Music to my ears

By Chelsie Parayko, 2nd year MDP student

My community has completely lost our language. Colonization has stripped that ability away from my people. In 2018 my people came together and celebrated finally receiving reserve designation on the lands we had been gathering on for time immemorial. We invited our sister nations and leaders from across Turtle Island, including Grand Chief Jonathan Solomon.  Jonathan took the time to congratulate us and said,

 “I am not usually an emotional man but being here on the land with you is making me cry. I had a dream last night that your language returned to these lands. That your people once again spoke those words.”

His words rang in my ear and in my heart.

In Aotearoa, Waipareira welcomed me into their whānau with a whakatau, a traditional ceremony to welcome new people into their family in a good way. The first thing I noticed was how vibrant their language and songs were. The staff spoke mostly in te reo Māori and everyone sang their beautiful songs with ease. It was the most beautiful thing.

Nearing the end of my time in Aotearoa this trip I was talking to a friend about my community and our loss of language. She told me that her peoples retained a lot of their language through song and perhaps that is how we will learn again. So there lies my newest great adventure, to learn our songs so that my territory can hear those words be spoken again.

Chelsie at Monkey Creek

A Few Thoughts from Finland

By Lisa Dixon, 2nd year MDP student

I have been in Inari, Finland for over five weeks now, and the experience has been great so far.  As I write this, I cannot believe that my placement is now more than half way finished and I will soon be entering into my last month here!  I have had one main project to work on, developing the English content for the CASLE project website.  CASLE was a one-year program in which professionals from the village of Inari and nearby areas took an intensive Inari Sami language course in order to create new speakers in the age group of 26-59.  The Inari Sami language, like so many other Indigenous languages is a very endangered language and CASLE has been a big part of the revitalization of the language. 

My partner, Heli and I began by translating interviews with the 21 Language Masters involved in the program, this was an amazing teaching tool for me, as I learned about the geography of the area, the Finnish experiences during WW11, the changing realities after the war and inevitably, the decline of the Inari Sami language.  Since then we have been busy doing more translations and setting up a big project for the month of June, involving the students of the program creating digital stories of their language learning experience.  

Inari, Finland

I’ve also fallen in love with the beauty of Northern Finland.  The scenery has been well worth the chilly temperatures so far!  This picture is a view I see every morning on my walk to work!  Today is also the first day of the ‘midnight sun’, when the sun doesn’t set for a period of about 2 ½ months.

 I’ve also been able to attend and be a part of different events in the community.  It is impossible to talk about them all in this blog, but I will share one story that happened earlier this morning! My partner, Heli also works at the Sami Radio and every Friday does a three-hour show in the Inari Sami language along with another broadcaster.  I was interviewed this morning and got a tour of the building! Among the topics of conversation: the hockey game from the previous night in which Finland beat Canada, how I ended up in Inari (which I find is always a popular question), land rights, interesting foods in Inari, including blood sausages, and of course, the weather!

Lisa Dixon being interviewed for Sami Radio

Sami Radio