Road to Your Name | Special Episode: Live from the Six Nations Language Commission SymposiumIndigenous Language Day 2025This episode was recorded March 31, 2025. EPISODE DESCRIPTION In this special on-location episode, Lisa takes the podcast to the Six Nations Language Commission's Indigenous Language Day symposium, where language keepers, teachers, and program coordinators from across Haudenosaunee territory gathered to mark Language Day and talk about what it takes to keep Kanien'kéha (the Mohawk language) alive and thriving. Recorded live in the hallways and gathering spaces of the symposium, this episode features three conversations: a language nest coordinator from Kahnawà:ke who started her program around her own kitchen table in 2005, a program director and instructor at Six Nations' adult immersion school who breaks down the "root word method" that's transforming how the language is taught, and a teacher and potter from Akwesasne building a language program rooted in the natural and ceremonial calendar. Across all three conversations, one theme keeps surfacing: language isn't just vocabulary. It's identity, healing, culture, and a way of seeing the world that survived residential schools and is being actively rebuilt, one family and one classroom at a time. WHAT WE TALK ABOUT Conversation One: The Kahnawà:ke Language Nest with Ieronhienhawi (Tatum McComber) - How a language nest coordinator and a small group of friends started an immersion program for families with young children in 2005, inspired by the Māori language nest model in New Zealand- The early days: cooking, gardening, harvesting, tapping trees, and singing together entirely in the language, with first-language speakers always present to keep the environment accurate- Why the original program ran from 2005 to 2007 before dissipating as life circumstances changed- Bringing the language nest back in 2014 after a dream pointed the way, and applying for grant funding to make it sustainable- Why the program now runs two full days a week per family group instead of the original five- A typical day: morning mingling and conversation, guided questions, hands-on activities, formal teaching moments, and lunch together- How something as simple as talking about the weather becomes a rich daily language lesson- Why older children face a harder transition into immersion than younger ones- The practice of asking parents to teach what they've learned to a partner, parent, or older child at home- The healing that parents report experiencing simply through learning to speak the language- Why self-determination is one of the biggest factors in becoming an advanced speaker- A glimpse into the science: using ultrasound imaging to study tongue and throat movement during speech, and how it's been applied to study sounds across different Indigenous languages- The nest's current size (14 families) and future goals: expanding to serve older children and more of the whole family, and returning to a more traditional way of living and working the land together Conversation Two: The Adult Immersion School (Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa) at Six Nations with Rohahiyo (Jordan Brant) - A program that began in 1999 and now runs two cohorts at a time, aiming for 1,000 contact hours of full-time immersion across two years- How the instructor went through the program himself in 2013, graduated in 2015, and was offered a job as a teaching assistant and followed by being hired as an instructor so he never left- The program's core goal: restoring intergenerational transmission of Kanien'kéha by training adults to a proficiency level where they can raise first-language-speaking children- An explanation of the "root word method," developed by the late Kanatawakhon (David Maracle) of Tyendinaga, which restructured language teaching around verbs rather than nouns- Why over 90% of Kanien'kéha is verbs, and what it means for a language to be "polysynthetic" — entire English sentences expressed in a single word- The 63 pronominal prefixes, grouped into "red," "blue," and "purple" categories, that students learn early to start building sentences almost immediately- A driving-school analogy: learning the formal rules first, then graduating to navigate the language's real-world variation- Why literacy has become just as important as spoken fluency in 2025, given how much daily communication happens through text- How to start learning on your own: the first 40 words available through the Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa online program, and the importance of figuring out your own learning style- The role of standardized orthography, developed in the 1980s with major contributions from the late Karihwenhawe (Dorothy Lazore), in making resources mutually intelligible across Mohawk communities from Six Nations to Akwesasne to Kanesatake- The program's ultimate goal: to become unnecessary, because the language is once again strong enough in the community that nobody needs an immersion program to learn it- The urgency behind honoring the speech patterns of the community's last elderly first-language speakers as that generation passes Conversation Three: Language, Land, and Pottery at Akwesasne with Nihahsenaa (John Peters) - A teacher and potter from Akwesasne whose family has unbroken lines of Kanien'kéha speakers on both sides, despite residential and day school history- How his mother's work at the Freedom School led his parents to actively pass on the language to their youngest children- His school's approach: building curriculum around the Haudenosaunee ceremonial and natural cycle rather than grade levels, organizing learning by life stages instead- A current planning year spent securing funding and refining the intake process, with plans to reopen in September 2025- The chronic funding challenge facing community language programs that often compete for the same limited grants- Learning to make traditional maple syrup using clay and wood instead of contemporary methods, as part of the program's seasonal curriculum- How the Mohawk word for "what is your clan" literally translates to "what is your clay" — a direct linguistic link to pottery and to the Haudenosaunee creation story- Studying traditional pottery techniques in Oklahoma with renowned pottery makers, including harvesting and processing clay and pit-firing pieces the traditional way- Why so much traditional knowledge and language was lost alongside art forms like pottery and basketry as those practices declined — and the effort now underway to recover both together- His family's small business, Fox & Forest Studio, where he creates pottery and his wife creates traditional finger-woven pieces- A shared goal among Akwesasne artists and crafters to establish a dedicated studio and storage space — a kind of co-op for traditional pottery makers- The youngest children in the program reciting the Ohén:ton Karíhwatéhkwen (Thanksgiving Address) from memory by age six or seven GUESTS A language nest coordinator from Kahnawà:ke, co-founder of the community's family immersion program (est. 2005, relaunched 2014) A program director and second-year instructor at the adult immersion school at Six Nations (est. 1999) A teacher and potter from Akwesasne, co-founder of Fox & Forest Studio RESOURCES MENTIONED - Six Nations Language Commission — host of the Indigenous Language Day symposium- Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa — online and in-person Mohawk immersion program; Facebook page and website available for the first 40 words and more- Fox & Forest Studio — pottery and traditional finger weaving, find them on Facebook- Ohén:ton Karíhwatéhkwen (the Thanksgiving Address)- Aboriginal Legal Services — aborig...
