One community has found a ‘Cree’ative way to revitalize the language

The Montreal Lake Cree Nation hopes to breathe new life into their traditional language by making nîhithaw accessible anywhere and anytime through an app.

“We have a lot of language understanders, but we’re losing the number of speakers needed to keep the language alive,” said Charlotte Ross, project coordinators, PhD candidate in Indigenous language revitalization, and member of Montreal Lake Cree Nation.

On Friday, they launched the Cree language app – the first ever phone application created for Montreal Lake to assist in language reclamation and is available at www.lifespark.app.

“With this project, we wanted to develop something where our language could be documented, both words and audio,” said Ross.

According to Statistics Canada, Cree is one of the most widely spoken Indigenous languages in the province.

Canada is home to five distinct dialects – Plains, Woodlands, Swampy, Moose and Eastern; three of which are spoken in Saskatchewan and they are the y-dialect (Plains), th-dialect (Woodlands) and the n-dialect (Swampy).

The nīhithawīwin Language Committee from Montreal Lake is making certain the language stays alive for future generations.

“The app is designed and targeted to spark community interest,” said Ross. “I think the app started a fire and the fire is continuing to grow. There’s so many things you can do with language, once you have a foundation. This app is the foundation we’re working with.”

The committee contributed 46 language categories featuring 1,150 words and phrases in the woodland Cree dialect to the pre-existing Lifespark App.

Users can browse and select content from the different categories, such as animals, numbers, people, food, and common phrases which have words with the proper pronunciation and a corresponding image.

Ross said the content of the app will be updated quarterly.

The app has been in development for over two years, a process which included gathering a large amount of words and phrases, and thoroughly combing through everything to ensure the proper spelling and pronunciation.

“We have to do the work ourselves in the community, and as a result, our communities will feel more connected through the language,” said Ross.

Nine members of the community dedicated their voices to be used on the app, including five Elders, a senator, and a council member.

Although it takes a lot of work and co-ordination, Ross is seeing results.

“It keeps growing, people are hungry for the language and want to retain the language because it’s part of who we are,” she said. “Language is a form of healing and therapy.”

Using content from the language app, nīhithawīwin has also created a Cree language website with images, word games, and word finds at www.wicihsok.com.

Ross said the goal of these projects is to spark more language speakers and language reclamation in the Montreal-Lake area. However, the long-term goal is to make this kind of language resource readily available to anyone.

“It’s important for our identity,” said Ross. “It’s important for our self determination. If we aren’t making efforts to revitalize our language, no one is going to do it for us,”