Why Our Language Matters
When I speak about healing through our culture, I do not mean adding a ceremony to an existing government program and calling it cultural.
I mean something much deeper.
Our people have been disconnected from many of the things that once held us together: our language, our families, our land, our ceremonies, our responsibilities to one another and our relationship with the Creator.
We still carry those things. They have not disappeared. But the connections have been weakened.
That is where I believe healing has to begin.
Colonization did not affect only one part of us. Residential schools did not damage only our language. The effects travelled through families and through generations.
When language is weakened, teachings can be weakened.
When families are hurt, children carry that hurt.
When people lose connection to land, culture and one another, they can lose part of their sense of belonging.
And when people are hurting, we can see the effects everywhere: addiction, violence, mental-health struggles, broken relationships, children growing up in instability and people who no longer feel that they have a place in their own community.
These are not separate problems.
That is why healing cannot be separated into departments either.
Healing the Whole Person
When someone is struggling with crystal meth, we can send that person to treatment.
But what happens when that person comes home?
If the same pain is waiting for them, the same environment is waiting for them, the same people are selling drugs, there is nowhere safe to live, there is no employment, and there is no healthy community around them, then we have treated one part of the problem and sent them back into everything that contributed to it.
Healing has to go further.
It has to involve the mind.
It has to involve the body.
It has to involve the spirit.
It has to involve the family.
It has to involve the community.
For those who choose it, ceremony, Elders, culturally knowledgeable people, the land and traditional healing should be available alongside mental-health services, treatment and other professional supports.
One does not have to replace the other.
We need all the tools that can help our people.
Culture Is Not Something We Perform
Culture cannot only appear at special events.
It cannot be something we take out for a powwow, a ceremony or a cultural day and then put away when we walk into the band office on Monday morning.
If our culture is important, then it should influence how we govern.
It should influence how we treat people.
It should influence how we treat our children.
It should influence how we respond when someone is hurting.
It should influence how we resolve disagreements.
It should influence how we care for our land.
And it should influence what kind of Nation we are trying to leave behind.
Culture is not decoration around government.
It should be part of the foundation.
Our Language Carries Our Relationships
This is why our Cree language matters so much.
Our language is not simply English translated into Cree words.
It carries a way of understanding relationships.
Think about three very simple Cree words:
niya — the one talking.
kiya — the one being spoken to.
And kiyânaw — you and me together.
That last one matters.
kiyânaw.
You and me together.
That idea is bigger than grammar.
It describes something our government needs to remember.
There is a difference between a government saying, “We will do something for you,” and a Nation saying, “kiyânaw — we are doing this together.”
There is a difference between government standing above the people and government standing among the people.
There is a difference between consultation after a decision has already been made and actually bringing people into the decision.
Our language can remind us of those relationships.
Language Is More Than Words
Every time a fluent speaker passes away without transmitting what they know, we lose more than vocabulary.
We can lose expressions.
Humour.
Ways of explaining relationships.
Ways of speaking about the land.
Ways of understanding ceremony.
Ways of speaking to children.
Ways of understanding who we are in relation to one another.
That is why I do not want Thunderchild to measure language revitalization by saying:
We offered twelve Cree classes this year.
That tells us what government did.
It does not tell us what happened.
The better question is:
How many more people can speak Cree?
Can the child understand their grandparent?
Can the parent learn alongside the child?
Can someone who grew up in Edmonton or Saskatoon reconnect with the language?
Can a fluent speaker who never went to university still be recognized as carrying knowledge that our Nation desperately needs?
Can our language be heard inside our own government?
Those are outcomes.
Our Fluent Speakers Are Knowledge Holders
We also have to stop assuming that the only person qualified to teach our language is someone with a university credential.
Education has value.
Training has value.
But fluency has value too.
A fluent speaker carries something that cannot simply be learned from a textbook.
The challenge is to bring those strengths together.
Our fluent speakers should be respected and compensated for what they know.
And we should develop ways for fluent speakers to explain the language so that people who did not grow up speaking Cree can understand it.
If Thunderchild can find better ways to do that, we should not keep that knowledge to ourselves.
We can lead.
Healing Families Means Healing Relationships
The same principle applies to violence.
When a woman says she is unsafe, she should be heard.
When a family loses someone through MMIW or MMIM, support should not disappear after the immediate crisis.
When men are carrying trauma, we have to create places where men can heal too.
When grandparents are raising children because parents are struggling, those grandparents need support.
When a single parent is trying to keep children fed, housed and safe, that family should know where to turn.
And when children are living through addiction or violence, we cannot tell ourselves that this is only an adult problem.
The children are already carrying it.
If we want to break intergenerational trauma, somewhere a generation has to experience something different.
Our Children Should Experience Something Different
Imagine a Thunderchild child growing up knowing:
I am safe here.
I am loved here.
I am valued here.
I know where I come from.
I know my family.
I know my land.
I know our ceremonies.
I hear Cree around me.
I can learn Cree.
There are adults I trust.
If I struggle, somebody will notice.
If I make a mistake, there is a way back.
If I leave Thunderchild to go to school, my Nation is still behind me.
If I want to come home, there is a place for me here.
That is what rebuilding a Nation looks like to me.
It is not one program.
It is creating the conditions in which our people can become strong again.
Healing Is Also About Responsibility
Healing through culture does not mean ignoring harmful behaviour.
Compassion for someone experiencing addiction does not require accepting drug trafficking.
Understanding trauma does not require accepting violence.
Supporting healing does not mean removing personal responsibility.
Our culture teaches relationships, but relationships carry responsibilities.
We have responsibilities to ourselves.
To our families.
To children.
To Elders.
To one another.
To the land.
And to the generations coming behind us.
Government has responsibilities too.
Bringing the Circle Back Together
For too long, many of these things have been separated.
Health over here.
Education over there.
Housing somewhere else.
Culture in another department.
Language at the school.
Justice somewhere else.
Economic development somewhere else again.
But our people do not live in departments.
A woman experiencing violence may also need housing.
A person returning from treatment may need employment.
A student leaving for university may need financial knowledge, transportation, cultural connection and somebody to call when things become overwhelming.
A fluent Elder may be part of language revitalization, youth mentorship, healing and cultural education at the same time.
Our government has to start seeing the whole person again.
That is what I mean by healing through culture.
It means rebuilding the connections that were weakened.
Between people and family.
Between young people and Elders.
Between our people and the land.
Between our language and our children.
Between our government and the people it serves.
Between ourselves and the Creator.
And ultimately, between one another.
niya.
kiya.
kiyânaw.
I am here.
You are here.
And we are here together.
That is where I believe healing begins.