the book of ayâs: the importance of nêhiyawêwin (Cree)

kinêhiyawêwininaw tâpiskôc kakîkêkamik

[our creeness is like a forever house]

itê kaki-kakîkê-pawâtayahk

[where we can forever dream] 

I wrote this today, thinking about old stories, and old places. I was thinking about the ties of language- the ties that bind us to kitâniskotâpânânak (our ancestors). And, then I started to think about my forthcoming book of poetry – the book of ayâs. 

ayâs is a classical cree story. It is an epic narrative that I hold to be an long poem. ayâs is thrown into exile, and must confront darkness. In the preface I write:

With the revival of kinêhiyawêwininaw, our Cree language, we can awaken the old horse songs of our ancestors and sing our beings back to wholeness and light.” Horses play a key role in Plains Cree culture, and my ancestors used to go to a lake to honour them. To this day, there is a ceremony that exists where songs are sung to honour the powerful and healing of horses.

The importance of language was attested to by my late câpân (great-grandfather), the late Peter Vandall from yêkawiskamâhk (Sandy Lake, Saskatchewan). He was a master storyteller, a legendary fiddle player and a farmer at a time when there were not many Cree farmers. He spoke how young people should value the onêhiyâwiwiniwâw (their Creeness): 

kakî-kiskêyihtahkik ôma ê-nêhiyâwicik, êkwa onêhiyâwiwiniwâw anima namôya kakêtihk ê-itêyihtâkwaniyik.

[They should know that they are Cree, and that their Creeness means a great deal.]

the book of ayâs is a long poem which draws upon the original epic told most vividly amongst the northern Cree in the east, but contextualizes in the context of Plains Cree culture and experience. Part of the journey home for ayâs, his grandson, and his great-great-great-great grandson, is through the retrieval of language, reconnection to land and ceremony. I fully believe in the power of language retrieval, and its power to transform not only us as individuals, but also our larger collective.

Note: there is no capitalization in Cree.