Reporting in Mi'kma'ki
Reporting in Mi’kma’ki is a Mi’kmaw-led experiential journalism course
NAIG: 'Greatest opportunity' to showcase Mi’kmaw language
By Molly MacNaughton and Ellie Enticknap-Smith
On a rainy day in late May, the countdown is on for Mi’kmaw educator Beverley Jeddore, busy getting ready for the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) happening in Nova Scotia this July.
But she’s not training for a sport; she’s translating.
Jeddore is the language lead for NAIG 2023.
“I believe that our language is a gift from our creator,” she says.
Jeddore carries a crate into the cultural centre in Eskasoni,the largest Mi’kmaw community in the world. It’s filled with teaching supplies, the ji'kmaqn, a traditional musical instrument made from ash tree, and Waltes, a traditional Mi'kmaw dice-and-bowl game. She holds flashcards filled with Mi’kmaw words, conjugations and pictures, all designed by Jeddore.
“When a creator gives you a gift, you must use it, you must acknowledge it, you must keep it,” she says. “And whenever you meet other people, you have to express that gift wherever you go.”
The games will bring together thousands of young athletes representing more than 756 Indigenous Nations from across​ Turtle Island.
“You have to ask, ‘who’s hosting this?’” she says. “The whole of Nova Scotia is L’nui’katik (the place where we speak Mi’kmaw)... so I think it's important for us to pretty well acknowledge our people.”
If you're going to NAIG, Mi'kmaw Elder Beverly Jeddore wants you to know these four Mi'kmaw words.
NAIG is about more than just sports; this is the first time Mi’kmaw culture and language will be highlighted at the games.
“It is the greatest opportunity for our people to showcase the language, because right now, after so many hundreds of years, our language is in trouble.”
Jeddore grew up near Bras d’Or Lake in Eskasoni. She works as a language technician at Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey, a non-profit organization promoting Mi’kmaw education. Before that, she spent 28 years teaching in Eskasoni and developed a curriculum for Core Mi’kmaw.
In 2018, Jeddore joined the Nova Scotia bid team for NAIG. The team travelled to Montreal to persuade the NAIG Council Board to bring the games to Mi’kma’ki. Jeddore presented the history of Mi’kmaw chants, culture and language and taught the team the traditional dance of the Mi’kmaq—the Ko’jua—to perform as part of their bid.
Afterwards, Jeddore spoke with someone who had seen their presentation.
“He said, ‘what I experienced today was the most powerful thing I have experienced in my life.’”
“I was blown away, I didn’t even know how to react,” Jeddore said. At that moment, she knew they had won.
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NAIG was supposed to be held in 2020, but was rescheduled because of COVID-19. The games will be the biggest sporting and cultural event to take place in Atlantic Canada.
When NAIG 2023 was announced, Jeddore and a group of Elders were asked to form a committee to translate sport-related words into Mi’kmaw like alje'maqn (baseball bat) and tekismimk (to swim).
A challenge for Jeddore is that many English words don’t exist in Mi’kmaw, making some translations complicated. She says sometimes it’s impossible to come up with the same concepts in Mi'kmaw.
“The difficulty is sometimes, you think in English. We don't think that way.”
Mi’kmaw educator Beverly Jeddore created Mi'kmaw language flash cards as a learning tool. (Photo credit: Molly MacNaughton & Ellie Enticknap-Smith)
The Mi’kmaw language is descriptive, identifying things by their purpose and activity. Traditional Mi’kmaw sports already have names like amal-nu’tukamkewey, which is archery. Jeddore says the challenge lies in new sports. For example, the word “golf” was hard to name, but in the end they created alte’mamk tu’aqn. She explains that alte’mamk means putting something in different directions and tu’aqn means ball.
Along with her own fluency, Jeddore consults different Mi’kmaw orthographies. She says her number one language resource is her Elders.
“If I were to say, for example…he's throwing the ball, they would right away, say [eleket],” says Jeddore. “We can call and then they just tell us.”
Last year, the government of Nova Scotia recognized Mi’kmaw as the province’s first language. But the impact of colonization, including residential schools and centralization, a 1940s federal policy to relocate Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia, have resulted in the gradual loss of the Mi’kmaw language.
This Waltes bowl has been in Beverly Jeddore’s family for a long time. From 1895 until 1951, Canada’s Indian Act banned traditional ceremony and cultural practices, including the game of Waltes. Jeddore wants to ensure the traditional Mi’kmaw game is featured at NAIG 2023. (Photo credit: Trina Roache)
“Our people started to become silent,” Jeddore says.
“When I meet with another L’nu that doesn't have the language, I want to give them something,” Jeddore says. “I want to give them a word or a phrase… so that they can have it, so that they would be able to identify themselves.”
Jeddore says the immediate goal for the language committee is to welcome NAIG visitors in Mi’kmaw. But she hopes their work will also help keep the language alive in the long run.
“[Our ancestors] kept the language sacred,” says Jeddore. “They kept it on a silver platter, and we have that responsibility here that the next seven generations will still see and hear our Mi’kmaw language, where we're supposed to hear it and see it.”