Language at Boyle Street

On the day you were born, you were much more than an infant whose only needs were food, water, and shelter.

On the day you were born, you inherited sets of relationships and identities: you were someone’s child or cousin, you were Canadian or Algerian or Telugu or Métis. Wherever you were born, people called that land home, and it was now your home too. And over your life you’ve nurtured these relationships and identities, changed them, learned them, and created them.

To navigate through it all, you use language(s).

Languages and Names

Languages are another thing we can inherit and another thing we can nurture, change, and learn. We share them with those around us and those who came before us. We use them to name who we are, where we come from, what we value, and what we hope for. We use them to share stories and knowledge and meaning.

The language we use draws our attention to particular aspects of our relationships and identities. This is true for people and it is true for places.

In 2022, Elder Cliff Cardinal gifted the name okimaw peyesew kamik to Boyle Street in a sweat lodge ceremony. In nêhiyawêwin*, the Plains Cree language, okimaw peyesew kamik translates to King Thunderbird Centre.

Every time we say okimaw peyesew kamik, we are reminded that the name came through ceremony, and the way we carry it should guide us. We are reminded about miyo-pimâtisiwin, the good life, which cannot be collapsed into any one thing – it is food, family, shelter, kinship, ceremony, land, purpose, art, relationship, and so much more.

Why Language is Important at Boyle Street

The askiy den serves youth and young adults. askiy means "land" or "earth."

Language at Boyle Street is important because it draws our attention to these aspects of our relationships and identities as an organization and as individuals. For us and for those we serve, language is a connection to the whole person - to our identity and what we each identify as miyo-pimâtisiwin.

Someone may come to us because they need identification. Someone needs housing. Someone needs food. Someone needs medical care. Someone needs help navigating a form, a benefit, an appointment, a crisis. Those needs are real and urgent. But they are not the whole person. Language, art, land, and ceremony support aspects of the good life that food and housing alone cannot reach.

We want to support people to share their gifts, give voice to their spirit, be safe in their identity, and belong. We not only want to ask “What does this person need?” but also “Who is this person connected to?” “What gifts do they carry?” “What does the good life mean to them?”

One way we keep these goals in focus is through the language that we use. For example, okimaw peyesew kamik’s front entry space was gifted the name itê ka-skinôh-tamâke: a place where people come for help, a place where one goes to be cared for, a place of compassionate support.

The language matters. Many of the people we walk alongside have spent years being moved along, moved out, redirected, assessed, denied, discharged, or told to come back later. They know the difference between being processed and being welcomed. Belonging is not the same as access. A person may receive a meal, complete a form, attend an appointment, or speak with a worker, while still feeling that the space was not made with them in mind. Belonging means there is some sign, practice, relationship, or recognition that tells a person they are welcome as they are.

For Indigenous community members, hearing or seeing their language can be one of those signs. It can instantly connect someone to the relationships and identities that they hold most dear, to relationships and identities they are still learning, reclaiming, or finding their way back to. It can also remind non-Indigenous staff and visitors they are not standing in a culturally neutral space, but on land with languages, histories, and obligations that precede Boyle Street, Edmonton, and Canada.

More Than Language

Language does not stand alone. Like all relationships and identities, language has to be practiced and cared for. It is connected to Elders, Knowledge Keepers, ceremony, community voice, and relationships with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities. It is connected to the daily practice of walking alongside people and the hard work of changing systems that exclude people. It can be learned.

Because our mission is to walk in relationship with those who are excluded, creating connections and pathways to miyo-pimâtisiwin. For many of those we serve, one of the most important pathways to the good life is their language.

Pronunciation

Staff and visitors can learn to say okimaw peyesew kamik with care.

Please consult boylestreet.org/language to hear and practice the nêhiyawêwin words and phrases at Boyle Street. The speaker is Lonny Potts from Paul First Nation, Boyle Street’s Director of sîtôskam iyiniwatisiwin (Supporting an Indigenous Way of Being).

*nêhiyawêwin is prominent at Boyle Street because of where we are, but it is not a substitute for all Indigenous languages. The people who come to Boyle Street are from many Nations and language communities. Each language carries its own histories, teachings, places, relationships, and responsibilities, and each must be approached with its own protocols, speakers, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers.