nim-bii-go-nini ojibwe language revitalization strategy : families learning our language at home
abstract
the nim-bii-go-nini ojibwe language revitalization strategy is a grassroots approach to
language learning that has been in collaborative development and implementation with members
of my family since december 2008. nim-bii-go-nini is two words: nim-bii-go, more commonly
pronounced nipigon, and nini, meaning people. we are lake nipigon ojibwe people. this study
is one response to some of the negative intergenerational impacts that the residential schools
have on aboriginal youth and their families, particularly loss of language and loss of culture.
this revitalization strategy is an eight cycle process that includes basic and assessment
processes that aid in the organization and development of our language learning plan. situated
within a combined feminist and indigenous theoretical framework, the study took a participatory
action approach wherein i observed and documented my family's ongoing efforts to generate
momentum for the revitalization of the nim-bii-go-nini ojibwe language. a phenomenological
interview approach helped me gain insight into the impacts ofnim-bii-go-nini ojibwe language
acquisition. in particular, this study describes how my family has needed to renew our familial
relationships and rebuild our cultural foundation so that intergenerational knowledge sharing can
fully occur; without this renewal and rebuilding, the initial stages of the revitalization of our
language could not have taken place. this study demonstrates more than a reversal of the
colonizing homogenization of the western education imposed on us, it is an example of a
grassroots effort to rebuild the frayed social fabric of our indigenous societies through families
coming together to learn their language.