{"id":109,"date":"2019-05-01T14:59:30","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T14:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mrp\/haidalanguage\/?page_id=109"},"modified":"2020-12-01T20:42:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T20:42:36","slug":"full-text","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mrp\/haidalanguage\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving language at the edge of the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”3.22.5″][et_pb_fullwidth_header title=”Saving language at the edge of the world” subhead=”How the Skidegate Haida have whispered their language back from the brink” text_orientation=”center” header_fullscreen=”on” _builder_version=”3.22.5″ title_font=”|700|||||||” title_text_align=”center” title_font_size=”38px” content_font=”|700|||||||” content_text_align=”center” content_font_size=”17px” content_line_height=”3em” content_text_shadow_style=”preset2″ subhead_font=”|600|||||||” subhead_text_align=”center” subhead_font_size=”21px” background_image=”https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mrp\/haidalanguage\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2019\/04\/SHIP1.png” parallax=”on” text_shadow_style=”preset1″ text_shadow_blur_strength=”0.57em” text_shadow_color=”#474747″]<\/p>\n

By Jensen Edwards | May 2018<\/p>\n

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Gidahljuus<\/em> Eddy Hans shuffles through the door of his Haida language class in the beachfront cedar longhouse in Skidegate, B.C. A half-hour late and leaning on walking canes, he squeezes a CD case in his left hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cMorning Ed,\u201d shouts teacher Kevin Borserio from the front of the vaulted room. Borserio is nearing retirement, but his students, for the most part, are well into theirs. Hans nods, pushes past his classmates and hands over the CD. The teacher snaps it into the ghetto blaster. The loud sound of a finger-picked guitar starts up.<\/p>\n

Before the music break, the participants of the Skidegate Haida Immersion Program (SHIP) were translating house names from the now-uninhabited Haida village of Skedans. The names are \u00a0common knowledge for most of them, but if the people at SHIP don\u2019t translate them now, no one will know how in 10 years\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

Gaayinguuhlas <\/em>Roy Jones Sr., one of the pillars of Haida language knowledge at SHIP, is from Skedans. The 94-year-old former fisherman turned SHIP student is the one who requested this morning\u2019s music.<\/p>\n

The same lilting strings and smooth twang in \u201cHelp me Make it Through the Night\u201d that won Sammi Smith a Grammy in 1971 once carried Jones Sr. and his wife, Yang\u00a0K<\/u>aalas<\/em> Grace, across a community hall dance floor on an island off the north coast of British Columbia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey used to win every contest,\u201d classmate Sg<\/u>aamsgid <\/em>Harold Williams Sr. says, taking a break from singing along out of time. \u201cI used to try like heck to beat them, but I couldn\u2019t. They were so smooth.\u201d Today, the Joneses sway in their seats. Walkers are too cumbersome to slow dance with.<\/p>\n

Backlit by the grey window light filtering through his translucent hair, Jones Sr. nods along. Between his wife and Borserio, he pauses to call up another SHIP elder,\u00a0Percy Williams, formerly\u00a0Gidansda,<\/em>\u00a0a Skedans chief. Williams used to lead the Skidegate swing band on saxophone, providing the soundtrack to the Jones\u2019s prize-winning dances. \u201cHe would play it real nice,\u201d Jones Sr. says.<\/p>\n

Above the heads of the elders at work, Williams\u2019s portrait now hangs alongside those of more than a dozen others, each crowding the next and pinned into the orangey-red wooden walls of the longhouse. Poster boards with collages of field trips and school visits document the lives of people who dedicated their last years going to school from nine to three each day, speaking their language into microphones, recording it in the hope that their grandchildren might one day learn a tongue that was stolen from their own generation.<\/p>\n

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K<\/u><\/strong>\u2019uust\u2019an tlldag<\/u>aaw unguu ||\u00a0<\/strong>Crab on top of the mountain<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Click here to play bilingual story<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

K<\/u><\/em>\u2019uust\u2019anaay tlldag<\/u>aawaay unguu tay guuhlana gan.
<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The crab was lying on top of the mountain.<\/span><\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

HlG<\/u>aagilda k<\/u>\u2019iidaay gii x<\/u>aaydas tluu giidal gyinuu k<\/u>\u2019uust\u2019anaay
x<\/u>iidgii \u2018ll x<\/u>aag<\/u>ad gyinuu x<\/u>aayda skal gii \u2018la tl\u2019lxiidang.
<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

When Haidas paddled through Skidegate Narrows,
the crab would reach down and pinch their shoulders.<\/span><\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

X<\/u><\/em>aayda kil sk<\/u>\u2019aadg<\/u>ayaay gam xaangaala k<\/u>waajuuwaay \u2018laa gans.
<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

G<\/u><\/em>aaganah.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Because the Haida language wasn\u2019t progressing fast enough.<\/span><\/h2>\n

This is why.<\/span><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

All recordings in “Saving language at the edge of the world” are courtesy of SHIP and FirstVoices.ca<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n

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What it means to <\/strong><\/span>
\n have a Haida name<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

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For the Haida, names are gifts, tokens bestowed on descendants by elders who deem a particular name appropriate to the character of the person. They can be inherited or created. In the case of Gidansda<\/em>, the name traditionally falls to the hereditary leader of the Raven clan of Skedans (an anglicized version of the chief\u2019s name). After Percy Williams died in 2017, the name was passed on to his nephew.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say it\u2019s an honour to receive someone\u2019s name,\u201d says Cle-alls<\/em> John Kelly, who is Skidegate Haida. He was given the name\u00a0Cle-alls <\/em>at a potlatch\u2014it was also the name of his grandfather. But receiving a name, he says, is much more. \u201cIt\u2019s a responsibility.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cle-alls<\/em> means \u201cfireweed,\u201d and carries connotations of a powerful speaker. But Kelly\u2019s voice is breathy and hollow; he doesn\u2019t have the booming vocals someone might immediately associate with the name. However, his cousin Yahldaajii<\/em> Gary Russ jokes that the former journalist and language expert speaks softly so that people around have to pay attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a family heirloom, \u201cthe carrier [of a name] has the responsibility to leave it in as good [of] condition [as] how they received it,\u201d Kelly explains.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“When you’ve reached the edge of the world, you’re here”<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

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