My teaching philosophy is deeply embedded in my history, my trauma, and my dreams. I had not planned on becoming a teacher prior to completing my B.Ed., but like many other happy accidents I fell into it one day and haven’t looked back since. Being passionate about the Mi’gmaw language makes it easy to find purpose every single day. Motivated by my own experiences as a 60’s Scoop Survivor, it is a personal reclaiming of who I am as a Mi’gmaw being that is turning into a reclaiming of who we could be as a Nation. My story of loss begins when I was 2 years old and I was placed in the foster care system off-reserve with French speaking guardians. Until I was 8 years old, the idea that I was anything but French was something foreign to me. So the shock to my 8 year old self when my sister and I were moved back into the community was enough to shake me at my core and make me question who I was and how my story would change. Luckily I went home to a family of fluent speakers who would not let French be the way I expressed myself anymore. It would become Mi’gmaw, every day, every sentence and every thought. When I heard the term “submersed” when referring to language learning, I had finally realized the method my family used with me and my sister. It was difficult, and at times overwhelming but it built in me a resilience and grit that has since never let me down.
When I hear children speak Mi’gmaw because they learned it at the Alaqsite’w Gitpu School, it gives me hope. I think it gives many of us hope, that the language will live on in the next generation because of our efforts. We are not only reconstructing language patterns, we are supporting spaces where Mi’gmaw thought is the main operating system, where ideas are challenged through a Mi’gmaw lens and a Mi’gmaw love of its Nation. This is why I do the difficult work of teaching Mi’gmaw in a school every day, we’ve lost too much up until this point in history not to stand up and say enough is enough. We will continue to learn Mi’gmaw, to speak Mi’gmaw and to be Mi’gmaw. This is the philosophy of our school and it is what drives my efforts in the classroom.
The biggest challenge is how to teach an Indigenous language in an academic setting. Learning at home while living and doing is a natural thing, so how do we create spaces where children can learn with their hands, hearts and minds while making it measurable? This is a question that I think about most of the time while engaging students. Anything is possible when determination is at work. My dream would be for our students to one day teach their children so that they may be the next first language speakers in our community. We are still some time and effort away from this dream, but if we continue to fine-tune how we teach Mi’gmaw and continue to infuse language in every crevice of our existence, then maybe we can keep the Mi’gmaw language from going silent.
This is what motivates me in the morning, a strong purpose driven by my love for my Mi’gmaw Nation. As I’ve shown the children my love for the language, it is my hope that they too have the same drive to keep the Mi’gmaw language alive and well, in their homes, families, workplaces, and in their literature. The importance of the language in strengthening our Nation is something we have to take seriously because the language tells us so many things about who we are, where we’ve been and our relationship to this territory, the Earth, the Sky and the Universe.
Karen Martin 