people to
their culture. A university and high school teacher, Perley says the
language and customs of the Maliseet people are vanishing as aboriginal
people lose their connections with elders.

"I spent a lot of time, most of my childhood, with elders," Perley said
Wednesday.

"Once they started to die, I started to realize that I'm not going to
have anyone to speak to, so I'm going to have to recruit and make sure
we have new speakers."

That's where the new off-reserve Under One Sky Head Start program, for
children ages two to five, comes in.

The program, which saw its grand opening Wednesday, teaches the children
Maliseet culture and language, helps them prepare for school and
provides parenting workshops on family health.
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The program is overseen by a coalition devoted to meeting the spiritual,
emotional, mental and physical needs of aboriginal children.

[photo inset - Maliseet teacher Imelda Perley says the centre will help
preserve the dying language.(CBC)]

Members of the coalition include the Fredericton Native Friendship
Centre, the Mawiw Tribal Council, the Union of New Brunswick Indians
Training Institute, the Aboriginal Women’s Council and the New
Brunswick People’s Council.

Under One Sky Head Start is a total immersion experience held in a
building in the heart of the Fredericton's downtown. Children are
taught entirely in Maliseet. All the signs in the building are in
Maliseet, as well as all the posters and teaching tools.

It's all a dream come true for Perley, who works in the centre, teaching
the children of her former students.

Those former students include Alaina Paul, who learned Maliseet in
kindergarten. Now Perley is teaching her daughter.
'She loves it'

"She knows how to smudge, the names of the month, colours, everything in
Maliseet and she loves it," Paul said of her daughter. "She thinks it's
great she can talk to her grandfather. I look at them and I think, 'I
don't know what you're saying.' "

Despite her years in the classroom, Perley still gets a kick out of
seeing the excitement in her students' eyes.

"In my language, to teach and to learn are the same word, so as I'm
teaching them, I'm learning," Perley said. "I tell them: 'Thank you for
teaching me how to teach you. Thank you for teaching me how to help you
remember that word.' "

For now, the centre's classes are small, limited to six students. Perley
hopes more funding from the provincial government will help make the
expansion a reality sooner than later.