Tag Archives: plains

mitho-makosīkīsikanisik – Have a Good Christmas


 

To two or more people

mitho-makosīkīsikanisik

To one person

mitho-makosīkīsikanisi


 

This post was inspired by Solomon Ratt

Plains Cree – Y dialect  by Simon Bird on the #CreeSimonSays YouTube channel

 

640 LIKES –

Thank you all for your support, I didn’t realize the amount of likes I received from you fine people. I appreciate all the shares and LIKES. It wasn’t too long ago that 400 likes was such a privilege to receive, from such a great group of people. Thank you for following my page.

#CreeSimonSays – Thankful translation.

Background vector created by starline – www.freepik.com – Thumbs up icon use.

FREE PDF Downloads – Plains & Woodland Cree Clock

This past week, there has been a great response to my DIY Cree clock posts. Unfortunately, I posted the images in haste and some mistakes were pointed out but I think I have them all corrected now. I am sorry if this has caused any inconvenience.

For my haste and mistakenly posting the clock images (now updated) , I have posted the following list of all the clocks I have on this website, in Plains & Woodland Cree, already for download in PDF format. Just download and print, easy. I am hoping to complete a Telling Time in Cree lesson next week, so please stay tuned for that.

PLAINS CREE – Y – PDF Downloads ⇓ 

 Y-clock-in-cree_winter_sunset_01

 Y-clock-in-cree_winter_sunrise_01

 Y-clock-in-cree_white_button_01

 Y-clock-in-cree_red_button_01

 Y-clock-in-cree_purple_button_01

 Y-clock-in-cree_green_button_01

 Y-clock-in-cree_fall_sunset_01

 Y-clock-in-cree_blue_button_01

 Y-clock-in-cree_black_01

WOODLAND CREE – TH – PDF Downloads ⇓ 

 TH-clock-in-cree_winter_sunset_01

 TH-clock-in-cree_winter_sunrise_01

 TH-clock-in-cree_white_button_01

 TH-clock-in-cree_red_button_01

 TH-clock-in-cree_purple_button_01

 TH-clock-in-cree_green_button_01

 TH-clock-in-cree_fall_sunset_01

 TH-clock-in-cree_blue_button_01

 TH-clock-in-cree_black_01

I appreciate the great response from my followers. One of my former colleagues, Cynthia Cook, had a novel idea. She wants to download and print one of the clocks I have on this website and fit it into her old clock. I told her, it is a great idea and it would liven up an old boring clock that has been hanging on a wall for years. Why not give that a try.

Because of my mistake, I will have to reprint my clocks but at least the DIY Clock Tools are easy to transfer. Again, I apologize for my haste and hope you will take the time to re-download your favourite design. The previous blog posts will remain the same but the FREE CREE IMAGES page has updated images, check it out.

 

ohtāwīmāwikīsikāw – Father’s Day (Woodland Cree)


ohtāwīmāwikīsikāw – Father’s Day in Woodland Cree, it might be similar to Plains Cree. Audio available.

fathers-day-copy

My Time with The Gift of Language and Culture Project (2005-2011)

banner_glcp
http://www.giftoflanguageandculture.ca/ (new window)

In 2005, I started working for the Gift of Language and Culture Project as a casual web designer. Little did I know that they were expecting a Flash based website with images, text and audio all rolled into one for each category. I was overwhelmed by the expectations but I was happy to at least be working. I put in many extra hours at home to learn this new application.

cree-syllabicsI knew enough about image and sound formats but he text part gave me trouble because I had never worked with different text fonts other than the generic types we are all used to such as, Times New Roman, Arial or Comic Sans. I had to learn quickly because the demands of the project team was high and I was expected to work miracles and with new Aboriginal language fonts I never heard of. dene_swallow

We had Cree, Dene and syllabic fonts that needed to be installed on all our computers and I had to make sure people at home and schools could view the fonts on documents so I had to provide a link to the fonts for personal installation. There were also applications I needed to familiarize myself with, such as, CorelDraw, Publisher, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Audition and of course Adobe Flash (Macromedia Flash at the time). I already knew about Adobe Photoshop so that was a big help with the images that needed to be edited and manipulated.

The project team was great and the people were dedicated and willing to put forth much effort to accomplish what we could, to provide resources for Aboriginal language learners all over the country and even some in the United States. We had curriculum developers who compiled the Cree and Dene word lists and translations, illustrators who provided the original clip-art we needed, audio/visual personnel who recorded the audio and video required and of course the material developers who put the resources together for print and distribution.

Part One & Part Two

I personally collaborated with all staff to get what I needed to build the website and put their work together and develop what we see today. If it were not for the cooperation and hard work of the team, I could not do what I did for the website. I am grateful for the experience and I was so sad to see it all come to an end in 2011. It was a big part of my life, 7 years of my life that it still has a profound effect on me today.

I think I did well on my self-learning because we ended up with a great Cree website that is still online and used all around the world and has been viewed by 147 countries. It has had 276,357 hits and 100,226 unique visitors (as of June 17, 2015) which is pretty good for a non-mainstream language and website.

Last 500 hits
Last 500 hits
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YouTube

The YouTube Channel has 407 subscribers 260,379 views as (of June 17, 2015). The channel has songs, concerts, and animations for the whole family to enjoy. There are also a couple of instructional videos for snowshoes and birch bark baskets and many interviews with elders, some who are not with us today.
(https://www.youtube.com/user/TGLCP/videos).

theGiftOfLanguageAndCulture_screenAs the web designer/Flash developer, I received praise for the work I did but I always mentioned the people behind all the important work that needed to be done before I could even develop an animation or Flash exercise. I had a good working relationship with all my co-workers and while they contributed all the work, I made myself extra useful by troubleshooting their computer’s hardware and software when ever they needed it. There was no way I could do my work if they could not do theirs, so it worked out for all of us.

I am currently training to be a teacher at Nortep and hopefully in a couple of years I will be able to contribute to the Cree language professionally with much more credibility. I decided to go back to school because I needed more training in the area of education and to hopefully expand my horizons for myself and to contribute more to the learning environment of our students in other areas where it is needed.

On a side note, I would receive emails and phone calls from Montana, Ontario, British Columbia and the all the prairie provinces to let me know what a great job the Gift was doing. One person in particular called from BC to tell me that he loved the website and that two of his children were learning Cree from their mother who was a Cree woman he married from Saskatchewan somewhere, I cannot remember where specifically (it might have been Pelican Narrows). It was a morning call out of nowhere but it was a nice surprise way back about 2010.

I wish the project could have continued but all good things come to an end. Maybe one of these days there will be a revival and if there is, I would love to be involved again and provide my experience and expertise.

i-shall-see-you-again

cv

 

kikiyāskin/kikithāskin – You’re Lying (Plains & Woodland Cree)

kikiyāskin/kikithāskin – You’re Lying, as in not telling the truth (Plains & Woodland Cree) Audio available on here.

Plains Cree

you're-lying-plains

Woodland Cree

you're-lying-woodland

awas – Go away (Woodland & Plains Cree)

awas – Go away (Woodland & Plains Cree), a word that might come in handy when somebody is bothering you or maybe teasing you about something.

go-away_no-image