Metis knowledge keepers Harriet St. Pierre, Marie Schoenthal and Doreen Bergum (back row, L-R) pose with the youngest students of Miiyaashin Michif Language and Culture Camp.--PHOTO BY JOLYNN PARENTEAU
Winter has arrived early at Eagles Nest Ranch, but a crackling hearth fire and music, dance and conversation full of laughter kept campers warm this past weekend. Guests from B.C. to Nova Scotia were gathered at the rustic lodge for the third Miiyaashin Michif Language and Culture Camp.
Michif is the language of the Métis people. Hosted by Miywasin Friendship Centre, participants take lessons in Métis culture and Michif language revitalization. In Michif, Miiyaashin campers of all ages are Lii zhaan d’ikol niiyanaan: “we are students.”
“If we don’t have our language, we don’t have our culture,” said Elder Edwin St. Pierre, speaking passionately to those assembled.
St. Pierre attended to support his wife, Elder Harriet, and Elder Marie Schoenthal, warmly referred to as kookums, “grandmothers.” Harriet and Marie are lii koozinn, first cousins who grew up together on road allowance land. The pair gave lessons in Michif phrases: how to introduce oneself and family, to enquire about the weather, and how to greet loved ones.
“I am a language keeper, and our language is critically endangered,” cautioned Elder Harriet. Often sharing jokes, she says, “Michif is a laughing language.”
“Watching the back and forth banter in Michif between Harriet and Marie, that is a beautiful thing to aspire towards,” said participant Jocelyn Harris, a linguist with the Métis Nation of B.C., who observed the Elders’ easy armchair conversation. “Seeing people have meaningful exchanges helps you listen better. It inspires me to go to the next level in learning the language.”
During breaks, musician Gordon Stobbe gave wooden spoons instruction, a percussion instrument that takes more skill to play than appears at first glance.
“Percussion is the heartbeat of music, and that heartbeat is in all Métis music,” said Stobbe.
In the evenings Stobbe took the stage with his Twin Fiddles duo partner JJ Guy, fiddler Brianna Lizotte and singer/guitarist Dorothy Walker, playing old and new favourites, with Elder Doreen Bergum sharing her gift of the jig.
“All of us are born with gifts, and my gift is in my feet,” said Kookum Doreen, who led campers in learning the Heel-Toe Polka and Seven Step sash dance. “Jigging at the end of our week – the music, dances, laughter – that was our stress relief,” she remembers, recalling kitchen parties in her relatives’ homes, where furniture was pushed out of the way to make room for a dance floor.
No Métis gathering would be complete without la galette, bannock bread. A bake-off had contestants whipping up family recipes for the kookums to judge, offering sweet and spicy homemade jams and syrups to taste.
Joel Gamache of Okotoks took third place with fresh saskatoons folded into the dough of his father’s grandmother’s recipe. Gail McLenaghan of Pincher Creek placed second and Calgary’s Lorelei Lanz’ golden galette was awarded first place.
“It was the most like our mothers used to make,” praised Kookum Doreen. Lanz recalls her late mother Marlene baking bannock at home often, but her kookum would fry bannock as a treat and toss it in cinnamon sugar for her grandchildren.
Genealogist and historian Darcy McRae guided participants in extending their family trees, teaching that we are all connected through common ancestors. Some attendees found lii koozinn, cousins among their new friends, and all felt a warm sense of kinship, waah-koo-mi-wayhk in Michif.
Chelsea Wrightson came solo to the language camp but left with a new sense of belonging.
“What’s been most enjoyable and surprising for me was how comfortable I felt here,” shared Wrightson. “I was anxious about coming to something like this by myself, and then I walked in and everybody felt very familiar, like I’ve known everyone for a long time.”
Much like learning to jig, we are all called to step out of our comfort zone, with our ancestors cheering us on and laughing with us.
Said emcee Amy Cross, “Be true to yourself. Be true to your roots. If you’re a dancer, a leader, a teacher – use your gift to share our culture with the world.”
This storyteller aims to do just that.
JoLynn Parenteau is a Métis writer out of Miywasin Friendship Centre. Column feedback can be sent to jolynn.parenteau@gmail.com
