My Intro

[Raven2]

Tan'si

My name is Simon and I'm a mixed blood Cree, Mi'kmaq and Acadian. My father's side is the Mi'cmaq, and my mom's Metis Cree (as some of us say it out west ["Alberta"], where I was born). Was born in 19**, so that makes me **. Back on '96 I started out exploring my roots, and did some genealogical research, and have been since, on and off. I'm starting to fill in the gaps, slowly. I also started drumming then, too, learning the basics, and learning about myself. For some dumb reason I stopped drumming, and stopped walking that path. I regret that now, but I have no time for regrets, just exploration.

Ever since a child I have seen and felt certain things (I don't feel comfortable saying what those are, my feeling is to not share it) and have talked with some Elders about it, and have guided me with their words since. I met these beautiful people when I was an Elder's Helper at the Sacred Assembly in 1995, in Hull, "Quebec".

Unfortunately my family assimilated, both by force and choice, a while ago, and have lost most connectedness they have. Which I find despairing - but certain things do survive, like the echoes in my body and my spirit, when I'm at pow-wow, or attending another sacred ceremony, my whole body tingles and goose bumps, and I cry, or "feel moved" (that's such an inane phrase for what it feels like), or my singing - I really feel connected then, and I cry as I'm writing this.

Obviously I don't speak my own languages, but I so want to, but there aren't many resources if any to do that, only stuff I find online.

that's all for now

EDIT: removed personal info about birth year and misspelled "Mi'kmaq".

[Barnaby_McEwan]

Hello Simon, and welcome to the forum!

[Ric_Richardson]

Tansi, Tawow! (Hello, how are you? Welcome, there is room) in Nehiyawin (Cree)

As a fellow Metis, living in Saskatchewan, I hope that you continue to visit and contribute to this valuable resource.

Ekosi (that's all)
Ric

[Raven2]

Tansi, Tawow! (Hello, how are you? Welcome, there is room) in Nehiyawin (Cree)

As a fellow Metis, living in Saskatchewan, I hope that you continue to visit and contribute to this valuable resource.

Ekosi (that's all)
Ric

Not too bad... sorry I took so long to reply :(, I have it set to notify me, but I guess the address I have this forum send the mail to ate it or something *shrug*.

Thanks for the short language lesson :), much appreciated. I strongly believe that language is a good part of one's culture, so I have as a goal to learn all the languages of my ancestors (Cree, Michif, Mi'kmaq).  [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

[Ric_Richardson]

Tansi;

It is good that you would like to learn our languages.  In our region of Northern Saskatchewan, many people still speak Nehiyawin (Cree) and Michif.  

As we now have some Metis education centers, thee are more resources for helping to retain the Michif language.  Two of these are able to be accessed on the internet.  These are the Metis Resource Center www.metisresourcecentre.mb.ca and the Gabriel Dumont Institute, Saskatchewan www.gdins.org .  There are some resources, such as a CD called "Learn Michif by Listening," as well.

If you contact either of the two agencies, listed above, you will be able to find more about our people, by organizations made up of Metis people.

Good Luck in you efforts.

Ric

[Raven2]

Tansi;

It is good that you would like to learn our languages.  In our region of Northern Saskatchewan, many people still speak Nehiyawin (Cree) and Michif.  

As we now have some Metis education centers, thee are more resources for helping to retain the Michif language.  Two of these are able to be accessed on the internet.  These are the Metis Resource Center www.metisresourcecentre.mb.ca and the Gabriel Dumont Institute, Saskatchewan www.gdins.org .  There are some resources, such as a CD called "Learn Michif by Listening," as well.

If you contact either of the two agencies, listed above, you will be able to find more about our people, by organizations made up of Metis people.

Good Luck in you efforts.

Ric

Thank you very much :).

Yup, I'm fairly familiar with the Manitoba Resource Centre site, the other I didn't know they had such a thing. When we lived in Red Deer, we were members of the Metis Association of Alberta there (one of them anyway, there were 2 at the time, it was rather complicated... heh. It was Local #84 anyway). I got this CD of spoken Michif, and got permission from the authors/creators to put some of it up. You can find it here:

http://metis.kisikew.org/language/michifCDTexts/ . If I missed anything, let me know, I don't think I got to all the playlists yet. All the credits are there, so you can see where it comes from.

I'm active as a pow-wow drummer on the Montreal Native Friendship Centre's drum, Tiotiake, and go there pretty often. So I'm not totally out of touch ;), "just" ignorant of my languages.

Again, thanks.

[Marlou]

Tansi Simon !
Just curiosity, were you drumming ? with the Tiotiake Drum at Presence Autochtone this summer in Montreal ? I was at the kiosk next to Tiotiake, by the way, with my friends from CANO.  
Marlene

[Raven2]

Tansi Simon !
Just curiosity, were you drumming  with the Tiotiake Drum at Presence Autochtone this summer in Montreal ? I was at the kiosk next to Tiotiake, by the way, with my friends from CANO.  
Marlene

Continued over here:

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1773.new#new