Naskapi Missionaries Preserve Language, Culture in Gospel Efforts
Growing Influence
The Bible was part of Ruby’s everyday life growing up. Her late father, Joseph Sandy, was a devout man who loved God’s Word. In their home, he read the Cree Scriptures and interpreted them for his wife and children.
Others, like former chief Joe Guanish, have also valued the Word of God. Back in the ’80s, Guanish helped pave the way for Bible translation to begin in Kawawa and later became involved in checking translated Scriptures. He also became the voice for Scripture readings that are played daily on the community radio station.
Guanish, now 82, loves his people and wants to see them follow God’s ways. Several years ago, after waking from a vivid dream, he penned a prayer for his people (see Joe’s Prayer). Highly respected by the Naskapis, he is generally regarded as the senior adviser for all language-related questions. If translators struggle to find the right Naskapi words or aren’t quite sure of their meanings, the usual recourse is to “ask Joe.”
If Ruby could read Naskapi like Joe, she’d be thrilled. But when she attended school as a child, the Naskapi language was not taught in school. For now, she struggles along with some of her co-workers in the Naskapi Development Corporation (NDC), who gather regularly to practice reading from the Naskapi New Testament.
In this, she has found inspiration from her grandson, Kyle.
“He was 6, in Grade 1. I was keeping him one night, and when we were passing by a poster on my door … I heard him mumble something. It sounded like he was reading it … and I turned around and said, what did you say? He was reading … so I said, ‘Can you read it again?’
“Sure enough, he did. He said he learned it at school. … I couldn’t believe it—I was so dumbfounded. But also it really touched me—I cried. I’m a grandmother [and] I didn’t know how to read [Naskapi], yet this little boy of six years old could read it just like that.”
Preserving Language and Culture
Kyle learned to read Naskapi at the Jimmy Sandy Memorial School in Kawawa, where about 200 students attend classes from kindergarten through Grade 11. From kindergarten through Grade 2, students are taught in the Naskapi language before transitioning to English instruction in third grade. By learning their mother tongue first, they are more likely to become literate in Naskapi and be more successful in their all their other English-language classes.
Adults in the community are taking advantage of literacy classes, which Wycliffe’s Bill Jancewicz teaches using the New Testament as a textbook. And 12 Naskapi young people are enrolled in an advanced Naskapi-language extension course taught by Bill, as part of a McGill University teacher-training program. More than one of Bill’s students have received training as mother-tongue translators; one is currently working on the book of Exodus, and another is working on the book of Esther.
A growing library of Naskapi literature is fueling this growing interest in literacy. Publications so far include children’s stories like Little Lost Caribou (illustrated by the Jancewicz’ daughter, Beth), and another illustrated by Bill, titled I’ll Take You Goose Hunting Next Spring. Also in the works is the “Naskapi Wolverine Stories,” a series of traditional Naskapi legends and stories commissioned by the NDC.
Michael Sandy, Ruby’s brother and a candidate for chief in a recent election, is pleased to see Naskapi children learning how to read their language.
“Language is one of the most beautiful gifts the Creator has given us,” says Sandy, who is currently studying at the First Nations University of Canada campus in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
“When you use the language, the community will function better. . . . Everything’s linked to the language when it comes to culture.
“I just hope that other First Nations realize this; that’s how we survived for thousands of years. When the language goes, a lot of things disappear.”
On First Ground
Thirty years ago, when about 300 Naskapis established their tiny community of Kawawa, some may have wondered if the group was in danger of disappearing. Since then, their population has nearly quadrupled and they now control their own future. In January 1978, Naskapi leaders were signatories to the Cree-Naskapi (of Quebec) Act, Canada’s first Aboriginal self-government legislation. As a result, the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach enjoys greater autonomy than other bands still under earlier legislation governing registered Indians, their bands and the system of Indian reserves.
Through a previous land claim settlement (The Northeastern Quebec Agreement) signed with the provincial and federal governments, the Naskapis lay claim to nearly 4,200 hectares of land and live with few restrictions on hunting, fishing and trapping.
Their days of wandering long behind them, the Naskapis have put down roots at last. Better yet, God’s Word in their heart language is helping them build even stronger spiritual foundations for future generations.
Click here to read the original article on Wycliffe.net.
