Fundraiser for TTO

Base31 holds Indigenous concert to benefit language centre

Tsi Tyónnheht Onkwawén (TTO) is the language and cultural centre in Tyendinaga dedicated to revitalizing the Kanyen’kehá:ka (Mohawk) language. It was started in the late 1990s and has become an essential part of the community. “The purpose is to ensure that the Mohawk language and our culture continues living down through the generations for the children and grandchildren and yet to be born,” said TTO Executive Director Callie Hill. The centre provides three different language and culture programs. The first, Language Nest, is for children up to age five. There is another program for Kindergarten to Grade Four, and finally an adult program in partnership with Queen’s University. The community school program is a bilingual immersion program where students are learning the language every day. There is also a Federal school in Tyendinaga for students in Kindergarten to Grade Eight that offers Mohawk as a core subject. Hill said it is difficult to find language teachers, since there are so few proficient speakers in the community, but that is slowly changing as more people learn the language. No textbooks are used in the Grade school program, as the education is outdoors based. “Our school is based on the things that we do as Mohawk people, as Kanyen’kehá:ka, our cycle of ceremonies and all the elements of the natural world”, said Hill. She says there’s been a notable increase in the number and fluency of Mohawk speakers as a result of the TTO. “We have one young couple in the community that have raised their two children with Mohawk as their first language, so that’s a first in our community in over 70 years.”

On Saturday, a fundraising concert was held at Base31, with all the proceeds going to a new building to house TTO in Tyendinaga. All the current programs will be housed in that building, which is scheduled for completion in September 2024. One important aspect of this is that it will help facilitate intergenerational learning, which is an integral part of the Mohawk culture. The building will also include a recording studio, so that students will be able to hear the language as well.

Assaf Weisz and Tim Jones, of PEC Community Partners, who are revitalizing Base31, approached David Maracle of Tyendinaga with the idea of establishing a partnership. Maracle suggested a concert featuring Indigenous musicians, with the proceeds going to TTO. Saturday’s concert was also intended to be an evening of music and reflection in the approach to the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, which is intended to raise awareness of residential school survivors and their families, and also to draw attention to those who did not survive residential school. The concert opened with music from Indigenous Youth Artist eaoh Argos. She was joined by David Maracle, who is an international award winning musician, and dancer Youngblood Mark Monture. Accompanying them were Donald Quan and Ray Farrugia. Maracle noted that it was important to build bridges between the Tyendinaga community and Prince Edward County, and that helping to fund TTO was a way of preserving the Mohawk language as a vessel for culture. The concert was headlined by the Juno Award-winning duo of Digging Roots, ShoShona Kish and Raven Kanatakta. Their style blends hip-hop, rock, pop and blues, and they are strong proponents of their Indigenous heritage. One of their songs, a hard-driving blues rendition of Cut my Hair, was a tribute to one of their family members who survived residential school, where she was sent as a five-year-old, and the first thing that happened was that her hair was cut off, ostensibly for hygiene reasons, but in actuality as a way to separate her from her culture. Yet Kanatakta said she was strong and resilient, and she survived. There were many who didn’t, and in a proud echo of his relative, Kanatakta cut off his own hair to mourn their loss.

This coming Friday, there will be a music concert at the Regent Theatre to mark the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. TTO Executive Director Callie Hill said that attending an event like that is just one way to show support to the Indigenous community. “I think it’s about everyone taking responsibility to learn something on that day, however that looks to them,” she said. “Whether that’s going to an event, or going to the library and getting a book, or speaking to an Indigenous person. I think that’s the best way to becoming more aware of what September 30th is all about.”