Couple from Wasauksing First Nation creates 'language nest' to help save Anishinaabemowin

His Anishinaabemowin language means everything to him. That's why Chance King is determined to do what he can to save it.

He and his wife Mariah have created a language nest on Wasauksing First Nation near Parry Sound. They believe that the immersion-based approach of a language nest is the best way to create new fluent speakers before it's too late. 

King warns that if it doesn't happen soon, there isn't going to be anybody left to teach the language. "The time is now, the window is small, we've got to work as fast as we can and as efficiently as we can," said King.

King remembers his classmates in kindergarten making fun of him for speaking his language. Ever since then he has felt that something was wrong and that was finally the catalyst that inspired him to create the language nest.

He's doing it in the hopes that "one day we have little kids running around speaking the language again and not being made fun of and made to feel less than because of who they are."

"The basic idea of [a language nest] is bringing together natural speakers with babies, the younger the better so that we can create an immersion environment for those babies," said King.  

"Many of us who are younger than 50 have been trying to reclaim the language and it's really difficult when it's become a second language because we already think in English, we already have those patterns in our head and we always try to make Anishinaabemowin fit those patterns rather than actually learning it the natural way," said King.

"My gears are turning like crazy and grinding, and smoke's coming out of my ears while I'm trying to think," jokes King. That's the reaction King has when someone speaks to him in Anishinaabemowin and he works hard to think of a proper response. 

"That's the idea behind this . . . to create those natural speakers so that those future generations will have somebody to learn it from," said King.

"That's another reason why we're doing the nest because that's probably the best way to create new fluent speakers," he explained. 

King says parents who are interested in bringing their infant to the language nest have to participate as well. 

"It's going to be family-oriented, so if a parent wants their kid to be a part of the language nest, one of the parents, or both, will have to be there with the baby, so that those parents learn and can have conversations with their babies outside of the nest," said King. 

"I wouldn't be able to do any of this without my wife," said King. "She put in a lot of work with me, beside me, to get this to where it is now," he added. "We work really well as a team trying to create this and make it possible so that one day the language may be revitalized," he added.