music and language

[Richard Zane Smith]

kweh Rolland,
I guess we'll never know the influences our life of work will do,but i
guess our ancestors didn't either.
One of the most discouraging obstacles towards language and cultural
revitalization I see is a new growing apathy
that i might even call *PRS * -  *Post Revitalization Syndrome*.
its when much of the rolled up sleeve work, the "info" is established,
published - everything needed to install language nests,
ceremonial and cultural revival, when we've transcribed hours of ancient
wax cylinder recordings and made clear audio "replicas"
and the response is "well isn't that nice" and people smile go on their way
as if we were behind glass, peering at us as a museum
specimen or a reenactor at some kind of  "ndn event" to take the kids to
see on their way to get hotdogs at the amusement park.
When our indigenous ancestry has been reduced to a  "but will we have fun?"
entertainment....we are in serious trouble.

We can't even begin to comprehend the life sucking force of assimilation
while high on the fumes of modern extreme comforts.

-Richard
Wyandotte Oklahoma


On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 1:50 AM, Rolland Nadjiwon <mikinakn at shaw.ca> wrote:

> **
> Thank you for the affirmation of my idea Chun Huang. To this day, I meet
> the now parents and grandparents of those 'teacher' times in their
> community. One of the comments by a now PhD holder was, in paraphrase, I
> don't know what you did to us Rolland, your students were the first ones
> to go to College and University. I reflected hard on his comment as we
> visited our recollections in a restaurant so far from his home community
> and, obviously, long after we departed. I had no idea 46 years ago how
> those songs and music would determine their future. They do thank me but I
> am not sure about that. I have to wonder how many generations they will
> remain 'educated' anishinabeh before their descendants become merely
> 'educated'.
>
> wahjeh
> rolland nadjiwon
> ________________
> "We were elected to do the people's business, and we intend to them!"
> Premiere Christy Clark, B.C. [whether or not they like it]
>
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:
> ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] *On Behalf Of *Huang,Chun
> *Sent:* November-17-12 7:44 PM
>
> *To:* ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
> *Subject:* Re: [ILAT] music and language
>
>  I have no intention to redirect the topic. But Uncle Rolland's words
> reminded me of an inglorious past that I'd like to share. This happened
> more than 25 years ago, when I was of the elementary school age in Taiwan
> learning English. I, and many other kids in my generation growing up at
> that time, learned English by counting "little Indians" through the
> infamous nursery rhymes (the preferred variety in Taiwan is American
> English). The learning was certainly effective, as the song is still stuck
> in my head almost three decades later...
>
> Chun (Jimmy) Huang
>
> UOG
>
> On Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:57:49 -0500, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote:
>
> Berni SantaMaria...thank you so much for your words...your reference is to
> a very interesting and worthy exchange of ideas and thoughts...megwetch
> everyone. I can use a lot of those discussions. I used music and poetry in
> a non-English first nation community in 1966 to learn English. It worked
> very well...maybe too well in retrospect.
>
>
> wahjeh
> rolland nadjiwon
> ________________
>  "Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, "Where have I gone wrong?"
> Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."
> ~Charlie Brown
>
>
>  ------------------------------
>
>
> ------------------------------
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-- 

 *For it hath ever been the use of the conqueror to despise the language of
the conquered and to force him by all means to learn his. - Edmund
Spenser,  (1596)
*
*

richardzanesmith.wordpress.com

**

**

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