 I'm Angela Christmas. I'm from member two First Nations in Nova Scotia, Cape Brighton, and I'm the Mi'gma language teacher here at the Sonata Wagonama Noguom in Con River. And I teach pre-kindergarten to grade nine Mi'gma language. And part of what I do also is I take an additional, a few additional, 10 additional classes, and I teach kindergarten and grade one arts and culture as well on top of that. In terms of kindergarten and grade one, I talked to about learning arts and culture. We touch base on, you know, what the what the eagle feather is, the meaning of the eagle feather, the meaning of, you know, what does it mean to smudge, you know, and how do we smudge, you know, we use the the sweet grass to smudge and we use other sacred medicines as well, the sage, the cedar, and tobacco to give offerings and stuff. So they learn a lot about that cultural aspect and also we do some drumming, right? We do some drumming as part of our language here and that's that's actually, we actually learn, you know, they have, we have a music school here, a music teacher here that teaches a lot of the music as well in terms of traditional, traditional length, traditional songs as well. And in the younger grades, now I don't think that she teaches the younger grades like the kindergarten and pre-kindergarten, so I take that those on those children on and I I go through some of the songs and so we learn some of the songs, the traditional songs on the on the hand drum. Yeah, so that's what we do here in terms of the hand drum. The language portion of it, now this is a huge portion of the program that I teach and so again, from pre-kindergarten to grade nine, we begin with the basics in pre-kindergarten like we do with animals and colors and, you know, I read books to them, then we do some little bit of dancing and, you know, introduce them to some of the dancing and then once we get up to a little bit of the higher grade, so I take what they've learned already and then I incorporate, you know, a little basic conversational, basic conversational, you know, and then I include more of the language in terms of phrases, you know, and then when they get the word, you know, all these words together and then we start making sentences, but before we get to the sentence part, we, a couple of years ago, myself and Susan Jador, she's the student aid assistant in for the grade three students and she has a child or an adult child now who was born hearing impaired, so she was deaf and so I guess Susan had to learn sign language, you know, to communicate with her daughter because her daughter had to go to leave the community to go to school to learn because there was no, there's nothing here to help her, you know, with sign language to learn, so she went to a hearing impaired school or, you know, saw a school for the deaf, I believe it is a school for the deaf and that's where she learned to sign and then she taught her mother, I guess, to sign, so they communicated, right, and so what happened a couple of years ago, now some of the students were having difficulty with, you know, the language, learning the Mi'imau language, so I asked Miss Susan, how do you say open in sign language and she went like this, I said okay, so that would be bantadu, bantadu, I said okay, how do you say window in sign language, she went like this and that's window in sign language, so I said okay, so we put them together, bantadu duobadi, bantadu duobadi, then the children will get it, those who are having difficulty learning the language will get the visual and not only are they getting the visual, but they're also learning another language while, you know, associating with learning Mi'imau language, so that's that's something that we kind of took the reins on, I guess you could say, and we've incorporated a lot of phrases now and we use them in the class, so for instance of bantadu duobadi, sabonuk is tomorrow, sabonuk, and then we learn all of our colors, so megweg is red, we have stohanamuk is green because this is g in sign language, so you just kind of shake it, shake your index finger and your thumb and that's that's for the color green, nikkjuigenejuamuk, so that's a hard word, right, that's a big long word in Mi'imau to learn, nikkjuigenejuamuk, right, and how am I going to get, you know, the little children to remember nikkjuigenejuamuk, right, this is for the color orange, right, and then I also do the syllables with, you know, to help them learn as well, nikkjuigenejuamuk, so then they've got the syllables to help them with nikkjuigenejuamuk, and they have the sign language for orange to associate that word with the Mi'imau, or the sign with the Mi'imau language, nikkjuigenejuamuk, so they get it, right, so they're catching on quicker, and it's something that we're, we're actually doing a presentation myself and Miss Susan at the upcoming Olnui Sulkinage Conference in Membratu, it's an Atlantic Canada language conference for Mi'imau schools that teach the language, so we do different, so we go there and we learn different strategies of how to help ourselves, you know, the educators, you know, to, to, to teach the language, or to, you know, to even learn ourselves, right, because I'm still learning the language, it's very exciting, and the students have really, you know, they, they, they love it, they come in here and then 40 minutes goes like that, and they say, oh miss, this class is over already, and they're, you know, they're pretty sad, and then they look forward to the next class, so it's a nice shift in, in the, in the attitude towards learning the language, I guess you could say, because before it was, you know, the, you know, it was like another course, and, you know, so I teach, you know, not only the language, but, you know, the importance of the language, why is it important to learn your language? You know, why is it important to, you know, to feel um, miigmo, right, because without your culture and your language, right, they go hand in hand, and this is what I've been told by my elders, right, without your, without your culture, you don't have your language, so it's very important to learn both, yeah, the success, I tell you, the, yeah, we have another particular program within the language program that I teach is a home reading program, and it's a series of, of words, phrases that I practice with the students, and they learn them very well in the class, and then they take their readers home, and because a lot of the parents are like, you know, they're a little bit intimidated by the language, and they don't know it, so they can't help their children, learn the language, or even help them read the words, so I make sure that they know them very well before they take their home readers home, and I ask them, okay, sit down with your parents, or whoever it is that does your homework, is doing your homework with, and you read to them what these words are, and then I have a parent comment section, right, a parent comment, and the comments that I get, you know, this tells me that it's successful, this tells me that it's, you know, that it's working, because some of the comments that I get are, wow, my child really knows Migma, or my child is teaching me the language, so it's the comments that I get back from the parents in these grades that tells me that it's, that it is successful, it is working, right, and not only that, it's the attitude, the attitude of the students, the attitude of the parents, and that tells me that there's, you know, a great deal of success with this program, and it's exciting, I'm still excited, you know, when I started here in 2006, I was really, really excited, and I'm still, I still have that same excitement in teaching the language to the children, and I encourage that, I encourage them to speak not only just in the classroom, but outside the classroom as well, for instance, you know, if I see them, I tell them in the class, I said, well, I'll tell you what, if you see me at the store in the community, and if you speak Migma to me, I said, I'll do my happy dance, right, I don't care where I am, but I will do a happy dance for you, and I tell you, I've done a lot of happy dancing in this community, when they finish the program, they can take, you know, the lexicon, and then they can continue learning from not only what they've learned, but what they don't know, and they can, they can learn themselves from the lexicon, or from, because there's, because we don't have a lot of speakers, there's a lot of resources that we have also online, Migma and Amatnue in Nova Scotia, they, no, this is, this is Migma and Amatnue, and it's, oh, yes, yes, MK, yes, Migma and Amatnue, yeah, they do, they create these apps, and there's a lot of apps now, and they're continuing to create more apps, which is wonderful, because you have, we have a lot of the songs that are on here, just look at all the songs that you could learn from here, right, and the children are learning them, and if they, I don't know how to get back there, here we go, and so, you know, once they're finished the program, they can take it upon themselves to continue, you know, through using technology, or, you know, the hard copy lexicons, yeah, and we have, and during getting back to teaching and success, and that if you don't mind, I have this also, this really, this machine, actually, and it's called a language master, and what I do is I record, using this magnetic tape, I record this word on these cards, and we use this machine to say it, so there's a word, M-E-S-K-E-Y-I, and I put it on instructor, I am sorry, mis-kay, right, and so the students hear that, I am sorry, mis-kay, so if I had a substitute even that comes in, and I'm not available, you know, then I'm still available, right, through here, or I am sorry, mis-kay, mis-kay, yeah, and for the students to learn, I put it on student, and then I ask them to say, so I'll ask you to say, mis-kay, mis-kay, right, oh wow, yeah, so they hear their voices as well speaking the language, so that kind of, you know, gives them incentive and encouragement as well on learning, so stuff like that, oh that's it, yeah, I didn't even know that existed, yeah, yeah, it's an old machine, this is really, really old and, and, but I still love using it, so it's great, oh yes, and they have a lot of fun with it too, yeah, they hear their voices, they love hearing their voices, right, even if it's, you know, they're making little sounds or whatever, after they say the word they make a little peeping sound, or you know, they're laughing or whatever, then they hear themselves laughing on here, and you know, they just, they just love it, yeah, so I make it fun, you know, and they have fun while they learn, and that's really important, I find, you know, because it keeps them interested and it keeps them, you know, positive, yeah, so they have a really good feeling, you know, when they come in, and they have a really good feeling when they leave, about the language, right, yes, yeah, I mean, because I grew up not learning the language, I didn't know the language, encompasses everything, you know, from learning your language, your culture, your traditions, and elders, you know, education include, you know, the community members in learning, because that's, you know, that's, that was our history, that's how, that's how we were taught, that's how we learned, was through oral traditions, oral history, so it's, it encompasses everything to me. Oh yeah, the continuation certainly of the technology portion of it, the more language apps that are available, you know, the, you know, the more that the, that the educator will know and learn, or, and, or the students as well, update in the lexicons would be wonderful, the we have on the Facebook site, we have a plus a lot of menel, it's called, and what it is, is like a lot of people, speakers are on there to help non-speakers, like myself, and emergent speakers like myself, and those who want to learn the language, they can access online, live, elders and or speakers of the the language, and that's how, you know, we ask a question on there, and then it comes back with several answers from several people who are fluent speakers of the language, so if that continues, that would be, you know, wonderful, and it's actually been, I've been running now for about seven years maybe, so yeah, six or seven years, so it's been, it's been quite successful so far, so I hope that continues. Where's this out of? It's on Facebook. So it's just on Facebook? Yes, yes, so it would be someone like myself, if somebody would, like I'm part of that group, so if I know that there's somebody who really is eager to learn the language, more than what I could teach them, then I would refer them and invite them to this, to this group, yeah, and then they can ask those questions that I wouldn't be able to answer. Well the takeaway for me would be, you know, don't be shy, you know, and embrace it, embrace your culture, embrace your heritage, embrace it all, don't be ashamed of it, afraid of it, ask your elders, you know, participate as much as you can, don't hold back, because for myself I held back a lot when I was growing up, and I think, I think a lot of the times is because I didn't know, I didn't know who to go to, you know, so ask the questions and, and, yeah, embrace it and enjoy it.