Audio interviews
Kanien’kehá:ka communities have always passed down information and stories orally. Through spoken words, history, language, philosophies, culture and tradition have been taught and learnt for millennia. So much can be understood about community and culture by the words one uses and through the way in which sentences are stringed together. Similarly, the way words are formed in Kanien’kéha demonstrates the way in which the world is seen. So listen - listen to the language, listen to elders, listen to the stories and learn. Or laugh - that’s good too.
English interviews
The English interviews are the source of our written stories. They contain extras that aren’t necessarily included in our written stories and cover a wide range of topics including culture, art and dance, education, spirituality and agriculture. The audio is a conversation between the story collectors and the elder or knowledge keeper.
Kanien’kéha interviews
These interviews are conducted with First Language Kanien’kéha speakers and cover topics that range from learning the language, the importance of keeping Indigenous languages alive, the struggles they’ve had throughout their life with maintaining their language and much more. To hear the language from those who grew up speaking it is integral to the next generation of speakers. Ionkwaká:raton’s translator, Sahawisó:ko’ Arquette, conduct these interviews in Kanien’kéha.