Northern Languages

The Northern Languages Program with Lead Artist Michèle Mackasey responds to interest expressed by community Elders and partners for activities that support Indigenous language revival and retention, particularly among the youth. Through this program, Michèle Mackasey and Elder Carol Estralshenen have been bringing workshops in the Northern Denesuline community of Patuanak, as well as youth in Saskatoon through a partnership with White Buffalo Youth Lodge. 

In addition, they have been working with a young studio assistant at the Makerspace studio in Saskatoon in the creation of a collective “bottle portrait” constructed of 17,000 tiny glass bottles. Each filled with coloured liquid, to create a pixelated image when the bottles are placed side by side. Each bottle is engraved with a tiny message typed in their own languages by workshop youth on Indigenous Language Keyboards built by Densuline developer Chevez Ezaneh. The resulting portrait commemorates a local student who passed away in the Beauval Indian Residential School. According to Chevez Ezaneh, a member of the English River First Nation in Patuanak:  

“ Growing up, I witnessed and continue to witness the challenges faced by my people in keeping our languages alive amidst rapidly changing social and technological landscapes. The prospect of combining modern technology with traditional knowledge to support language learning and cultural exchange was incredibly compelling to me. It's about creating bridges between generations and facilitating conversations that might otherwise have been lost. Witnessing the children of my community effortlessly use the keyboards felt like the ultimate validation of all my efforts. Something clicked, and I remember thinking to myself that this is what it was always about—empowering the next generation. Their engagement and quick adaptation to the technology underscored the project's success, reinforcing the belief that focusing on the youth is the key to preserving and revitalizing our linguistic heritage.”  

The feedback has been very strong from students and staff, with youth becoming engaged in the technical processes, and studying vocabulary with the Elders while choosing their words to be engraved into the portrait. The Elders consulted with Michèle on an initial literary review to find resources for Cree and Dene language. When these language specialists found that the existing resources lacked precision and consistency required for their communities, they decided to create their own resource for this project, and for the schools and communities to use with the children to describe the world around them.