Tsi’twatahsáoha’ (where it begins): Landbased Cooking Program

The Oneida language is on the UNESCO endangered languages list (2010) and the Oneida Nation of the Thames maintains we have “an inherent duty to educate our children and that we have a responsibility over the curriculum and the language that is taught” (Oneida Nation of the Thames, 2023). While children learn some Oneida language in public school, it is often not spoken in the home, and there are only a handful of fluent Oneida second language speakers in the community.
13 Moons is already filling a gap in opportunities available to youth by providing a nurturing space for healing, learning, and wellness, filling a critical gap, as land-based learning opportunities are often underfunded and inaccessible to many Indigenous children, on-reserve and in urban communities. Despite strong community collaborations, significant funding shortfalls persist, especially around language access - including access to fluent Oneida language speakers. Our community wants to ensure our language survives, and providing access to youth and children through land-based learning is dire. Marrying landbased learning programming with Oneida language immersion provides an experiential learning environment and real-time application of language learning. In our pilot language camps we have seen participants exceed the language teachers expectations when quizzed on the language they have learned throughout the week.