#mohawk language

Keniia’ti:saks - I miss you too

Teionerahtastaráthe (broadleaf plantain). Tsawenhsa'kó:wa (great mullein). Tarà:kwi ononhkwèn:'on (staghorn sumac).

These are some of the Mohawk names of medicines that grow in abundance throughout Kahnawake, Que., that Ra'nikonhrí:io Lazare and Katsenhaién:ton Lazare want their community to learn more about.

"We show our community not to be afraid to use your language, and not to be afraid to show what you know about the land," said Ra'nikonhrí:io Lazare.

The two cousins are learning Kanien'kéha, the Mohawk language, and are enrolled in their second year of Ratiwennahní:rats, a two-year adult language immersion program by the Kanien'kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center.

To keep active throughout their summer break, they launched the bilingual video series Onkwanónhkwa (Our Medicines) as a part of an internship at the weekly newspaper Iorì:wase. In each episode, they describe what the plant looks like, where it grows, its uses and medicinal properties. 

Katsenhaién:ton Lazare is a first-language speaker raised by two second-language speakers and he wanted to take the immersion program to learn more about the language's linguistics and grammar rules.

"I was lucky enough to have the language throughout my lifetime, but as I got older I tend to lack a little bit. I didn't want to lose so much of what I already knew as a kid," he said.

"I'm young, and still young and have so much to learn."

Being able to understand the language, he said, provides people with a deeper meaning into some words and foundational oral histories of the Mohawk Nation.

Students hoping to learn the the Mohawk language Kanien'keha this fall at the University of Waterloo will need to know it's not like any language course they've ever been in before.

Knowing French or Spanish won't help you, instructor Nicole Bilodeau said.

"The Mohawk language is so different from European languages that you really have to teach it in a different way," Bilodeau told CBC News.

She plans to teach the inaugural course in Kanien'kéha much like how she learned the language — using an immersion model that will have students speaking it and performing oral comprehension tests.

And I can't stop giggling at the translation of coffee.

For about a month now, I've been working for the local immersion program and language classes on reservation schools. I now make Mohawk books full time.

I've never worked harder, and it's never been more rewarding. Yesterday, I made 300 third grade science books about the air and water cycles in FULL Mohawk.

Every single child in these schools is going to bring their language home. They'll eventually teach their own children. And perhaps someday, we can fully reclaim it again.

Without our language, we can never know who we truly are. Where did we come from? Where can we go? Who will we become? I help answer those questions. I'm making a REAL difference.

I work with the world's only Mohawk linguist, and the things we create would never have existed without us. Today, we invented a word for astronaut. With what we create, we bring peace, power, and righteousness to the next generation.

I love my work.