People of Georgian: Indigenous Elder finds purpose in language
May 29, 2020
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People of Georgian: Meet Ernestine Baldwin
Happiness is鈥
I鈥檓 a great-great-grandmother. I love my children, all of them. When I had my grandchildren I loved them. When I had my great-grandchildren I loved them the same way I love my children. And then I have my little great-great-grandson, and I get to hold him and I get to look at him. I look at him and I wonder, 鈥淲ill I be able to see how he grows up?鈥 Now I can just give him all of that love that I feel. I know what love is and that鈥檚 happiness for me. I just love having him.
You know when you鈥檙e young, you鈥檙e afraid to get old. Everybody tries to stay young as long as they can. What they don鈥檛 realize is once they become a grandmother, grandfather, elder, who knows, senior citizen鈥 that it鈥檚 a really wonderful place. It鈥檚 nothing to be afraid of. That鈥檚 another thing that I found out. To be grateful for everything that you have is a wonderful thing because the more grateful you are and the more thankful you are, the more you鈥檙e given.
The importance of language
Language is very spiritual. I didn鈥檛 realize that at first, but as I鈥檓 getting older I鈥檓 starting to realize how important passing on the language is to our young people because that鈥檚 where they find out their spirituality, their purpose for being here on the Earth. Sometimes I think without our language, we鈥檙e not a nation. You can say you鈥檙e Ojibway, but 鈥 the language makes you who you are. I didn鈥檛 teach it to my children because we were taught that language was not important and we needed to speak English in order to have a successful life. You can have a successful life, but if you don鈥檛 have a spiritual life to go with it, it鈥檚 not good.
I love teaching it, I love to hear it. Old words sometimes come back to me in my sleep. I just think about it almost all the time. It鈥檚 in there.
With language you can see the world in a whole different way. Our word for Earth is aki, and then our word for teaching is akinoomaagewin, so it鈥檚 teaching from the Earth. Our medicines are mashkiki 鈥 strong medicine that comes from the Earth. So it鈥檚 all connected. Sometimes the words have feelings in them so you don鈥檛 need a whole sentence to express something. It鈥檚 all in that word.
Ernestine Baldwin, Visiting Elder, 草莓视频 Indigenous Resource Centres