Oldal 59 [59]
POEMS-AS-LANGUAGE-LESSONS: TRANSLINGUALISM IN NAOMI MCILWRAITH’S kiyam
colonization, bison were killed in tremendous numbers; they went from an
estimated 30 to 60 million almost to extinction.” Linking the hunting down
of bison and the invasion of the colonial English language aimed at eradicating
Cree on the plains, McIlwraith demonstrates the deep simultaneous impacts
of colonization and continued colonialism on Indigenous livelihoods and
languages thus underlining that settler colonialism is “a structure, not an
event."
Although Mcllwraith’s poetry is conscious of and describes a colonial past
and present, it also challenges colonialism and its devastating impacts as the
“only” narrative. It includes many poetic depictions of a present of language
revitalization that will continue into the future. In the poem “father language,”
honouring her non-Indigenous father’s fluency in Cree, she writes:
I read about the —ikawi suffix
and the unspecified actor form,
wonder about the curiosities
of active or passive voice in Cree,
but mostly I yearn to learn
real Cree words, am eager to hear
néhiyawéwin itwéwina in the air.”
This poem underscores, again, the speaker’s yearning for the Cree language
through the lexical fields of wonder (“wonder,” “curiosities”) and desire (“eager,”
“yearn”). The contrast created between the technical aspects of néhiyawéwin
and the practical use of the language invites the reader to reflect on the process
of language learning. The speaker starts out learning the language through
grammar and lexicon (“—ikawi suffix,” “the unspecified actor form,” “active or
passive voice”) but quickly realizes that learning “real Cree words” is prefer¬
able. The transition from “reading” about grammar to “hearling] / nehiyawewin
itwéwina in the air” indeed, underscores the importance of listening in learn¬
ing Cree. Running throughout her poems, the theme of listening to become a
fluent speaker is central to Mcllwraith’s work. As she explains in an interview
with Ellen Kartz:
» «
17 See, for example, M. Scott Taylor — Buffalo Hunt: International Trade and the Virtual Extinc¬
tion of the North American Bison, American Economic Review, 101 (2011), 3162-3195, https://
doi.org/10.1257/aer.101.7.3162
8 Patrick Wolfe: Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native, Journal of Genocide Re¬
search, 8(4), 2006, 387-409, https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520601056240
1% Mcllwraith: kiyäm, 52.
« 57 +