Spring of Revitalization: Bean and Grandma’s Weekend

by Wentanoron Ariana Roundpoint

The 5th and 6th of May 2023 became the mark of something truly beautiful. I, Wentanoron Ariana Roundpoint, am placing my heart and soul into the story “Bean and Grandma’s Weekend” for many others to be able to experience.

On these days the conversation of two particular rooms were the start of a journey I have the absolute pleasure of sharing with many. It was not just any conversation one may find at the dinner table, though now that is the goal for this author, but one you find in the history books as a truly cataclysmic point. A point of no return.

I was grateful to lead this conversation as a young Mohawk woman from Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) Territory, Akwesasne, ON, bordering Canada and the United States of America; and invited many to attend the events at the Global Centre of Pluralism and the Indigo Bookstore at Rideau Mall. By my side were the supportive co-founders of TakingITGlobal, Jennifer Corriero and Michael Furdyk. Two people that aided in the creation of my dreams, who made resources available to so many other youth of Canada to pursue their dreams as they’ve helped in this story come to life. And with the helpful illustrations by Bruce Boots, we are able to see the gentle world of Bean and Grandma come to life, immersing the reader deeper into the beauty that is the Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) culture.

This book is about creating, celebrating, embracing, challenging, and connecting the mind, body, and spirit of the reader. For the story of a grandmother and her grandson sharing moments spanning over a weekend, brings to mind the question of how we go about celebrating the embrace of connecting two generations. To ensure the life of the oral culture the Mohawk people still keep alive to this day, there is a journey I set to venture on six years ago when I embraced the project to collaborate on what would be my first ever featured published work, “Sila and the Land”. Now I have found the project that aims to bring a new light on language revitalization and preservation.

The conversation driven with friends, family, and political dignitaries took the participant on the first steps towards using our freedom and resources at the disposals of all of us, to aid in the revitalization of the Mohawk language using picture, word, and crafted storytelling to further and better the understanding the connection between the grandparents and the grandchildren in my culture have. When the book launch began on 5th May, 2023 I invited the room to join me in the quest of reforming the limits of learning and embracing old traditions. It was the point of no return, for the moment I began to share the vision, my dreams I had begun crafting six years prior, I knew there was a reason that day of that month had been selected to host the shifting energies of those gathered.

The inspirations that fuelled the dream for Bean and Grandma’s Weekend were shared. I was able to share how my own mother had gifted what no amount of money could buy; the knowledge of heritage and culture through language and nature. Growing up with my mother and father, they reminded me to simply be the best I could be.

I was fortunate to hear the language, politics, and traditional knowledge passed from grandmother, to mother, to daughter. The matriarchal based culture brought to the forefront of the mind that there was nothing that could erase my existence. Not when I grew up to know with every fiber of my being who I am, where I came from, and where I could go. Stories shared, laughs filling the air of the home, and love to drive it all with a universal knowing, I began my dream of sharing. I share what it is to be proud of who we are, where we come from, and what that strength in knowing without a doubt the aforementioned, can do to and for the world around us.

“Bean and Grandma’s Weekend” was the kindling of the conversation had with family, friends, supporters, and senators and dignitaries from Parliament hill, as well as the Parliamentary Librarian. The question of how we can utilize our freedom and resources at our disposal, to help in the efforts of language revitalization. I simply asked the question, and for all to take a moment to look inwards at how fortunate we really are for being able to still push on these efforts. And the spirit of this dream began to grow more corporeal with every person present in the room.

On the 6th of May, the room was still holding conversations of change, but with a different sort of crowd.

This one was full of young stories yet to be told, of teachers and learners working as one in symbiotic harmony. I was able to stand within the circular space of the Indigo Bookstore within the Rideau Mall, and had the chance to share my story of Bean and his Grandma on their weekend of adventures around home. The little boy was able to learn the language of his blood, to reconnect with his ancestors and culture through the help of Grandmother. The beauty of the language and how fun it can be to learn this language older than Canada itself, was shared to embrace the beauty of what generations of cultivating heritage and preserving what our ancestors gifted us with. The story shared and the dream coming alive before my very eyes could only be described through one of the Mohawk terms in the back of the book.

“kwa hiken tsi iohskats”, loosely describing how “it’s really beautiful”. Included in the book is the ability to listen to the story read through, and the word list following, read aloud to help experience the intricacy and beauty of the Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) language.

I share the beginning of my journey of aiding in the mission to keep my language, culture, and identity alive until the last breath is drawn from this fight, in keeping the generations to come from forgetting the pride of their ancestors. The oral traditions live on through the stories shared, and how we can help by simply listening to hear what is trying to be said. The beginning of this work to help other young minds to try out just one word a day. To give ourselves the patience of learning and simply trying our best. When we give ourselves that chance, it reminds us to have patience without judgment, and to know that one word a day puts you that much farther ahead of where you had been.

We are all the student and teacher roles, the learning never ceases. But it is how we allow ourselves to learn that we are able to teach and show others by example. I share with many my own struggle in learning my language but the patience I bestow upon myself gives me the grace of learning 365 new words by the end of the year. When Bean learns “ohsokwakeri” and pronounces it as “oh-so-ugly” he is the reminder that we simply must have the humor and good heart in the memory for the word to imbed itself.

We begin to learn the beauty of learning the language but knowing when the word “ohsokwakeri” is ever mentioned again, Bean, and ourselves, will hardly have the strength to keep the smile from growing at the memory. And Grandmother will have the knowledge that her little grandson is trying. At the end of the day, we can always simply try to have the cataclysmic conversations I strive to have for the generations passed and the generations coming forth.

Bean and Grandma’s Weekend is available to order on Amazon.ca.