My name is Odeshkun. I am from Kitigan Zibi and Barriere Lake.

On an important word in Omàmìwininìmowin (Algonquin)

Zaagi’idiwin, that’s the word of love. It has a lot of meanings, personally, because it’s part of our seven grandfather teachings. We have teachings in our culture and each one represents a … I don’t want to say “stage,” but your personality should have these in it. There’s seven of them. There’s truth, there’s wisdom, there’s humility, there’s honesty and there’s love. So you have to have all six to be able to love; you have to have all of the other six to be able to have zaagi’idiwin. You’ve got to have wisdom to love, you’ve got to have truth to love… honesty. Even for me, love — personally — it’s a big thing for me, too. It’s a big part of everybody’s life. So that’s what zaagi’idiwin is: it’s a big, big part of my life.

On what the International Decade of Indigenous Languages means

It means a lot to me. A long time ago, our language was forced out of us not to ever speak it again. So now I’m very grateful that people are starting to understand what we went through and trying to help us get our language back again by doing the International Decade. I think, before, it was the International Year of Languages and, worldwide; it’s not just native and Indigenous.