Retired teacher Greg Spence shares Cree words connected to spring
Residential school survivor didn't learn Cree until he had finished high school
Many celebrate March 21 as the first official day of spring, but in Cree culture and language, spring is already happening by that date.
Greg Spence is a retired teacher and residential school survivor. He taught the Cree language for Laurentian University in Sudbury and at the Education Centre in Moose Factory.
As Spence explains, spring starts with the new moon, not on March 21.
"In our culture we have six-season cycles. Our language tells us that, so spring has already started," he said.
Spence was taught by his mother that if he listened to the Cree word for spring and heard what it said, it actually means "spillage."
"Things are starting to spill, the little creeks, the rivers, the muskegs are starting to move," he said.
There's also a lot of activity in nature with the animals, the birds and the fish.
"I remember my father saying even though it's in the minus at night or during the day, that doesn't mean that the earth underneath isn't thawing out. So, that's the way it works. It's already begun two, three weeks ago," he said.
We went to residential school and we weren't taught our language during the day.- Greg Spence
When Greg Spence was teaching the Cree language, he says it was something he needed to do.
"You know, of course, in history, we went to residential school and we weren't taught our language during the day," said Spence.
"I started learning and reading and writing my language after high school, so it was something that I had to do and I wanted to do, and I started getting instruction from my sister and my aunt at that time in the 1970s."
Spence says it was a challenge when he first started learning. "It took me about a year to get very skillful at it."
He thinks more needs to be done to have the children in Cree communities learn their language, adding that the hours of instruction are limited.
"It's a struggle. It's always been a struggle for all these years and it still is," he said.
"We need to do more to support it, to push it and have it in our schools," said Spence. "There's support from the government but I think it's more our responsibility to do that, to push it through our school boards and have it being taught in schools."
With files from Waubgeshig Rice