Join us on Friday, November 18 at 3:30 pm in HC L-3, for a lecture by Patricia Demers called
"Discovering Cree-With Expert Help"
With the participation of the Aboriginal trio Asani (Debbie Houle, Sarah Pocklington, Sherryl Sewepagaham) and fellow translators Naomi McIlwraith and Dorothy Thunder, I plan to explore the multiple responsibilities of translating.
Happening on a Syllabics text printed in the Great Northwest in 1883 placed me on a route of discovery unlike anything I had ever experienced. The truly inspiring experts who join me for this talk will help to convey through song and speech the intricacy and, in the words of the text's Oblate author, "incomparable perfection" of the Cree language.
Aware of the differences in cultural attitude and linguistic practice between then and now and of the critical need to retain Native languages, I hope to share some of the text's delineation of what Tomson Highway has called "the spiritual nervous system-in all its wondrous, mystical, magical complexity."
- Patricia Demers, English and Film Studies