Munz Receives Frank Hugo Memorial award

Photo cut: Photo by Jennifer Dale

Becky Munz, 62-year-old member of the Bay Mills Indian Community, is a student-becoming-speaker of the Ojibwe language. She was selected as the recipient of the 2004 Bay Mills Community College Frank Victor Hugo Memorial Award. Since 1998, a BMCC Nishnaabemwin Language Instructor’s Institute student has been honored with the award at the annual Anishinaabe Language Conference, which took place this year at Sault Ste. Marie’s Kewadin Casino on March 26.

Munz’s vision for the Ojibwe language is that the Ojibwe Charter School becomes an immersion school, in order to perpetuate the language and everything that comes with it. To have, or at least be exposed to, those values contained within the language.

“We have a responsibility to do that. The language is a gift to be passed on,” she said. “It’s beautiful to hear and ideas expressed so nicely, like music. What a thing to pass on, if we could.”

A class Munz took from the late Bob Van Alstine has stayed with her these past few years. Van Alstine didn't use textbooks, but he assigned a lot of writing. In her research, Munz ran across Joshua Fishman, an endangered languages expert. In his paper, “What do you lose when you lose you language?” Fishman talked about language-loss from a cultural perspective.

“Take [language] away from the culture, and you take away its greetings, its curses, its praises, its laws, its literature, its songs, its riddles, its proverbs, its cures, its wisdom, its prayers. ... you are losing all those things that essentially are the way of life, the way of thought, the way of valuing, and the human reality that you are talking about,” he wrote.
Later in the paper, when Fishman talks about what a people think they lost when they lose their language, one thing popped out at Munz:

“Morality is, after all, just sanctity in operation,” wrote Fishman. “The things you have to do to be good, to be a member in good standing, to meet your commitments to the Creator ... The language being the soul of the people. The language being the mind of the people. The language being the spirit of the people. Those are just metaphors, but they are not innocent metaphors. There is something deeply holy implied, thereby, and that is what would be lost. That sense of the holy, a component of holiness that pervades people’s lives the way culture pervades their life, through the language.”
Munz agrees with that view. There is no translation for some Anishinabe words, she said, just approximations that don’t convey the whole picture. “It’s just ‘in the language,’” said Munz, adding that these words carry our cultural values.
“The literal translation so beautiful,” she said. “When you say the same in English, it is coarsened ... it doesn't have the grace and the beauty.”

Her Institute instructors have pointed out that study of the Ojibwe language is still new. Someone should take the time to write fully define some of the words deep in contextual meaning, just so non-speakers can understand that these words cannot be translated into equivalent English words.

Munz has a deep respect for her teachers, Barb Nolan Doris Boissoneau, Helen Roy ... they are “dedicated teachers willing to give the gift of the language. It’s up to us to accept that gift, and to pass it on. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
Munz is a Nishnaabemowin Language Instructors’ Institute graduate, who has gone on to dedicate every Tuesday and Thursday evening, as well as one weekend a month, to the college’s Nishnaabemwin Pane immersion course held each semester.

She said that the Instructor’s Institute is doing its job producing those who can teach the language. For those who’s aim is to attain fluency, immersion came along at just the right time, she said. In language immersion courses, only the language that is being taught is used during the class. During Nolan’s three-hour classes, the “time just flies by,” Munz said.

“It has all been enjoyable,” she added.

Munz said Bay Mills “should be commended” for its initiative in bringing the language programs into being. “We are fortunate to live here to have access,” she said, adding that tribal elders from other communities worry about their Native language becoming in accessible, whereas Bay Mills Community members have only to “go down the road” to access a variety of college courses.

To Munz’s view, BMCC Cultural Services Director Kathy LeBlanc should also be commended. “She deserves acknowledgement for her efforts to bring these programs here,” said Munz. “She feels in her heart that which is valuable to our culture — things that should be retained.” Munz added that LeBlanc has done a “exceptional job” reaching out to young people and providing “cultural access.”

Along the way, Munz said she has met some excellent people working to learn the language. Mike Willis, Ted Holappa and JP Montano are working on a number of projects to rekindle the Ojibwe language. Munz said such dedicated, single-minded intent is needed. Wanda Perron has a beautiful way of speaking and teaching, Munz said. Perron filled in until Ojibwe instructors could be found for the Ojibwe Charter School.

“One young lady said, when I grow up, I want to be just like Wanda,” said Munz, and that’s what Munz likes to hear.