The Outdoor Learning School & Store is a charitable social enterprise offering excellent outdoor learning training, tools, resources & equipment with 100% of proceeds going back to supporting outdoor learning non-profit initiatives!
This course is open to everyone – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants who wish to learn to uplift language revitalization. The colonial names of the geographic regions that this course would be most applicable for are Ontario, Quebec and New York. If you are a non-Indigenous language learner, we invite you to review these reflections on what it means to be a non-Indigenous learner in an Indigenous language learning course.
In this course we will introduce a little vocabulary and a lot of the grammatical structure of Kanyen’kéha (the “Mohawk” language). It begins with the sound system and alphabet and ends with students being able to introduce themselves, make complex statements, ask and answer questions.
The material is learned and taught by a graduate student of Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa, an adult immersion program on the Six Nations Grand River Territory in southern Ontario. Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa was established in 1999 by Owennatekha (Brian Maracle) and Onekiyohstha (Audrey Maracle). The program has enabled dozens of people to become advanced-level speakers. This course will be taught using the Ohswekén:’a, the Grand River dialect.
Your course fee goes towards supporting our charity in covering the course costs, including ensuring that we compensate the course instructors adequately, and that we can continue to offer learning opportunities like these.
Tahnee Bennett, Mohawk, Turtle Clan from Six Nations. Tahnee is a 3 year Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa Mohawk Immersion graduate. Upon graduation she was employed teaching Kanyen’keha as a second language in the public schools. She endeavored to do this because she never got the opportunity to learn her language or any Indigenous language when she attended public school.
As well as teaching Kanyen’keha, Tahnee has taught Haudenosaunee cultural classes, and been a First Nations singer & speaker for the Niagara Parks Commission, to honor Indigenous fallen soldiers in the Niagara South, Ontario. In 2022 Tahnee graduated from York University with her Bachelors of Education and continues to teach Kanyen’keha in the public schools. Tahnee currently teaches Mohawk Language Certificate Program for the First Nations University of Canada/University of Regina.
We know that Indigenous knowledge and perspectives are foundational to outdoor learning and learning from the land, and that learning that language of the local land is a critical part of deepening knowledge and understanding. Non-Indigenous educators can take steps towards reconciliation by participating in language courses like these as a way to uplift language revitalization and deepen their own understanding of local place.
Indigenous languages carry connections to lands, ancestors, traditions, and contain ecological knowledge crucial for sustainable living, medicinal practices, and traditional storytelling, enriching our collective wisdom. By supporting Indigenous language revitalization efforts, we not only preserve linguistic diversity but also uphold Indigenous Peoples’ fundamental rights to their languages and cultures.
We offer this language learning opportunity as a partnership between our charitable social enterprise and Natural Curiosity.
