Boozhoo Biigtigong Nishnaabeg and friends! Welcome to biigtigong.com, home of our collective dream to restore and revitalize Biigtigong Nishnaabemwin.
A dream that connects us to the accumulated knowledge of our ancestors, our philosophy and worldview, our spirituality, our homelands, and the ways of knowing, all of which make us Biigtigong Nishnaabeg. Our elders say that language is the foundation of truly understanding our identity as Nishnaabeg. They remind us that it is our responsibility to think, speak, behave, and walk the earth, like Nishnaabeg. Although the effects of colonization and cultural genocide have caused us significant challenges, freedom lies in our ability to move forward in unity, finding the truths and solutions that exist in our histories, stories, values, ceremonies, and language.
This project is about reclamation, the reclamation of ourselves as Biigtigong Nishnaabeg. It is about embracing our responsibility to our ancestors and to our children by standing up and collectively fighting for what is inherently ours – our Nishnaabe world. Biigtigong language and cultural revitalization is impossible without the support and hard work of our community. The survival of Biigtigong Nishnaabemwin rests in the hands of our generation.
Our website provides tools to assist in our collective movement towards making Biigtigong Nishnaabemwin alive and thriving once again. We will be continuously developing the website and adding new features; the work contained herein is a work in progress. Over the next several months, you will see new features continually being added to the website; for example, a detailed accounting of our research in the reconstruction and documentation of our language; online and interactive Nishnaabe-English and English-Nishnaabe dictionaries; and, useful tools to help us better understand what precisely our dialect of Nishnaabemwin is.
Other initiatives will be incorporated to facilitate opportunity for each and every one of us to make contributions to the revitalization of Biigtigong Nishnaabemwin. We cannot sit idle anymore waiting for magic; hard work, determination, love, and a commitment to our ancestors and children is what we are challenged to deliver today. Opportunities for our speakers, our understanders, and our non-understanders will be made available so that together we can determine our destiny and leave a legacy. Time is of the essence.
Collectively, we are embarking on one of our most important journeys as Biigtigong Nishnaabeg. Through the spirit of love, we can together reclaim our Nishnaabe ways and ensure that our children walk the earth knowing, believing, and celebrating their identity. Enjoy, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg!
