by Greg McNeil & George Paul, Cape Breton Post / Eskasoni

First Mi’kmaq Immersion Students Recognized and Celebrated

2014 will be a year to remember and celebrate when records were broken and many first happened at the Allison Bernard Memorial High School.

The high school graduation ceremony took place for the first time at the new high school gymnasium on June 26, 2014. The new gymnasium was packed with family and friends as they watch a record number of graduates march by to receive their high school diplomas and rings.

This year a record high of 69 students graduated and of those 69 the first Mi’kmaq Immersion students from 2000 received their high school diplomas. Out of the original 24 Mi’kmaq Immersion kids from the year 2000 16 graduated from high school.

Throughout the evening the first immersion students were highlighted and celebrated with a special video they created with video production crew in November of 2013. Each immersion graduate received an eagle feather from their past immersion teachers and immersion graduate Karlee Johnson spoke to the capacity crowd in Mi’kmaq.

Karlee spoke about importance of keeping our language and keeping our Mi’kmaw culture strong and that we should be proud of it and celebrate it, “It is important for us to keep our language going and a reason for this immersion program was because our ancestors and those that have passed knew that importance in our language. That was the message.”

Fourteen years ago the Mi’kmaq immersion program was created in response to fears that the Mi’kmaw language was dying. With the support of the late school board director, Marion Paul, the first pilot program designed to fully immerse the students began.

“It was hard and we worked very hard to start this program. But it was also the passion and belief that we will make this program work,” said Mi’kmaq Immersion teacher Starr Paul, who was one of the teachers who spearheaded the program 14 years ago.

It was teachers Starr Paul, Ida Denny and many supporting staff that brought the immersion program to what it is today. In the beginning the immersion program was intense and long hours were spent in creating curriculum every year. Today the Mi’kmaq immersion has gone up one more grade, from grade three to four, and the plans are to go up further.

“Going through the program we didn’t feel any different,” said Karlee Johnson, who was one of the 24 students originally enrolled. “It was just like an ordinary day. I didn’t even know until graduation when we were acknowledged.”

“Today I can read in Mi’kmaq and I can write in Mi’kmaq and can speak Mi’kmaq,” said Johnson. “That was the most important thing, we spoke, we read and we wrote.”

Though not all have the comfort level of Karlee, the knowledge level of the language remains high amongst many who took the program. Most speak the language, many can write it, and all understand it when heard.

“Some think it’s cooler to speak English, but it is important to speak our language because it is declining,” said immersion high school graduate, Farah Stevens.

“I was extremely happy of how they highlighted the immersion students and the program because it’s a milestone,” Starr said about her feelings on graduation day.

“It’s something that people have to realize and they have to glorify these people because they were able to do it despite what all these people thought in the community.”

In the beginning, she said many parents wanted their children in the program, but others had concerns.  “They were scared for their children, not being able to do academic work in English. They thought if they did their work in Mi’kmaq they wouldn’t be able to do their work in English in years to come.”

She was proud to note that majority of the immersion students who graduated this week did so with honours.

In her master’s thesis on the program she prepared with Sherise Paul-Gould they also found that the program went far beyond just teaching the Mi’kmaw language. “They were excelling in all subject areas. They would even scold others if they were being disrespectful to others in the classroom.”

Participation in extracurricular activities at school and in the community were also high among participants.

Despite the successes of the program, Paul noted the Mi’kmaw language is still in decline in the community. While some of the students graduating hoped to see the program extended right through Grade 12, Paul said the language needs its own school.

“We are rapidly losing our language. We need to also educate our own community. The residential school mentality is still there, that English is better.”

There are French immersion schools, so why not a Mi’kmaw school, she said. “It would be phenomenal to have our own building with a staff that speak the language. This is the only way I can think of to preserve your language.”

She knows this will take time, so in the meantime she is encouraging parents to speak the language at home, particularly to their young children. “When you hear children speaking now it is very rare. When you do hear, your ears and eyes light up,” said Starr. “It’s something we have to think about and look at, not only as educators, the first teacher is the parent.”