Anishinabemowin teachers studying at Lakehead

Big Grassy’s Martin Tuesday wants to teach Anishinabemowin during his retirement years.
“My goal is to be able to teach anywhere, either in Ontario, Canada and the U.S.,” said the 64-year-old Big Grassy band councillor. “Age is not relevant to me in my way of thinking — to me it is just living. You can keep on working, keep on doing things.”
Tuesday is currently studying in the third year of Lakehead University’s Native Language Teacher Certification program, which is designed for students with an Algonquian language background with a focus on developing skills required for second language teaching in primary or secondary schools.
“I really love the Ojibwa language,” Tuesday said. “I have the benefit of learning from other dialects. I understand Oji-Cree and a little bit of Cree.”
Tuesday said Anishinabemowin is a deep and vast language.
“I don’t think English can do it justice,” Tuesday said. “You can’t translate Ojibwa to English. The thinking behind it is totally awesome.”
Tuesday wants to help young people to understand the language.
“I don’t want to be translating English all my life,” Tuesday said. “I want to translate my own culture.”
This summer’s program runs from July 3-27 at the Lakehead University campus in Thunder Bay.
The NLTC program features four courses each year, including a supervised practicum focusing on student teaching, planning sessions, assemblies and workshops.
“We’re teaching the language, Cree, Ojibwa and Oji-Cree, said Florrie Sutherland, an instructor from Constance Lake, “and we are teaching them how to teach it in the classroom.”
Tuesday enjoys meeting and working with the other NLTC students.
“I really thrive on that and it gives me a lot of encouragement,” Tuesday said. “I really like to see other people there and their ways of thinking and their way of using their words.”
Tuesday finds the class teaching sessions to be difficult, especially controlling the younger students.
“It’s a lot of fun though,” Tuesday said. “You can’t take things too seriously — you’ve got to take it with a little bit of humour.”
Tuesday said two teachings stood out for him from two different NLTC instructors.
“Larry Beardy told me to love every child like your own child,” Tuesday said. “The other one was from a non-native teacher; she said to honour your language, use your language, speak your language.”
While community members from his age group and the next generation still speak
Anishinabemowin in Big Grassy, Tuesday said the younger generation does not speak the language.
“They’re all picking up English,” Tuesday said. “I don’t know how you explain that. I don’t know if it is inevitable or if we are fighting a big tide in our language and culture.”
Tuesday is proud that his grandchildren understand and speak Anishinabemowin.
“Not as fluently as us, but they take part in the culture, they sing and take part in ceremonies,” Tuesday said.
After the NLTC students graduate from their third year, they are eligible to study the fourth year of the Native as a Second Language Diploma program.
Graduates from both programs also have an opportunity to study two advanced Native language and/or linguistic courses every summer to extend their knowledge and to do research in their specialty.