nēhiyawētān kīkināhk / Speaking Cree in the Home
- Author Name: Andrea Custer and Belinda Daniels
- Publisher: University of Regina Press
- Publication Date: 2022
- ISBN: 9780889779037
- Author Website: https://uofrpress.ca/Books/N/nehiyawetan-kikinahk-Speaking-Cree-in-the-Home2
About the Book
A hands-on guide for parents and caregivers to develop best practices in revitalizing and teaching Cree to young children. In nēhiyawētān kīkināhk / Speaking Cree in the Home, Belinda Daniels and Andrea Custer provide an introductory text to help families immerse themselves, their children, and their homes in nēhiyawēwin—the Cree language. Despite the colonial attacks on Cree culture, language, and peoples, Custer and Daniels remind readers that the traditional ways of knowing and transferring knowledge to younger generations have not been lost and can be revived in the home, around the table, every day. nēhiyawētān kīkināhk / Speaking Cree in the Home is an approachable, hands-on manual that helps to re-forge connections between identity, language, family, and community—by centering Indigenous knowledge and providing Cree learners and speakers with a practical guide to begin their own journey of reclaiming and revitalizing Cree in the home. Readers are guided through methods for language learning, the basics of reading Cree and Standard Roman Orthography, pronunciation of vowels, engaging language-learning games, and examples of high-frequency words and phrases that can easily be incorporated into daily routines and taught to children young and old.
About the Author
Belinda Daniels was raised by her maternal grandparents in her home community of Sturgeon Lake, SK. After undergraduate studies, she began a journey in language recovery and now teaches others how to teach an Indigenous second language with the Canadian Indigenous Language and Development Institute. Belinda completed her PhD at the University of Saskatchewan in the Interdisciplinary Department, Graduate Studies and was given the Outstanding Aboriginal Educator Award 2015 by the Canadian Teachers Federation, along with the University of Saskatchewan Graduate Research Award 2015. She also writes curriculum at a National level for the National Collaborating Center on Indigenous Education. Belinda volunteers and sits on several boards, and is currently the president of the Foundation for Endangered Languages (Canada). She is the founder of the non-profit nêhiyawak Language Experience Inc. (2003). Belinda resides in Victoria, BC. / Andrea Custer is Woodland Cree and a fluent Cree speaker who grew up in wapâwikoscikanihk or Narrows of Fear, also known as Pelican Narrows. She has roots on the Churchill and Sturgeon Weir River systems in Northern Saskatchewan coming from a long line of traditional harvesters and land users in the iskwatam and askihk Lake areas. Andrea has a BA in Indigenous Studies from First Nations University, a secondary level BEd teaching degree from the University of Alberta and a MEd from the University of Saskatchewan in Indigenous Land-Based Education. Andrea currently works at First Nations University as a Cree language lecturer. Prior to this position, she worked at Sturgeon Lake as the elementary Cree teacher, at SICC as the Cree language developer, and has taught in Beauval, Saskatchewan, and in Maskwacis, Alberta, as a junior high Cree language reacher. Her passion is in the area of language revitalization. Andrea is inspired from the love she holds for her children, family, mentors, home community, ancestors and powerful history. Working with language has helped her understand that language teaches us about who we are, where we come from and where we need to go. She understands that language shapes our beliefs and values, which in turn affects our attitudes and behaviors.