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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 preferable. The transition from “reading” about grammar to “hearling] / nehiyawewin itwéwina in the air” indeed, underscores the importance of listening in learning 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 Extinction 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 Research, 8(4), 2006, 387-409, https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520601056240 1% Mcllwraith: kiyäm, 52. « 57 +
