New Mohawk language program at Queen’s U taught on Tyendinaga Territory

A new Queen’s University certificate program meant to keep the Mohawk language alive began this week. It is also the first program of its kind from the university to be held on First Nation territory.

A total of 20 students have signed up to practice the Mohawk language on Tyendinaga Territory over the next two years.

There have been previous Mohawk courses in Tyendinaga offered by si Tyónnheht Onkwawén:na Language and Cultural Centre in Tyendinaga, but now, Queen’s has partnered with the centre to offer this certificate program.

Callie Hill is the executive director of the Tyendinaga language and cultural centre. She says that keeping the Mohawk language alive will be important for the next generation of Indigenous people in the area.

“If our children and our future generations don’t have their language, they don’t have their identity that comes with being Mohawk,” said Hill.

For 63-year-old student Susan Wilks, the class is a way of keeping touch with her heritage.

“It’s been amazing, the amount of vocabulary that we’ve been learning, the greetings that we’ve been learning, the cultural knowledge we have been receiving from the elders,” said Wilks. She says a week into the course, it’s been a challenge, but one she was glad to take on.

For someone like Tara Green, the courses have connected her to a past that was previously denied to her.

“There’s a huge connection, I think, between personal identity and our language, and those moments of frustration kind of remind you of how our language was stripped from us.”

Green also said she enrolled in the class in order to pass on her knowledge to future generations.

“I’m raising a family here and I hope to one day have grandchildren,” said Green. “I think it’s really important to be able to pass that on to my children and grandchildren eventually.”

The program has four instructors — including two elders from the Tyendinaga region.

When all is said and done, teachers like Nathan Brinklow hope their students will learn at least 1,000 Mohawk words. The goal is for the students to be conversational while learning about their roots at the same time.

“The language is completely different than English, so it takes a lot of mental acrobatics to release your mind from English and to be able to start thinking Mohawk,” Brinklow said.