Learning Mohawk through storytelling

“It’s not easy. Sometimes it forces you to think about these things and sometimes it forces you to cry. And sometimes we forget how to cry as Native people,” says Steve Bonspiel, editor-in-chief, publisher and owner of The Eastern Door newspapers.

The Eastern Door, a local newspaper in Kahnawake, is making efforts to preserve and revitalize the Mohawk language through story-telling.

The projects are encouraging community members to share, learn and heal.

“We wanted to go a little further than just our oral tradition, which is obviously the backbone of who we are, and have this as kind of a living, breathing, you know, in a way monument to our elders,” says Bonspiel

In June 2020 the eastern door launched its “Mohawk Words” page – encouraging community members to learn the language in a fun easy way by learning the Mohawk word for everyday items.

Since then, the paper launched the sharing our stories project –- publishing personal stories from elders each week in both English and Mohawk.

“I think a shared message or a theme through all of the stories, all the storytellers, is the relationship between the land, the language, the people and their stories. They’re inextricably linked. And this is just one project that illustrates that,” says Simona Rosenfield, the project coordinator with The Eastern Door.

“It helps people to heal, too, because they’re sharing that story publicly and people are approaching them and saying ‘I didn’t know this happened or I’m so sorry.’ It’s support as well because they’re putting themselves out there,” says Bonspiel.

Many sharing stories of deep grief and trauma

“You know, and to take kind of our traditions of here we are putting those stories out there for people to learn has been a form of healing. I mean, even just me. I’m the editor, publisher, and owner of the Eastern Door, and I’m editing these and I’m like, man, this is incredible stuff. Sometimes am beside myself because I can’t believe people are sharing so openly. So if I’m affected like that, I know that others are as well,” says Bonspiel

“There are less than 3500 speakers of the traditional language today, and that is a direct result of Indian day school, and residential school and these are stories that are being shared in this project. They are storytellers and have illustrated this cause and effect that is felt today and that colonization is alive and well. This is an effort to prevent or to slow down or to reverse those impacts that the language was not able to be transferred orally in the way that it has been historically. And that’s something that I’ve learned from elders who share their stories,” says Rosenfield.

“There are many initiatives and ours is a small part of it and I think that if we can spark somebody else to do something else, and then another one… and then next thing you know, like 20 years from now the overall proficiency of the community will have increased,” says Bonspiel.