Cree Literacy Network

Since September this year, Aaron Fay has published 10 remarkable videos on YouTube featuring Sweetgrass Knowledge Keeper Wes Fineday telling stories, and conversing with Aaron in Cree. We’re also thrilled that – according to YouTube’s calculations – those videos have been viewed over 2,000 times to date.

We are pleased and grateful that Wes has chosen the Cree Literacy Network as a platform to help him share these stories (hidden gems from within the community and culture) that Cree speakers and language students are clearly eager to hear. We’re also grateful to Canadian Heritage for funding the recording project: “Sweetgrass Stories: A 21st-Century Perspective”.

This particular story is short, and especially funny, but we’re not giving away any punchlines by providing translation! A big part of our goal in producing and distributing these recordings is inviting language learners to level up their learning through repeated careful listening to fully fluent speech, and – for those who are willing – to accept the challenge of creating their own transcriptions and translations. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it!

Want to find out for yourself? There are some amazing tools available to help you along the way. Sign up for your (free) account at https://kiyanaw.net/transcribe/ – it’s software that Aaron Fay himself created – and start listening.

If you’re already a speaker, you might listen simply to enjoy the storytelling. But don’t be surprised if you come away more confident in your language. Because even for first-language speakers, the best way to become a more polished, sophisticated speaker  (and this is true of any language) is to listen attentively to those who speak better than ourselves. 

Fluent speakers might also choose to use the transcription tool to help develop their literacy skills, reading and writing in standard orthography (SRO) – and interacting with language tools, such as the itwêwina online dictionary (which is integrated into the transcription software). 

As Aaron sometimes points out, 20 years from now we can write the books and do the analysis, but right now, while we have Master Speakers like Wes Fineday living among us, who are willing to be recorded, gathering these recordings may be the most important work we can do.

For those who choose to listen, recordings like these are a gift. We hope that along with learning, they’ll also bring joy, and satisfaction, and rewards that live on to generations to come.