Métis Elder, language holder, and author Maria Campbell urges us to look at concepts in Indigenous languages as bundles that contain a wide array of knowledge that can be applied to current issues. Bundle is a reference to traditional medicine bundles that contain many meaningful and useful items connected to each other. At a gathering in Fall 2019 Campbell urged Indigenous scholars in the Prairie Indigenous Relationality Network (PRN) to approach core-concepts such as wahkohtowin as bundles that hold a rich variety of teachings, unpacking these to deepen understanding rather than waiting for us as Indigenous scholars to have complete language fluency. The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2022 as the beginning of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032) with the goal to “preserve, revitalize and promote” Indigenous languages (UNESCO 2021:1). UNESCO sees the “promotion of the linkages between Indigenous languages, knowledge and governance systems” (2021: 16) as one of the key activities (7.2).
In this spirit, this project aims to hold knowledge bundle gatherings with Cree and Métis language speakers including Elders to unpack the wisdom held in different core-concepts contained within the Cree language; concepts such as wahkohtowin, mîyo-wichetowin, pimâcihowin, and witaskewin. There are 356,655 Cree people in Canada with 96,575 Cree speakers. Cree is the most common Indigenous language in Canada with 51.8% of those speakers living in Alberta and Saskatchewan (Canadian Census). The resources developed will be of benefit to many Indigenous communities as Cree people are the largest Indigenous identity group in Canada.
Shalene Jobin 