Raising Spirit: the Opokaa’sin Digital Storytelling Project

 

This week’s BILD guest post comes from another team, and we are so thrilled to welcome the Raising Spirit Project team to the BILD community.

The Raising Spirit Project team includes researchers from the University of Lethbridge’s Institute for Child and Youth Studies, community partners and policy makers from Opokaa’sin Early Intervention Society, and local undergraduate and high school students. Anthropologist Jan Newberry, in collaboration with Tanya Pace-Crosschild, Opokaa’sin’s executive director, spearheaded the initial photo-elicitation project. Our Elder, Francis First Charger, Edna Bad Eagle, and Michelle Hogue have also joined us as community partners and policy makers. The project team includes researchers Kristine Alexander (history/CRC), Erin Spring (literature and education), Amy Mack (anthropology), and Taylor Little Mustache (undergraduate NAS student). Several high school students will join us, beginning in July, as research trainees.

Parc Jarry: Parler comme un ballophone (by Stephen Davis)

 

Dribble, dribble, dribble.

Hey, tu veux jouer?

On cherche un troisième

Qui peut bien shooter.

 

C’est nous contre eux,

Les trois gars là-bas.

On joue jusqu’à onze.

Check the ball déjà.

 

Hey, je suis libre,

Passe-le moi down low!

Vas-y vite, écoute-moi,

Run the give-and-go.

 

Reste sur tes pieds,

Don’t fall for the pump.

Tu peux pas me bloquer –

White men can’t jump.

 

Man, c’est une faute,

Tu me frappes chaque fois!

Touche-moi encore

Et je dunk sur toi.

 

 

Hey, t’as un accent,

Tu viens pas d’ici?

Ok, bienvenue,

Now get back on D.

 

Donne-moi un pick,

Check mon fadeaway.

Si tu ne m’arrêtes pas,

I’ll hit that shot all day.

 

Dribble, dribble, dribble.

C’est fini après mon score.

On change les équipes,

Or do you want some more?

For or Against Official Models of Multilingualism – The BILD perspective (by Dr. Alison Crump)

From May 5 to 7, many of us BILDers attended a conference at McGill University called “For or Against Official Models of Multiculturalism and Multilingualism.” When we submitted our abstract for the conference, we did so with the BILD Research Group as the author. We had to assure the conference organizers that even though there are 10 of us in the group, we could be treated as a single entity (especially with respect to food ordering for conference attendees). We were quite sure that our talk “Unofficial multilingualism in an intercultural province: Micro-level case studies of policy as lived experience” would bring a different perspective. We were right! We had the great pleasure of closing the conference, in a session perhaps most appropriately called “And now for something completely different.”

Diversity and Names: Designing for Belonging (by Karen Pennesi)

 

A few weeks ago, the BILD Research Group had a wonderful guest, Karen Pennesi to our bi-weekly meeting, where she talked to us about her fascinating research on names and identity. We are so thrilled to have her join our blog community. 

Pas devant les enfants: when is a language dangerous for children to hear? (by Dr. Mela Sarkar)

Language policy is part of the air we breathe, here in Quebec. In our BILD blog posts, most of us have taken our musings about how Quebec language policy affects our lives, and woven them into our writing.

In fact, we are presenting our collective thoughts on “Micro-level case studies of policy as lived experience” at an upcoming conference at McGill May 5, 6 and 7, called For and against models of official multiculturalism and multilingualism (here’s the program). However, we won’t have time to tell very many or very long stories. So in case there isn’t time there, I will tell mine here.