Book Review: Kinship Wheel-Wahkowtowin (Cree Language "TH" Dialect).

Robin McLeod has been researching compiling and writing about kinship systems of the Woodland Nehithawak (Cree) for several years. His interest in kinship systems evolved form extensive consultations with Elders and the teachers of Aboriginal languages in northern Saskatchewan. He has presented his work to various First Nations schools and organizations accepting feedback on how to teach this important and vital component of Woodland Cree and their social organization.

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Prior to contact and to some extent today, the Woodland Cree have applied traditional ways of teaching to recognize relationships between members of kinship groups. Since the Cree language was used in everyday life, the people did not encounter difficulties with the terminology and the application on the ways of belonging and relating to their members. The Cree language embodied a value system of how people related to each other; it gave a name to the relations the kin had with each other and the respect accorded to certain individuals.

With five centuries of colonization and the attempts to assimilate the people, the Woodland Cree language began to deteriorate. The English language was used to substitute the kinship relationships people had with each member of the Woodland Cree kinship group. Since there are no English equivalents for some of the Woodland Cree kinship terminology, aspects of the relationship became confused or forgotten with the younger generations. The natural laws predetermined by a relationship system were not taught and recognized. Recognition of kinship terminology is important to how people relate to each other, particularly with the practice of teaching and learning related to roles and responsibilities associated through kinship systems.

Indigenous educational philosophy is about the education of the whole child surrounded by many types of learning styles and teachings. A child will learn about themselves through the teachings and how they will fit into the community as a member of a kinship group. Robin McLeod's kinship wheel offers a way of thinking about kinship which emphasizes wholeness. The basic framework calls upon a person to be introspective, learning about those who are and will be the younger generation. This model also presents the older generation based on how an individual is related to the kinship members of succeeding generations. The holistic framework provides a learner with a pattern and the order to learn about the Woodland Cree kinship system.

The kinship wheel provides a number of visual diagrams towards understanding how individuals are related to others within their kinship group. It is of interest to all Aboriginal people concerned with kinship and the concept of the circle in traditional teachings. I would recommend this work to be read by all educators and teachers of Indigenous languages. It offers new insights and further thought on the development of Aboriginal traditional kinship systems.

Ray Smith

Cree Language and Indigenous Studies Instructor

Robin McLeod

306-922-0253

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