“The language will continue:” Elder honoured for Michif revitalization

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Teacher. Storyteller. Elder. Doctor. Dad.

For Norman Fleury, all of life’s best joys and achievements are rooted in his Métis identification and Michif language, culture and heritage.

“I speak seven languages, but I’m always thinking as a Michif,” stated the 75-year-old grandfather. “And I always live as a Michif, in everything I do. When I’m cooking, when I’m baking, if I’m out there on the land, I’m there as a Michif. I am that person, that nation, that inheritance from my ancestors, not anything else.”

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Earlier this yr, in recognition of a lifetime spent preserving, instructing and growing the Michif language, Fleury acquired an honorary doctorate from Brandon University in Manitoba.

“(He is) a key figure in the preservation and the revitalization of the Michif language ,” the college stated, noting that Fleury launched the primary accredited Michif language course in Canada at Brandon University.

Throughout his profession, Fleury has continued to show, advocate and develop curriculum for Gabriel Dumont Institute, the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teachers Education Program, Louis Riel Institute, Rupertsland Institute and the University of Saskatchewan, amongst many others.

He labored with worldwide researchers to map out the historical past of Michif language growth, labored on growing a writing system for the primarily-oral language, and has translated all the pieces from authorities paperwork to youngsters’s books into Michif.

After so many a long time of arduous work, Fleury stated he can now see these efforts paying off.

“Recently, it has been very, very much overwhelming — for myself and my family — to see us coming together after all these years of building our Michif language and culture,” he stated. “At one time, there was talk that our language, the Michif language, was an endangered species.

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“At one time we thought, how will we do this, when we’re losing speakers all the time and it’s not in the community anymore? But in the last 35 years, there has been a lot of work done. So now, I can say — it’s safe for me to say — that the language is going to remain with us and continue for more generations to come.”

Fleury grew up talking Michif with all his members of the family at residence. His grandmother was talking Michif when she delivered him, and “that was all we ever spoke in our home. It has always been part of the family,” he stated.

Being a Michif speaker — a Michif particular person — has at all times been the core of his sense of self, he added.

“Being a Michif, you have to have pride. I learned that when I was a child. And now, at 75 years old, I’m never disconnected. When you’ve got a strong identity and pride built as a child, and you believe in who you are and in your own nation, that strength never leaves you.”

But by the point Fleury was elevating his personal youngsters, passing down that language, identification and satisfaction had turn out to be tougher.

There had been fewer Michif audio system residing close by to observe with, and there was no probability to be taught the language in school.

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“There was never anything in the curriculum,” Fleury stated. “Indigenous people, Métis people, were never included.”

So, at the same time as Fleury labored with colleges, conferences and organizations all all over the world to protect and have a good time the Michif language, his first purpose was to ensure his youngsters had been immersed of their tradition at residence.

“Since they were born, my children grew up seeing me working in Michif all the time,” he stated.

“They’ve seen me writing it, they’ve seen me translating, they’ve seen me transcribing for Census Canada and different Métis nations across Canada and developing language programs. When my daughter Chantelle was 13 years old, we traveled to Scandinavian countries to do presentations at universities — telling our story about who we were, who we are, and who we still are. All of a sudden, the whole world was talking about our language.”

Now, Michif is rising again to its earlier power amongst households and communities, and even blossoming in methods he might by no means have imagined, he stated. He is especially delighted by the newfound skill to textual content his associates in Michif, marrying the oral language with writing methods and know-how.

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But crucial achievement of all, he stated — higher than any award, honour or diploma — is going on at residence, the place he’s listening to Michif spoken as “a family language” as soon as extra.

“My daughter is a mentor for my grandkids,” he stated. “She’s always teaching them, all the time — telling them about the language, interacting with them in the language. And when I was a child, that was the natural thing; that was how we lived. But then, we went through a phase in life where we thought this was going to be a lost language.

“Now, when I see these little kids practising Michif, going to school in Michif, it’s totally amazing. The language will continue. So I’m laughing, and I’m happy, and I’m overwhelmed to have the family all talking together again.”

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