Solomon Ratt – författare

Designed as an introduction for Cree language learners, mâci-nêhiyawêwin / Beginning Cree acts as a self-study aid--a much-needed resource in today's world where most students cannot speak Cree fluently. Basic grammar units and everyday vocabulary items guide the student through the building blocks of the language, and expansion drills and exercises reinforce lessons and prepare the student for further study. With over 100 delightful illustrations, mâci-nêhiyawêwin / Beginning Cree grounds the language in traditional and contemporary contexts.

An important language resource that helps intermediate nêhiyawêwin learners begin to understand more advanced grammar of the language. Building on mâci-nêhiyawêwin / Beginning Cree, Solomon Ratt's first influential Cree language resource, âhkami-nêhiyawêtân / Let's Keep Speaking Cree helps intermediate nêhiyawêwin learners begin to understand more advanced grammar of the language. The textbook is more than a language textbook though: it includes a series of the author's original stories written in Cree, complete with comprehension questions, making it ideal for self-study as well as classroom use.

An important language resource that helps intermediate nêhiyawêwin learners begin to understand more advanced grammar of the language. Building on mâci-nêhiyawêwin / Beginning Cree, Solomon Ratt's first influential Cree language resource, âhkami-nêhiyawêtân / Let's Keep Speaking Cree helps intermediate nêhiyawêwin learners begin to understand more advanced grammar of the language. The textbook is more than a language textbook though: it includes a series of the author's original stories written in Cree, complete with comprehension questions, making it ideal for self-study as well as classroom use.

A residential school survivor finds his way back to his language and culture through his family's traditional stories. When reflecting on forces that have shaped his life, Solomon Ratt says his education was interrupted by his schooling. Torn from his family at the age of six, Ratt was placed into the residential school system—a harsh, institutional world, operated in a language he could not yet understand, far from the love and comfort of home and family. In kâ-pî-isi-kiskisiyân / ᑳ   ᐲ   ᐃᓯ   ᑭᐢᑭᓯᔮᐣ / The Way I Remember It , Ratt reflects on these memories and the life-long challenges he endured through his telling of âcimisowin —autobiographical stories—and also traditional tales. Written over the course of several decades, Ratt describes his life before, during, and after residential school. In many ways, these stories reflect the experience of thousands of other Indigenous children across Canada, but Ratt's stories also stand apart in a significant way: he managed to retain his mother language of Cree by returning home to his parents each summer despite the destruction wrought by colonialism. Ratt then shifts from the âcimisowina (personal, autobiographical stories) to âcathôhkîwina , (sacred stories) the more formal and commonly recognized style of traditional Cree literature, to illustrate how, in a world uninterrupted by colonialism and its agenda of genocide, these traditional stories would have formed the winter curriculum of a Cree child's education. Presented in Cree Th-dialect Standard Roman Orthography, syllabics, and English, Ratt's reminiscences of residential school escapades almost always end with a close call and a smile. Even when his memories are dark, Ratt's particularly Cree sense of humour shines, making kâ-pî-isi-kiskisiyân / ᑳ  ᐲ  ᐃᓯ  ᑭᐢᑭᓯᔮᐣ / The Way I Remember It an important and unique memoir that emphasizes and celebrates Solomon Ratt's perseverance and life after residential school.