There would be only Micmacs now. According to Statistics Canada, there are roughly 9,000 registered members of the Wolastoqey nation, also known as the Maliseet, spread across seven reserves. Additional Content - Ron Tremblay, Wolastoqewi Grand Chief Wolastoq Flag [2], Rivalry between English and French fur traders pre-dated colonization of North America. “You can hear their stories, hear them laughing, you can hear them dancing,” he says. Words I've said since I'd learned to speak seemed clunky, and conjured some mixed emotions: disappointment, loss and strangely, shame. The St. John is a long river. Singer Jeremy Dutcher’s voice is an instrument that’s reaching across a century of Indigenous history. “Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa” is an ambitious 11-track project that weaves the past and present together in hopes of drawing attention to the fading language of Wolastoq … "I'm concerned, because it will require more speakers to be in more schools and to be teaching more students," said Bear-Nicholas, who was chair of the native studies department at St. Thomas University for 20 years. Andrea Bear-Nicholas, professor emeritus and former chair of the Native Studies department at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, said early childhood immersion is what is going to save our language, much like it has for the Maori people in New Zealand. We should all be so lucky to have that kind of work.”, Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. The moment is especially powerful when Dutcher performs the song live, pushing against his grand piano with a ferocity that only subsides while he pauses to listen to his ancestor Jim Paul deliver his portion of the duet. The Wolastoq (transl. French and English are the official languages in New Brunswick. to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about Become a language carrier with Wolastoqey Latuwewakon today! [6] About a thousand Wolastoqiyik[7] sheltered a hundred Acadian families retreating up the Saint John to avoid the Acadian Expulsion as the St. John River Campaign killed livestock and burned Acadian settlements as far upstream as Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas. Canada chose to interpret the treaty's intention as keeping the entire Saint John drainage basin under Canadian control. The Treaty of Paris (1783) defined the eastern boundary of Massachusetts as a line drawn due north from the source of St. Croix River to the drainage divide of the Saint Lawrence River.

[2] Fur traders brought European diseases reducing the estimated Wolastoqiyik population to less than a thousand by 1612, but the fur traders' contribution to the First Nations gene pool would provide some disease resistance. The river and its tributary drainage basin formed the territory of the Wolastoqiyik and Passamaquoddy First Nations prior to European colonization. [14] The Allagash River and Baker Branch of the Saint John River upstream of Madawaska flow through the sparsely populated North Maine Woods.
I'm Wolastoqey from New Brunswick, Canada.". “They connect with something deeper,” he adds. The Indigenous languages bill was proposed by Green Party MLA Megan Mitton received unanimous support last week from an all-party committee of MLAs. [10], After the state of Maine obtained independence from Massachusetts in 1820, Maine lumbermen encouraged these refugees to form the independent Republic of Madawaska,[11] and began diverting the Saint John headwaters into the Penobscot River so log driving could float timber harvested in the upper Saint John watershed to Bangor sawmills. "I think the language is the core of who we are," Tremblay said. He explores what needs to happen to change that.

On yut Wolastoq, nit kilun weci mec pomawsultiyoq Wolastokuk toke, kilun wolastoqiyok. Bear-Nicholas said she thinks the bill should be withdrawn or suspended until further discussion. And here along the St. John River, that's why we're still living here on the St. John now, we Maliseets. The St. John is a long river. [1] Early 16th century fur trade with French fishermen encouraged increased interest in the smaller tributaries and headwaters where scarcity of edible prey kept population density low. Audience Relations, CBC P.O. The Wəlastəkwewiyik, or Maliseet, are an Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy. "It just doesn't make any sense at this point to be sort of saying 'OK, here's a gift for every student in the province to have a right to our language' when our own children don't even have enough support to maintain the language. As the longest river between Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence the Saint John offered one of the best transportation corridors for First Nations refugees to retreat from the English colonization of North America's Atlantic coast. Bear-Nicholas said there are barely enough teachers who can capably teach the language to members of the Wolastoqey nation itself. [3] Ouigoudi was defensively fortified as Fort La Tour and Aukpaque became known as Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas when Acadian colonists settled the lower river valley . There wouldn't be a single Maliseet here. The First Nations regarded the fur traders more favorably than later settlers who started taking their land and preventing its historic use for subsistence. "They funded our little project then for a year, and since then we've been begging for more funding to make this possible.". ", There might have been enough speakers 40 years, or even 15 years ago, "but even then, it was really critical that we start immersion programs while our kids were still in communities where there were still some speakers. He’d play them on his headphones while riding public transit and focus on their words while laying at home in the dark. Dutcher says he’s watched the Wolastoq language fading fast as elders die and few young people learn to speak it. Learn more about our Indigenous languages website. Wolastoqey. “There’s an incredible sense of urgency.”. Notes : (see Wolastokuk) Keywords : St. John River. Eventually, a voice from one of the archival recordings emerges from the silence to answer him as the song builds to its crescendo. "The plan to require [Indigenous] language in all public schools may actually draw away the resources we need, financial and human, into doing the immersion kind of project that is desperately needed before our language is going to be gone.". "It's important that there be some basic exposure to these languages" Mitton said. The audio has been uploaded to this site in order to share the language. And here along the St. John River, that's why we're still living here on the St. John now, we Maliseets. This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. "But as an opposition party, you're actually not permitted to bring a bill forward that has implications to the budget. These audio resources have been collected from the Wolastoqiyik and Mi’kmaq Culture Studies USB set. [5] These Acadians maintained favorable relationships with the First Nations while King Philip's War encouraged the Wolastoqiyik to join the Wabanaki Confederacy in military action against New England. How to say wolastoq in English? According to the 2016 Statistics Canada census, 305 people considered Wolastoq — sometimes called Maliseet — their first language, while only 55 people said they spoke it most often at home.
Bear-Nicholas said early childhood immersion is the only way to save the language, which has fewer than 100 fluent speakers remaining. "This province has agreed to support a program in early childhood immersion five years ago," Bear-Nicholas said. He’s working on a number of other ancestral projects that will further explore the archive, and highlight the contributions of Indigenous women. Up to six family members will be able to use this app with Family Sharing enabled.

Like many Indigenous people in his generation, Logan Perley is not a fluent speaker of his traditional language. rights reserved. [17], "John Baker and the Republic of Madawaska", "French Dialects Fight for Survival in the United States", "St. John River - Burntland Brook to Nine Mile Bridge", West Branch Narraguagus River (Cherryfield), West Branch Narraguagus River (Hancock County), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wolastoq&oldid=959103631, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 27 May 2020, at 04:52. Our home territory is along Wolastoq, or what is now known as the St. John River in New Brunswick and parts of Quebec. Kat-op wolastoq ihiw. Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Language Portal. Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. Psi-tehp mihkomak toke. The Wolastoqey Tribal Council (WTCI) is a not for profit organization whose role is to provide capacity building opportunities for its member communities within the traditional Wolastoqey territory in New Brunswick. [6] The Saint Croix River formed the Atlantic coastal boundary at the close of the war keeping the Saint John River in Canada while the Penobscot River was allocated to Massachusetts. "I'm concerned, because it will require … Education Minister Dominic Cardy has already recognized there aren't the resources to teach Indigenous languages in public schools and said the bill would represent a small change. Fix please! Read more from the Original Voices project. Eventually, he brought the original recordings home, as his obsession with the language began seeping deeper into his psyche.