It was a great to join the celebration as Patricia Ningewance launched her newest book today in Winnipeg (and sold out all the copies they had on hand!) Pat’s work with Ojibwe (Anishinaabemowin) is widely known; it’s impossible to measure the impact her promotion of standard spelling since the 1970s has had in Ojibwe language revitalization.
This new title – Reclaiming Our Territory, Word by Word – is aimed at fluent speakers of any language, offering them a framework for teaching others what they know, even if they have no formal teaching experience, or written language skills, or knowledge of grammar. The examples provided in the book are Ojibwe, but the methods will work just as well for Cree (or Swahili or Navajo), and the results are the kind of fun and laughter that lead to truly memorable learning experiences.
As Pat says: “I’m excited about this book of lesson plans. Each lesson is self-contained. They are not sequential. Many language students take community language courses, miss a couple and then drop out when they think they can’t catch up. Not with this book. A course can be student-driven. You learn or practice the lessons you want to concentrate on, and eventually finish the book.”
The book is $20. Order it directly from mazinaate.com.
Watch out for coverage of the launch on APTN this evening; click here to see Lenard Monkman’s report for CBC.
You can also read more about Pat and her work via this APTN interview from December 2019.
