Translators prepare to aid pope in formerly forbidden languages

Pope Francis touched down in Edmonton on Sunday morning, prompting the beginning of a Canadian tour intended to ask for forgiveness for Catholic-run residential schools.

The Pope will be aided by a team of translators during his stay in Canada. Those people will be working to ensure no words are lost in translation.

Elder Henry Pitawanakwat is working as one of the 12 translators; his words will be in the Ojibwa language.

“We are representing 12 Indigenous languages,” he said. “We will be starting around 10 a.m., and we won’t be done till about nine o’clock in the evening.

“We will be translating anything that is being broadcast. I’m a professional and I’m a contractor, so I have to set all feelings aside and just do a proper job for this.”

It’s hard for the man to not have strong, heavy, mixed feelings regarding the Pope’s visit.

Pitawanakwat says his mother was a residential school survivor. He also claims to have suffered abuse and trauma from members of the Jesuits as a boy.

Now, he will be translating words into a language that would have been banned in residential schools like the one his mom went to.

“My challenge for myself is creating awareness,” Pitawanakwat said. “Our people were punished, severely sometimes, for even speaking our language in the residential schools.

“So to me, an apology is only an apology. It’s just a word. When the Pope finishes his apology, he cuts off everything and it’s done for him. For us, we still have to carry the trauma and the pain for the rest of our lives. So what I’d like to see come from this is some kind of retribution.”

The translator is hopeful the Pope will make a commitment to supporting Indigenous language and culture moving forward.

He says the biggest reason today that many Indigenous languages are dying is because of residential schools.

“It’s critical that we must go back and revive these languages,” Pitawanakwat said, “because there’s so much knowledge and solutions held in these languages.”

The man says he will reserve all of his judgment until the Pope’s visit in Canada is over, as he knows he has a very important job ahead of him.

“We are professional translators,” he said. “We must reserve our judgment till (Pope Francis’) visit is over.

“I’m just trying to save my language.”

The 85-year-old Pope, who is to use a wheelchair throughout the tour, is also scheduled to travel to Quebec City and Iqaluit.

While in Alberta, the Pope is scheduled to visit the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School in the community of Maswacis on Monday, where he is expected to make an apology for abuse suffered by Indigenous people at residential schools.