First Nations University of Canada

Published purpose

This project builds on work funded through Listen, Hear Our Voices in 2020–2022, during which our university/community team repatriated 57 hours of Plains Cree recordings collected by the Royal Alberta Museum in 1972 from the community of Kawacatoose First Nation (KFN). The repatriated materials consist of digitized copies of the original reel-to-reel recordings made in the 1970s and accompanying written English summaries. While our digitized copies are now preserved from physical decay, they remain difficult to listen to due to poor recording quality and the idiomatic speech patterns of the speakers. Additionally, the transcripts produced in the 1970s were created by a speaker of Plains Cree from a different region, resulting in abbreviated shorthand and some mistranslations of the original spoken words. Our objectives with this project are to: (1) select a subset of 20 stories to share with KFN members and the public through the (2) creation of accurate English translations of the selected recordings and the (3) creation of Standard Roman Orthography texts (written Plains Cree) of the selected recordings. These objectives will make the historic archival recordings, with their rich Plains Cree vocabulary and cultural content, available for future language learners while increasing the understanding of Plains Cree history among those participating in the project.