Aboriginal language highlighted in calendar

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Each individual tribe was given a unique language to keep and pass on to the generations to come, said Darlene Speidel, director of Cultural Resource Development Publications. Language, above all else, she said, is the key to regaining and protecting Aboriginal culture.

The Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre's 2001 calendars feature eight languages-Soto, Lakota, Nakota, Dakota, Dene, and the Y, TH and N dialects of the Cree language. It is hoped that the calendars will help Aboriginal people retain and rejuvenate their distinct cultures.

The centre first published its language calendars in January 1995. They feature the Aboriginal words for each month and its English translation (eg. Witehi Wi in Dakota means Hard Month Moon and is used to represent the month January). The Aboriginal term for each day of the week is also represented.

"Set up for people who don't know their language fluently, there is a chart in the back," said Speidel. "We purposely did not put the English translation on each month of the calendar, because we felt that people would use it instead of trying to learn their language," she said.

In the back of the calendar is a map with the communities marked where the language is used, and charts for the Aboriginal language's alphabet, for individual number terms (one to 31) and special days of the year, like Valentine's Day and Christmas Day.

"It is a learning tool for the people who want to learn the language. It is a way to reaffirm to the people that it is a positive thing to know your language," said Speidel. "There are many functional uses for our languages in today's modern day society."

While putting the calendar together, the centre found that it was much more complicated than it was first thought.

"When the centre first undertook the project, we thought that it was going to be much easier than we discovered it actually was. We had some difficulty getting the consensus for language terms for this calendar," said Speidel. "We approached a lot of Elders. One of the problems we encountered while doing the calendar was the holidays. Most of the holidays were Catholic holidays like Good Friday or St. Patrick's Day. For some of the new holidays that we had to find words for, [like National First Nations Unity Day] we worked with the Elders to come up with most of the terms," she said.

Each month of the calendar features a picture of an animal or a significant time of the year that the Aboriginal people use to describe the month.

For more information about the calendars, call (306) 244-1146 or email:info@sicc.sk.ca