Oct 27, 2018 | 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM | Studio Theatre

John Steckley, PhD  Humber College

Making Tea and Coffee: Revitalizing an Indigenous Language

As tribal linguist for the Wyandotte of Oklahoma (2015-2018), I am aiding the people in revitalizing and reclaiming a language lost a few generations past.  The language is Wyandot, a distinct dialect related to Wendat, which is also in the same situation. The main source for words and grammar of this dialect comes from the forty narratives elicited by French Canadian anthropologist Marius Barbeau in 1911-1912, and published in a very much unfinished form in 1960 by the National Museum of Canada. 

While these narratives supply many words, there were undoubtedly many words known but not spoken in the telling of those stories by the people who provided them. There weren’t many expressions that tied in with the changing culture of those times, or of the 21st century. Wyandot is in a fortunate position in terms of resources to draw upon for revitalization. The related dialect of Wendat has a rich collection of dictionary and grammar resources provided by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries.  The culmination of this collection, written by Father Pierre Potier in the mid-18th century, includes many references to Wyandot differences from Wendat. As an Iroquoian language it is related to several languages especially Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Tuscarora that have very extensive and recently published dictionaries. I discuss how I expanded the vocabulary for contemporary needs, including terms referring to ‘tea’ and ‘coffee’ as well as words related to use in tribal court and in the Wyandotte’s relationship to the state government of Oklahoma.

Susan Lindsay, BA, B.Ed   

Sounding Silence in Burning In This Midnight Dream

Silence speaks a language of its own. In her 2016 collection of poems, entitled Burning In This Midnight Dream, Louise Bernice Halfe, a Canadian Indigenous writer, explores the need for the lack of language, for silence, emphasizing its benefits and detriments. Sky Dancer (Halfe’s Cree name) writes a text that is both harrowing and healing. Her focus is the traumatic aftermath of the residential school situation in Canada on the students forced to attend these institutions. She is fully qualified to speak on this topic as her parents and all of their children attended these schools. As readers, we are silent witnesses to their trauma. Sky Dancer suggests that silence facilitates survival, provides a place to protect the victim, and can speak for itself in the space of our human consciousness where there are no words. She personifies silence as a figure, sees it as a place, and recognizes it as part of her silent context, giving her work a path to reconciliation and healing. As readers of her work, there is an obligation to sound the depths of her silence with the hope of navigating colonial waters to create a more truthful account of the past—one that can be articulated in an accurate language. Art can never truly capture the space where history first robbed our Indigenous of their language and culture; however, in exploring Sky Dancer’s words and silence, we can begin to understand and join the journey to reconciliation.

Christina Caleca, MA  University of Toronto

Truth in Education

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 2015 final report called for joint efforts between both aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians.  Are our students learning about truth, and preparing to enable reconciliation? I seek to tackle the transparency of the Ontario curriculum. Does the Ontario Curriculum provide an accurate historical truth, and respectful representation of our aboriginal communities? Do our students know enough about both the historic events and current conditions of these communities? How can non-aboriginal Canadians participate in the “Reconciliation”? Truth is a vital component of the reconciliation process between the aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities of Canada that requires complete transparency in the Ontario curriculum.

With my research, I argue that this is not happening. Education is the cornerstone to our future citizens, it not only builds who they are, but it helps prepare them for the rest of their lives. In order for our future citizens to partake in the TRC’s goal, students must understand not only the what, but the how’s and why’s of healing. The how did we get here, and the why are we not moving forward. Too many non-aboriginal Canadians believe that the aboriginal communities left their problems in the past when the residential schools closed. Efforts to healing will not be successful until our education provides our future citizens with the full truth, past the closure of residential schools.

Biographies

John Steckley, PhD

For more than 30 years Dr. John Steckley taught at Humber College in Toronto, and has done brief stints as Memorial University, Laurentian University, and Trent University. His first two degrees are in Anthropology (B.A. from York and M.A. from Memorial University of Newfoundland), and his doctorate is in Education from the University of Toronto. He has published 22 books, seven of them on the subject of the Wendat/Wyandot language. He composed a dictionary of the language, as well as edited and translated two dictionaries from the 17th century. Dr. John Steckley is currently working on two more dictionaries and has written multiple textbooks on Sociology, Physical Anthropology, and Indigenous Studies.

Susan Lindsay, BA

Susan Lindsay completed a BA from the University of Western Ontario in Home Economics and Science in 1970, a Bed from the University of Windsor in 1973, and a BA Hons English from the University of Windsor in 2016, where she is also enrolled in an MA in English Literature. Employed by the Lambton Kent District School Board for almost four decades she loved her job working with enthusiastic young children. Susan has spent most of my life in a classroom either teaching or learning. A lot has changed over her career, especially in terms of technology, and she is very thankful to have a helpful son who assists her with technical problems.

Christina Caleca, MA

A libertarian whose work focuses on gender equity rights and autonomy development. She completed an Honors BA in the Socio-Legal field from York University, and completed a Masters degree in Social Justice at the University of Toronto. Her most recent projects have focused on critically analyzing the pedagogy behind the Ontario Sex-Education Curriculum Update, and contesting the epistemology of separatist schooling. She is also presenting research this year that the Philosophy of Education Conference at George Brown.