Solomon Ratt speaking at the First Nations Language Keepers Conference in Saskatoon. Photo by Joel Willick.
A traditional Indigenous storyteller says traditional stories are ‘crucial’ to the revitalization of Indigenous languages.
Solomon Ratt is a member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, and has been a teacher at the First Nations University in Regina for over 30 years. Ratt spends much of his time touring the province, sharing traditional stories passed on to him from his parents.
The storyteller shared many of these stories at the First Nations Language Keepers Conference in Saskatoon on Wednesday afternoon. The conference is aimed at bringing together language educators across the province to ensure the revitalization of traditional Indigenous languages.
“Traditional stories teach our young people how to live in the world,” Ratt told the conference attendees. “Every lesson we need to know about the world are in these stories.”
Ratt says unfortunately many of the traditional ways Indigenous people shared these stories were lost during the residential school system. He says now people are starting to learn these stories, and says they are ‘crucial’ in the quest of language revitalization.
“There are lots of language lessons in these traditional stories in Indigenous languages that are not evident in English,” he said.
Ratt drew to the term “parent” in how it is represented in both Cree and English. He says the Cree term for parent carries with it a responsibility to make a home for your children that is not evident in English.
“Those things are evident in the stories, and without the stories, you can’t get to the route of those words,” he said.
Ratt hopes traditional stories would be more readily taught in classrooms across the province. He does say he is often invited to speak in schools during storytelling month in Saskatchewan, but hopes more teachers will use traditional stories when teaching the language.
The First Nation Language Keepers Conference is set to finish on Thursday. Several sessions are featured on many of the Indigenous languages in Saskatchewan, including Cree, Dene, Anishinaabe, Saulteaux, Lakota, Dakota and Michif.