06.14.05
Cree Preservation
With traditional songs, hand puppets and an enthusiasm that’s infectious, Sonia Kinequon is fighting to preserve her culture through the minds — and mouths — of young people.
Kinequon is a Cree language teacher at Albert elementary school in inner-city Regina.
It’s a place where, starting last fall, administrators and parents decided to replace French class with the study of the indigenous language as part of a pilot program.
The aim is to give the aboriginal students a better connection to their past .
“Without the language and without the children learning it, it is going to evaporate,” Kinequon says. “And if we don’t have a setting where children can learn their language, they are eventually going to lose it.”
Full story here.