Students learn Cree to reconnect with the past

For Kyra Brown, the opportunity to reconnect with her past was one drawing point to learning Cree.

Brown’s mother was fluent in Cree. She passed away when Brown was 16.

“After that my aunt used to say it was frowned upon to be Aboriginal,” Brown said. “To talk Indian at that time was not okay.

Brown, a 44-year-old Métis who lives in Edmonton, was one of 31 people, both Cree and non-Aboriginal, to sign up for Cree language classes for adults offered by the Centre for Race and Culture.

The classes were taught by Reuben Quinn, a project co-ordinator for the centre. He used syllabics to teach the language over a five-month period.

“(The students) are now using very small sentences,” Quinn said. “The idea now is to get them into conversational Cree.”

Besides the classroom sessions, Quinn said another objective was to expose the adult learners to some Cree culture.

“Reuben is a very pleasant teacher and he’s culturally knowledgeable,” said Brown.

Students attended a ceremony on the Enoch First Nation as well as a sweat lodge in Morinville. Information on area pow wows, which students could attend on their own, was also provided.

Classes were held twice a week from early February until June 26.

Those who were interested in the classes only had to pay a $10 registration fee with the balance of the costs picked up by the Edmonton Community Adult Learners’ Association.

While Quinn started with 31 students not all completed the course.

“The big obstacle of course is time,” said Quinn. “We tried to figure out a good time for adult learners.”

It was decided to stage the classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for two hours per session, starting at 6:30 p.m.  Classes were held at St. Alphonsus Catholic Elementary/Junior High School.

Quinn said he discovered it was best to work with between 12-16 students per class. But he was still disappointed not all of those who started the classes were attending at the end. He understood, however, the situation of many of those who did not continue to come.
“A lot of people have jobs,” he said. “They can’t also juggle their families and their jobs and Cree classes.”

Quinn added there was a wide range of Cree language knowledge between students who were enrolled. “Some of them have no knowledge of the language or culture. Some speak the language at a fluent level but they had no knowledge of the written language.”

Quinn believes the language classes will be offered again in the fall. He’s hoping those that completed his classes will continue to learn Cree elsewhere.

Brown says she’s glad to have taken the recent classes.
“The Cree language is very much inter-related to my life and value systems,” she said.