'Keep a language alive': CBC Cree unit celebrates milestone anniversaries

Some early members of the CBC North Cree unit both radio and television remember very clearly why they wanted to work there.

People like Emma Saganash and Dianne Ottereyes Reid and the late Elijah Menarik.

"It was a mission I felt I needed to do after experiencing Indian residential school and being prevented from speaking my language," said Reid, who first worked transcribing Cree-language segments into English in the mid-70s, while studying linguistics at McGill.

"By the time I came out of [residential] school, I swore that nobody was going to prevent me from speaking my language ever again," Reid said.

On Thursday, the CBC North Cree unitis celebrating milestoneanniversaries, with an event at the new Maison de Radio-Canada in Montreal.

CBC North Cree radio began broadcasting 50 years ago this November, with short Cree-language segments during its Inuktitut programming beginning in 1972.

By 1975, an hour-long, Cree-language noon-hour show called Najawew Dipajimoonwas added, quickly undergoing a name change in 1979, to Eyou Dipajimoon, meaning Cree stories.In 1980, the Cree radio service added a morning show, Winschgaoug, meaning "wake-up."

The Cree-language television show, Maamuitaau, launched in 1982, 40 years ago this November.

"[The service]is very pertinent to keep our language and culture alive," said Sophie-Claude Miller, the current manager of CBC North Cree unit.

"Storytelling is a very important part of our traditions and embracing the new technologies gets community members, youth, elders and everyone in between, making sure our voices will stay alive for years to come."

Management of the CBC North Cree unit went back and forth over the years between Radio-Canada and CBC. It also developed a French-language show, Soire borale and in 2013, added an English web service.

Key service at a critical time for Cree

The CBC North Cree-language programming started broadcasting during a time when the Cree nation was organizing in opposition to hydroelectric development begun by the province of Quebec. That opposition eventually led to a legal battle the Cree would ultimately win, leading to the signing of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1975.

Radio, and then television, were important ways to share information and organize, according to Emma Saganash, who first started at CBC radio in 1977, but was a listener beforehand.

She went on to help develop and then host Maamuitaau for 10 years, before moving into management until her retirement from CBC in 2018.

"I think [the CBC North Cree unit] was very, very important throughout all those years. I think [the Cree] needed that kind of programming and we provided that service to them," said Saganash.

She added the servicehelped the Cree nation effectively stand up to Quebec, while also askingdifficult questions to Cree leaders and holding them to account.

Campaign to save service

In the mid-1990s, during a wave of cutbacks to CBCEnglish services, Cree leaders and listeners sent letters and signed petitions sharing how important both radio and television services were.

"Radio and television in Cree are essential services that are easily understandable for communities that are otherwise isolated. They serve a fundamental need," said former Cree grand chief Matthew Coon Come in a letter sent to CBCpresident Perrin Beatty in 1997.

In October 1996, the band council of Eastmain adopted a resolution in defense of the service, and Chief Kenneth Gilpin also sent a letter to Beatty, calling CBC North services "a matter of survival for our language, our culture and ultimately our Nation."

The letter went on to say that hydro-electric development meant Cree communities were forced to deal with 100 years of change in 20 years, posing a direct threat to the survival of Cree culture and Cree language.

"The [younger] generation are presently caught in an identity gap," wrote Gilpin. "Everything leads them towards the outside world, with computers, networks, television, etc The only assurance they can still feel a part of our society is through the language."

Several Cree citizens also signed a petition some of them in Cree syllabics that was delivered to the then head of CBC North's services Marie Wilson. Wilson went on to work as a commissioner for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

First Cree-language broadcasting

The very first Cree-language words broadcast on CBC North in 1972 came from the late Elijah Menarik, an Inuk broadcaster and station manager, who had worked for many years at CBC's station in Inuvik, CHAK, before coming to Montreal.

Menarik learned his Cree afterrunning away from a residential school located on Fort George Island, near present-day Cree community of Chisasibi, according to his son Robert Menarik. Elijah lived with a Cree familyfor two years after running away.

"What he liked most about the work was bringing messages news from people here in Montreal to their families up North," said Robert, who lives west of Montreal.

Elijah also lobbied hard for the creation of Maamuitaau, the Cree-language television program, according to Saganash and others. He also worked on Taqravut, CBC North's first Inuktitut television program.

Robertsaid his father also loved to entertain and to be in touch with people, particularly sharing messages at Christmas time.

For her part, Dianne Ottereyes Reid, switched after only a year in linguistics to a communications degree. After graduating, she came back to CBC and supported efforts to create Indigenous-language community radio stations throughout Quebec and went on to work for the Cree Nation Government and then went on to helpfound the AanischaaukamikwCree Cultural Institute.

"I knew we needed this medium whether it's television or radio Having studied communications, we know that this is the base for a language to stay alive; this is how to keep that language alive," said Reid.

A special event, including a live to tape recording of Eyou Dipajimoonwith a musical performance by Cree artist Siibii, is planned Thursday between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the lobby ofMaison de Radio Canada.

(With files from Dorothy Stewart, Marjorie Kitty, Betsy Longchap, Celina Wapachee, Stephane Gunner, Susan Bell, Jaime Little, Lachlan Madill, Sophie-Claude Miller)