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POEMS-AS-LANGUAGE-LESSONS: TRANSLINGUALISM IN NAOMI MCILWRAITH’S kiyam other genres of writing to better understand the translingual concepts and practices in Indigenous women’s poetry, and here specifically Mcllwraith’s work, in an effort to make sure that the (often fraught) relations between the various colonial and Indigenous languages these authors write in are dealt with appropriately. POEMS-AS-LANGUAGE-LESSONS The concept of poems-as-language-lessons that I use here is addressed by Turtle Mountain Ojibwe writer and editor Heid Erdrich. Her collection of poetry Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media contains several poems entitled “Lexiconography” and “Anishnaabemowin lesson” which “are part of a series of poem-as-language-lesson collaborations Erdrich and Noodin engaged in." In the author notes section at the end of her collection, she adds “a word about translations:” the poems in this book that are accompanied by Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) language translations are tutorials in the form of poems from the gracious poet and language teacher Margaret Noodin. Where you see the poem in my English version, then Ojibwe by Noodin, then English by Noodin, you are seeing her teach me the literal translation in our indigenous language (which helps me understand the grammar) followed by a poetic return to English, which helps us both investigate the differences between the languages.” The concept as presented here by Erdrich rests on a collaboration between a language learner (Erdrich) and teacher (Noodin). While Mcllwraith’s kiyam is single-authored, and she provides her own “translations” for her verse, the concept applies in that she reflects the process of learning an Indigenous language. And the collaborative element persists in a different manner, namely that of the relation between Mcllwraith, who through her poetry moves from being a learner of Cree to also being a teacher of the language, and her readers as learners. MclIlwraith’s poetry reflects both her desire to learn Cree, which she achieves partly through her poetry, and serves as language lessons for readers—Cree and non-Cree alike—as she moves between Cree and English in a similar way to Erdrich’s “Lexiconography” and “Anishnaabemowin lesson” poems. 4 Erdrich: Curator, 61. 12 Ibid., 85. « 55 e
