As a kid, I never thought about, or realized our language could be lost. In fact I was a fluent speaker raised as a Catholic who didnt have a clue about our traditional culture. The culture I was raised in was that of being taught that Rotinónhses were bad and going to the Kanonhsésne was a bad place to go. I was a fluent speaker of Kanienkéha who didnt know I was Snipe Clan and that I was Onondaga. Language was not an issue to me. I grew up in a fluent speaking home. My maternal and paternal grandparents were fluent in the language as were my extended family. I didnt realize my fluency was seen by some as a novelty seeing a little kid speaking Kanienkéha. Going to school, most kids my age were still fluent, but those younger had already lost their ability, will, or interest to speak the language. Looking at the school group plaques, it was very evident that an entire language was lost in one decade. But as Onkwehón:we, we dont like being told what to do, or what we can have so the fact that church and state, through the use of the education system tried to eradicate our language and culture only fueled our fire to hold on to what was inherently ours. We did this through the implementation of Core language classes, which eventually turned into immersion programming and the introduction of the Language Nest. As a parent myself, I passed the language onto my children and they in turn passed it onto to their children and I brought them up going to Kanonhsésne and ensuring that they knew their identity as Onkwehón:we. More and more parents, wanted for their child, what they werent given the opportunity to have which was their language. Tóhsa ki ionkwá:ti, Onkwehonwehnéha Tewatá:ti.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 13:59:48 +0000
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