Post by Okwes on Jan 8, 2006 12:11:35 GMT -5
Kodiak residents visit New Zealand Native culture
Posted: January 03, 2006
by: The Associated Press
AP Photo/ April Laktonen Counceller via the Kodiak Daily Mirror -- Maori dancers performed a powhiri, or welcoming ceremony, along the Waikato River in Hamilton, New Zealand, in November. Though Kodiak, Alaska, delegates attended the language and culture conference in New Zealand to learn about the Maori, they said they also found rewarding the interaction with the other 3,000 delegates from all over the world.
By Kristen Inbody -- Kodiak Daily Mirror
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) - As painted Maori landed in canoes on the shores of Waikato River, they began a dance that left a group of Kodiakans gobsmacked, it was so perfectly in synch.
''You could tell they practiced all the time,'' said April Laktonen Counceller, in New Zealand for a Native culture conference.
The Maori have been unusually successful at maintaining their language and culture.
Their language is recognized as an official language of New Zealand, they are influential in the government and their children grow up fluent in Maori.
''It seems everything they do, they've got the golden touch,'' Counceller said.
The Kodiak delegation attended the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education in Hamilton, New Zealand, in late November and early December, hoping to return home with ideas to mirror that success.
''We wanted to learn how the Maori people preserve their language and culture and are economically successful,'' Counceller said.
Seven Kodiak Islanders involved in the Alutiiq language program attended the conference to make a presentation on collaborative leadership. The delegates aimed to represent a broad swath of the island, with Counceller, Alisha Drabek, Florence Pestrikoff, Julie Knagin, Mary Haakanson, Peggy Stoltenberg and Susan Malutin. The Shoonaq Tribe, Afognak Native Corp., the Native Village of Afognak, the Koniag Corp. and individuals contributed money toward the trip. The group also held a drawing to help the elders afford the trip.
More than 3,000 international delegates attended. Counceller said it was a moral boost to see people all over the world fighting the same battles to continue their cultures.
''We ended up being able to learn from everyone, to get that worldwide perspective on indigenous people,'' Counceller said.
''It felt really good to be around so many people trying to improve their community. It didn't matter if they were from an island in the South Pacific or an island in the North Pacific, like Kodiak,'' she said.
If only a smattering of adults study a language, it will fade away, she said. Only if children are raised speaking a language will enough new speakers replace the older speakers who die.
Kodiak Island has 35 fluent Alutiiq speakers. Their average age, 74, exceeds the life expectancy for Natives in the region.
''There's a lot of urgency to what we do,'' Counceller said.
In the past year, several Alutiiq speakers have died. In a decade, they could all be gone. ''We're fighting against the tide,'' Counceller said.
She said that since the language evolved on Kodiak Island, it is the most perfect way to describe elements here and worth maintaining.
For Counceller, the most significant element of the conference was the language symposium. There she learned of a technique used to teach Arapaho astonishingly fast. She will attend a presentation this spring to learn more about his method.
''We're beating ourselves up as we're not fast enough,'' she said. ''Anything we can do to get the ball rolling, we're excited.''
One element of the Maori's success is their preschools, which teach in the Native language.
Stoltenberg, a teacher in Old Harbor, said that in addition to touring the preschools, the group also chanced to visit a Maori teacher training center while waiting at the bus depot.
One of the teachers demonstrated the silent method, where instruction takes place only in the language being taught and uses different colored rods to illustrate words. ''She had found success with that method teaching adults and children. People who learn that method learn it quickly,'' Stoltenberg said.
She was also impressed, and hopes to institute in Old Harbor, the way Maori incorporate the language into every aspect of their lives.
One highlight of the conference was an address from Maori Queen Te Atairangikaahu.
She was elected in 1966 and is the first queen in the patriarchal society since the monarchy developed six generations ago.
For the Kodiak elders, the trip included a special visit with a relative of the queen whom Alutiiq Museum Director Sven Haakanson Jr. met in an earlier visit to New Zealand. The man took the elders to ceremonial sites and the queen's house.
Atairangikaahu lives in Ngaruawahia, the Maori capital of New Zealand a few miles from Hamilton.
Malutin said the house wasn't anything fancy.
''She lives away from the palace in her own residence. There was nothing to indicate she was the queen,'' she said.
During the conference, Atairangikaahu reminisced about the last time the conference was in New Zealand, more than a decade ago.
''You'd be amazed at how she conducted herself without that air,'' Malutin said. ''She made you feel [as though] she really did appreciate [your presence].''
Convention attendees from around the world brought gifts for the queen. The Kodiak group presented whale tail earrings and other jewelry.
''We know she at least has something of Kodiak,'' Counceller said. ''We wanted to make that connection.''
www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412182
Posted: January 03, 2006
by: The Associated Press
AP Photo/ April Laktonen Counceller via the Kodiak Daily Mirror -- Maori dancers performed a powhiri, or welcoming ceremony, along the Waikato River in Hamilton, New Zealand, in November. Though Kodiak, Alaska, delegates attended the language and culture conference in New Zealand to learn about the Maori, they said they also found rewarding the interaction with the other 3,000 delegates from all over the world.
By Kristen Inbody -- Kodiak Daily Mirror
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) - As painted Maori landed in canoes on the shores of Waikato River, they began a dance that left a group of Kodiakans gobsmacked, it was so perfectly in synch.
''You could tell they practiced all the time,'' said April Laktonen Counceller, in New Zealand for a Native culture conference.
The Maori have been unusually successful at maintaining their language and culture.
Their language is recognized as an official language of New Zealand, they are influential in the government and their children grow up fluent in Maori.
''It seems everything they do, they've got the golden touch,'' Counceller said.
The Kodiak delegation attended the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education in Hamilton, New Zealand, in late November and early December, hoping to return home with ideas to mirror that success.
''We wanted to learn how the Maori people preserve their language and culture and are economically successful,'' Counceller said.
Seven Kodiak Islanders involved in the Alutiiq language program attended the conference to make a presentation on collaborative leadership. The delegates aimed to represent a broad swath of the island, with Counceller, Alisha Drabek, Florence Pestrikoff, Julie Knagin, Mary Haakanson, Peggy Stoltenberg and Susan Malutin. The Shoonaq Tribe, Afognak Native Corp., the Native Village of Afognak, the Koniag Corp. and individuals contributed money toward the trip. The group also held a drawing to help the elders afford the trip.
More than 3,000 international delegates attended. Counceller said it was a moral boost to see people all over the world fighting the same battles to continue their cultures.
''We ended up being able to learn from everyone, to get that worldwide perspective on indigenous people,'' Counceller said.
''It felt really good to be around so many people trying to improve their community. It didn't matter if they were from an island in the South Pacific or an island in the North Pacific, like Kodiak,'' she said.
If only a smattering of adults study a language, it will fade away, she said. Only if children are raised speaking a language will enough new speakers replace the older speakers who die.
Kodiak Island has 35 fluent Alutiiq speakers. Their average age, 74, exceeds the life expectancy for Natives in the region.
''There's a lot of urgency to what we do,'' Counceller said.
In the past year, several Alutiiq speakers have died. In a decade, they could all be gone. ''We're fighting against the tide,'' Counceller said.
She said that since the language evolved on Kodiak Island, it is the most perfect way to describe elements here and worth maintaining.
For Counceller, the most significant element of the conference was the language symposium. There she learned of a technique used to teach Arapaho astonishingly fast. She will attend a presentation this spring to learn more about his method.
''We're beating ourselves up as we're not fast enough,'' she said. ''Anything we can do to get the ball rolling, we're excited.''
One element of the Maori's success is their preschools, which teach in the Native language.
Stoltenberg, a teacher in Old Harbor, said that in addition to touring the preschools, the group also chanced to visit a Maori teacher training center while waiting at the bus depot.
One of the teachers demonstrated the silent method, where instruction takes place only in the language being taught and uses different colored rods to illustrate words. ''She had found success with that method teaching adults and children. People who learn that method learn it quickly,'' Stoltenberg said.
She was also impressed, and hopes to institute in Old Harbor, the way Maori incorporate the language into every aspect of their lives.
One highlight of the conference was an address from Maori Queen Te Atairangikaahu.
She was elected in 1966 and is the first queen in the patriarchal society since the monarchy developed six generations ago.
For the Kodiak elders, the trip included a special visit with a relative of the queen whom Alutiiq Museum Director Sven Haakanson Jr. met in an earlier visit to New Zealand. The man took the elders to ceremonial sites and the queen's house.
Atairangikaahu lives in Ngaruawahia, the Maori capital of New Zealand a few miles from Hamilton.
Malutin said the house wasn't anything fancy.
''She lives away from the palace in her own residence. There was nothing to indicate she was the queen,'' she said.
During the conference, Atairangikaahu reminisced about the last time the conference was in New Zealand, more than a decade ago.
''You'd be amazed at how she conducted herself without that air,'' Malutin said. ''She made you feel [as though] she really did appreciate [your presence].''
Convention attendees from around the world brought gifts for the queen. The Kodiak group presented whale tail earrings and other jewelry.
''We know she at least has something of Kodiak,'' Counceller said. ''We wanted to make that connection.''
www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412182