>sheko:li,
>my name is Vicky Halsey and I am one of the Oneida Language Instructors.
>I am using the Oneida Nation email account to post this message.
>
>I will be starting a campaign to recruit new language students for this
>semester. I would like to make a brochure using quotes on the importance
>of learning and maintaining Native Language. If anyone knows of any good
>quotes, please foward them to me at this address.
>n^ ki wa
The following quotes are taken from a poster published by the
Assembly of First Nations, a Canadian aboriginal lobby group, in
1992. All of them can be found in earlier publications by the
AFN.
"Our native language embodies a value system about how we ought
to live and relate to each other. ... It gives a name to relations
among kin, to roles and responsibilities among family members, to
ties with the broader clan group. ... There are no English words
for these relationships. ... Now, if you destroy our languages you
not only break down these relationships, but you also destroy
other aspects of our Indian way of life and culture, especially
those that describe man's connection with nature, the Great
Spirit, and the order of things. Without our languages, we will
cease to exist as a separate people."
- Eli Taylor, Sioux Valley First Nations
"Regardless of how self-government is to be understood or how it
is to operate, the protection of our languages must be one of the
priorities. We don't have ten years to do it. By then, a number
of languages will have become extinct. Every time an Elder leaves
this world, he takes with him not only how he speaks but also the
wisdom he has spoken."
- Pauline Decontie, Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg
"Once our language becomes extinct, we automatically lose 60% of
our values and traditions as native people. The longhouses will
close, the ceremonies will be no more. They will put away the
sacred turtle rattles, water drums, and all of those things, for
they do not understand English. That's when the wind will no
longer recognize us as native people. The sun will begin to dim
and no longer hear our prayers, and someday the earth will turn
into a big ball of ice for we have forgotten."
- Tom Porter, Akwesasne
"We Cree people are in a position to hold on to our language. We
speak the language in our schools, at work, in meetings. If we
maintain our language and use it, this is a form of
self-government."
- Daisy Herodier, Chisasibi
"The residential school is where I was taught hate. I was taught
disrespect. I was taught to be ashamed of who I was, to be
ashamed of my own mother and father, of the grandparents who
raised me with love and respect - to be ashamed because they were
'Indian', to be ashamed of the way they prayed because I was told
they were praying to the devil. These things confused me later
on, when I came out of the boarding school. Our traditions are
sacred to us. Our languages are the basis of our identity as
native people. ... If you haven't got a culture, if you haven't got
a language, you can't say 'I am'."
- Pauline Pelley, Elders Assembly
"Start now. Take up the task of reviving your language now.
Tomorrow may be too late. Tomorrow the Elders may have passed on.
Tomorrow our self-esteem, our pride, our power, our spirituality
may be weakened because we have not taken seriously the threat of
losing our language."
- Don Robertson, Island Lake Tribal Council
I'd be interested in receiving any materials you produce about the
program. Good luck!
Mark
-- Mark Fettes | Ech guto malgranda, konstante frapante... 695-B King Edward Ave. | progresas, ho Dio! - tre lante! Ottawa, Ontario | - S. Urban Canada K1N 7N9 | (with apologies to L.L. Zamenhof)