Lost MiÂ’kmaq texts to be launched in Cape Breton (fwd)

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Last updated at 11:55 PM on 21/10/07

Lost Mi’kmaq texts to be launched in Cape Breton

The Cape Breton Post
http://www.capebretonpost.com/index.cfm?sid=73254&sc=147

SYDNEY — The Stone Canoe, two lost Mi’kmaq texts translated by Elizabeth
Paul, edited by Peter Sanger and illustrated by Alan Syliboy, will be
launched in Cape Breton.
The book is published by Gaspereau Press.
The first launch takes place Wednesday in Eskasoni, 7 p.m. at the Eugene
Eagle Denny Board Room, Fisheries Complex, 4115 Shore Road and will feature
a reading and discussion with Elizabeth Paul, Peter Sanger and Alan Syliboy.
The second event is scheduled for 4-6 p.m., Thursday , in Cape Breton
University’s  Gallery II, hosted by the Mi’kmaq College Institute.
The Stone Canoe is a story about two stories and their travels through the
written record. The written part begins in the mid-nineteenth century, when
Silas T. Rand, a Baptist clergyman from Cornwallis, N.S., took as his task
the translation of the Bible into Mi’kmaq – the language of the indigenous
communities in the region. In the process of developing his vocabulary,
Rand transcribed narratives from Mi’kmaq storytellers, and following his
death 87 of these stories were published in a book called Legends of the
Micmacs. As his understanding of the language grew, Rand began to translate
the stories as he heard them, and to record them in English. Until recently,
it appeared that none of the early transcriptions in the original Mi’kmaq
had survived. Then, in 2003, poet and essayist Peter Sanger uncovered two
manuscripts among the Rand holdings in the library at Acadia University in
Wolfville, Nova Scotia. One of these contains the story of Little Thunder
and his journey to find a wife, as told to Rand by Susan Barss in 1847.
The other is the story of a woman who survives alone on an island after
being abandoned by her husband. It was told by a storyteller known to us
now only as Old Man Stevens and dates from 1884. Both are among the
earliest examples of indigenous Canadian literature recorded in their
original language; the 1847 transcript being perhaps the earliest. Their
publication in The Stone Canoe makes a significant contribution to 
understanding of Mi’kmaq storytelling and indigenous Canadian literature.
At the heart of The Stone Canoe are the two stories themselves, including
Rand’s published versions, along with new translations and transliterations
by Elizabeth Paul, a Mi’kmaq speaker and teacher of the Eskasoni First
Nation. Paul provides new English translations and Mi’kmaq transliterations
of Rand’s transcripts, as well as notes detailing issues of language and
culture. The Stone Canoe also features artwork by Alan Syliboy, a Millbrook
First Nation artist. Syliboy’s original ink drawings illustrate scenes from
the two narratives, employing some of the traditional patterns in Mi’kmaq
art and working visually alongside the translations and  engagement with
the patterns contained in the stories.?