Monday, July 6, 2015

UMass Amherst Ojibwe Language Students Build Birchbark Canoe

Puffer's Pond. Image Courtesy of University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Puffer's Pond.
Image Courtesy of University of Massachusetts Amherst.
May, 15, 2015.
University of Massachusetts Amherst has written an interesting article about Anishinaabemowin language students' efforts, with the help of their professors Howard Kimewon and Sonya Atalay, to build a working wiigwas jiiman (birchbark canoe).

"Immersion in a canoe-building project is an innovative way to highlight the importance of water in the Anishinaabe language and culture indigenous to the Great Lakes region. For instance, in Anishinaabemowin, notkwemahza is a verb that means “he or she passes by in a canoe, singing a love song to [their]sweetheart”—one word that all by itself manages to convey motion, presence in a vehicle, two actions, mood, and a subject-object relationship."

To read the full article, click here.

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