BOOZHOO, SHE:KON, KWE, TANSI, TUNNGASUGIT, WACHAY, GREETINGS, BONJOUR.
Currently, York University offers courses in Anishinaabemowin and Mohawk. Read below to learn about the courses being offered, our language teachers and researchers and other resources available for learning about Indigenous languages. We always welcome updates to our page. If you notice something is missing, please email cikl[@]yorku.ca. Scroll down or click on the links here to jump to a section.
Language Courses Offered at YorkU
Language Courses Offered at YorkU
Courses include language instruction courses and those that have a significant amount of language exposure, though not necessarily language instruction
| Course Code | Course Name & Description | Department | Campus |
|---|---|---|---|
| AP/HUMA 1206 6.00 | Indigenous Culture and Language Indigenous language and cultural revitalization is centrally important-not only for providing Indigenous peoples with a sense of pride about their identities, but for the knowledge the languages contain about living sustainably in the world. This course addresses the importance of language and cultural revitalization efforts through focusing on Indigenous languages and cultures. Taught by Jeremy Green. | Humanities | Keele |
| GL/HUMA 2636 3.00 | Anishinaabemowin (Ojibway) Language and Culture I (Online) Learners will embark on a live action interactive quest taking place in the Anishinaabe Apocalypse. Here, learners become Questers who are chosen to battle the Linguicidals to save the language. Questers get to choose their own adventure: decide on the best play style, character, customize vocabulary, and spelling preferences. All regional variations of Anishinaabemowin are valid and welcome. By default, we will use “western” vocabulary but Questers can mod the language to their preferences. Taught by Maya Chacaby. Course Note: Spaces are held for self-identified Indigenous (First Nations, Status, non-status, Métis, Inuit) Students. If you are an Indigenous Student and are not able to enrol through the Registration and Enrolment Module (REM), please contact the department for enrolment: amolinap@glendon.yorku.ca | Humanities | Glendon |
| GL/HUMA 2638 3.00 | Anishinaabemowin (Ojibway) Language and Culture 2 (Online) This course offers an experiential learning-based experience that will include Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) linguistic/cultural analysis and interactive language activities. This course will present an intermediate level Anishinaabemowin activity that builds on the Biiskaabiiyang Language Quest from HUMA 2636. The Intermediate class will provide a greater emphasis on vocabulary and language retention while delving further into the Kikinowaawiiyemon grammar system. Students will be expected to produce full texts in Ojibwe while engaging in peer-based activities and individualized vocabulary sets. Each student will chose their own preferred vocabulary, orthography and regional variation of Ojibwe to use through the class. (Pre-req: GL/HUMA 2636) Taught by Maya Chacaby. Course Note: Spaces are held for self-identified Indigenous (First Nations, Status, non-status, Métis, Inuit) Students. If you are an Indigenous Student and are not able to enrol through the Registration and Enrolment Module (REM), please contact the department for enrolment: amolinap@glendon.yorku.ca | Humanities | Glendon |
| TBA | Anishinaabe Technologies of Orality Through Aatisookaanan (Traditional Stories) (Hyflex - in person or online) Anishinaabewaatisiwn kiiyaapich ohoma ayaamakan. Anishinaabe Lifeworld is a living contemporary practice that is encoded and expressed through Aatisookaanan (Traditional Stories) in ways that reveal an inter-relational map to our social environment. This includes concepts that inform Anishinaabe legal and social justice traditions, land-based Indigenous sciences, Spirituality, kin relations, Clan responsibilities, time, seasons, community structures, gender, ceremonial practices, concepts of disability, social protocols, philosophy, geography, and traditional medicines. This course offers students an opportunity to wonder with and through Anishinaabe Aatisookaanan in order to gain a deeper understanding of our relationships to one another and the world around us. Students will engage in multi-disciplinary explorations of Trickster hermeneutics, Awechigewin (technologies of orality), and Survivance praxis along with other techniques and tools for working with and through Aatisookanan. (Pre-Req GL/HUMA 2638 and GL/SOC 2636) Taught by Maya Chacaby. Course Note: Spaces are held for self-identified Indigenous (First Nations, Status, non-status, Métis, Inuit) Students. If you are an Indigenous Student and are not able to enrol through the Registration and Enrolment Module (REM), please contact the department for enrolment: josiest@glendon.yorku.ca | Sociology | Glendon |
GL/SOC 2630 | Intro to Indigenous Peoples of Canada (name change to “Intro to Indigenous Futurities” forthcoming for 2024) (Online) Ever wonder why Nanaboozhoo burned and then ate his own buttocks, crapped on a bunch of baby partridges, and created the ice age? Ever wonder why Frogs decided there would be 5 moons of winter? Ever wonder if perhaps the history you have been told is just a fabrication? Ever wonder about the truth about stories? How about humans? Ever wonder how they were invented theoretically (not biologically, but conceptually)? And Trauma? Ever wonder how trauma effects Indigenous language and cultural reclamation? Ever wonder what the heck this has to do with you? All this and more you will get to wonder about in this Indigenous Futurities introductory course. Taught by Maya Chacaby. Course Note: Spaces are held for self-identified Indigenous (First Nations, Status, non-status, Métis, Inuit) Students. If you are an Indigenous Student and are not able to enrol through the Registration and Enrolment Module (REM), please contact the department for enrolment: josiest@glendon.yorku.ca | Sociology | Glendon |
| GL/SOC 47601 | Indigenous Activism (Hyflex - in person or online) During our time together, we will not just be wondering about ways that Indigenous folx do the work of dismantling the Racist Colonial Matrix of Power but we will also be actively operating from an Anishinaabe governance model and will, by the end of our journey, create our own acts of social justice in the University. Who knows, maybe we will make some positive change! This 12-week adventure is not for beginners. We will be going on a journey to strengthen our understanding of Indigenous approaches to activism and learn how to use those approaches in our personal and professional work as activists. (Pre-req Gl/SOC 2630) Taught by Maya Chacaby. Course Note: Spaces are held for self-identified Indigenous (First Nations, Status, non-status, Métis, Inuit) Students. If you are an Indigenous Student and are not able to enrol through the Registration and Enrolment Module (REM), please contact the department for enrolment: josiest@glendon.yorku.ca | Sociology | Glendon |
| AP/INDG 2070 6.00 | Intro to Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) The Ojibwe language is based on a worldview that everything is alive; it is a descriptive language which describes things in terms of their relationship with the universe. For that reason, the cultural matrix in which the language is embedded must be part of the learning process. A text will be used for students to acquire background information, while in class, students will learn pronunciation, and an introduction to the Ojibwe grammar structure. Taught by Brock Pitawanakwat. | Indigenous Studies | Keele |
| TBA | Introduction to the Mohawk Language (Beginning Fall 2023) This will be a language learning course taught by Dr. Jeremy Green. Details coming soon. | Indigenous Studies | Keele |
Language Instructors and Researchers
Maya Chacaby
Boozhoo, Odehamik nidishinikaas, Amik nidoodem, Kaministiquia nodooji. Maya is an Anishinaabe Survivance scholar (yes survivance, not survival) with a focus on Indigenous futurities. She is a proficient speaker of her language, Anishinaabemowin, a traditional teacher, Neurodivergent, Two-Spirited, human-trafficking survivor, a former street kid, former provincial policy analyst, community researcher, community consultant on trauma, government consultant on boring technical tables, and (most importantly) a serious gamer. Her work includes Indigenous activism, cultural competencies and culture-based trauma informed practices, anti-human trafficking, and Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe Language) revitalization. Her current projects include imagining Indigenous futurities through an Indigenous metaverse called “Biskaabiiyaang”. Her courses focus on using Anishinaabe pedagogy and traditional teachings as opportunities for experiential learning.
Her family (Chacaby, Deschamps, Desmoulins, Blanchette, De la Ronde, Sault) comes from Red Rock First Nation and Lake Nipigon Region more broadly. She grew up off reserve in Thunder Bay and on the streets of Winnipeg and Toronto. Maya brings from her traditional homelands a bundle of magical metaphor coins, a tough cloak of irony, heaps of her favourite food (Anishinaabe metaphysical conjecture), an instant pop-up escape from oblivion hatch, a pair of sweet shades against victimry, and a high quality set of nihility cancelling head phones. Altogether, Maya was raised to be a Surrealistic Oppositional Creature of Obvious Liminality, SO COOL for short. TL;DR: SO COOL
Alan Corbiere
Dr. Alan Corbiere is a proud Anishinaabe from M’Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island. He is a historian, who has made remarkable contributions to the research of the Anishinaabe language, cultural practices, and material culture for many years.
Dr. Corbiere completed a B.Sc from the University of Toronto, a Masters in Environmental Studies and a Ph.D in History from York University.
Previously, Dr. Corbiere was the Anishinaabemowin Revitalization Program Coordinator at Lakeview School, M’Chigeeng First Nation, where he and his team worked on a culturally based second language program that focused on using Anishinaabe stories to teach language.
He has also conducted research on wampum belts with known Anishinaabe associations, and researched medals, gorgets, and other diplomatic gifts. He has recorded elders speaking in Ojibwe about their crafts and work.
Additionally, Dr. Corbiere is the Executive Director at the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation and is one of the co-founders of GRASAC.
Jeremy Green
Tehota'kerá:ton, Dr. Jeremy D. Green, is Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk), wolf clan and from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. As both a scholar and Ontario Certified Teacher of Indigenous language learning and acquisition in adult and youth learners over the past 25 years, Dr. Green’s transformative research and teaching is at the forefront of efforts to ensure that Canadian Indigenous languages and traditional cultures not only survive but thrive.
Tehota'kerá:ton completed research to date has focused on diverse localized language acquisition and status planning for indigenous language proficiency development for Rotinonhsión:ni (Six Nations) and other indigenous nations and communities.
Tehota'kerá:ton also provides training and information to support these localized indigenous language acquisition planning efforts to create new speakers of indigenous languages focusing primarily on strategic planning for teaching, learning, assessment, evaluation, language use and conversational and ceremonial language and dynamic cultural practices.
Brock Pitawanakwat
Dr. Brock Pitawanakwat is an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities, the Coordinator of the Indigenous Studies Program and Associate Director of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages at York University. He is a proud Anishinaabe from Whitefish River First Nation.
He teaches the introductory Anishinaabemowin course at Keele campus known as INDG 2070: “Intro to Anishinaabemowin”. He considers himself a second language learner of Anishinaabemowin.
He has a number of online publications that examine Anishinaabemowin language revitalization. His dissertation was a qualitative analysis of Anishinaabe language revitalization:
Language Learning Resources
YorkU Libraries
Indigenous teaching and learning librarian: Cora Coady
Cora Coady is a proud member of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. She is an assistant librarian in the Student Learning and Success Department. Cora has a Masters of Information from the University of Toronto and a B.A. in Sociology from McMaster University. During her time at the University of Toronto, Cora was the Indigenous Outreach and Research Assistant at the University of Toronto Libraries.
Before entering librarianship Cora had a successful career as a Certified Vision Rehabilitation Therapist (CVRT) at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and Vision Loss Rehabilitation Ontario, where she provided in-person and remote instruction to people living with visual impairment. Her current research is focused on Indigenous student experiences within the academic library system.
Cora’s goal is to contribute to her community in a meaningful way by creating and supporting important Indigenous research, building strong relationships between the Indigenous community and the University Library, and promoting the works of Indigenous scholars and students.
Email: ccoady[@]yorku.ca
Centre for Indigenous Student Services
Regularly offer events and support for Indigenous students across campus.
Location:
Centre for Indigenous Student Services
246 York Lanes
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON
M3J 1P3
Email: cissinfo[@]yorku.ca
Links: Website Instagram Facebook
Centre for Research on Language and Culture (CRLCC) at Glendon Campus
Regularly offer events and mini-courses on Indigenous languages.
Location: York-Hall YH B209
Email: crlcc[@]glendon.yorku.ca
Links: Website Videos – Canada’s Indigenous Language Policy Facebook
Language Videos
Grand/Mother Tongue: Grappling with Intergenerational Anishinaabemowin in the Internet Age
In honour of International Mother Language Day, which takes place annually on February 21, the Indigenous Environmental Justice Project hosted a discussion on intergenerational Anishinabemowin transmission in the modern age. The discussion was facilitated by Alan Corbiere and featured input from lifetime speaker Nookimis Marion McGregor, second-language learners Lissa and Hillary McGregor, and IEJ Project principal investigator Deboorah McGregor.
Gkizootaagwaad Mshkii: The Medicine that Hid
In the presentation, Alan Corbiere spoke about some of his work recording and translating Ojibwe stories and language. What follows are some clips from that research, along with supplementary documents with transcripts, glossaries and translations.
For further details and transcripts see the IEJ website: https://www.yorku.ca/research/project/iej/