Anishinaabemowin

A Language with No Word for Waste, Only Respect for Mother Earth and the Beings She Nurtures

By: Nimkii Brad Howie

The language of the Anishinaabe people is called Anishinaabemowin, and this is the language that I have been trying to learn. This journey has been far more than just learning a language—it’s been a completely mind-opening process, discovering how to see the world in a whole new light.

I've come to learn that the language of the Anishinaabe people is the glue that holds everything together. It is central to the knowledge, science, practice, and culture of the Anishinaabe people. The language doesn’t just describe things—it teaches, informs, and instructs us on how to walk through life as Anishinaabe people.

One major difference between Anishinaabemowin and English is how each language views and interacts with the world. English is a noun-based language primarily concerned with categorical organization, focusing on persons, places, and things.  Whereas Anishinaabemowin is a verb-based language, with around 80% of it’s structure being verbs. It is not concerned with persons, places, or things, but rather the actions you are doing, or the actions that other beings are doing.

I’d like to give you an example. Let's say you see a beautiful bird roosting in a tree; how do you describe the bird in English? Well, the bird certainly isn't a place, and the bird certainly isn't a person, and so the bird becomes a thing. It becomes just another it, in a long list of it’s. What if we went on to describe the environment the bird is living in, we would describe IT as a "place" or a "thing," separate from ourselves and without inherent spirit.

The bird isn’t an “it” at all in Anishinaabemowin. The bird is our relative, a brother or sister, a being. The bird is spoken of as if it is a person deserving the same level of respect and dignity that we give to each other. As is the environment. It isn’t IT at all; the environment is described in our language as having female energy and as our shared Mother, the Earth. Animate or inanimate, biotic (what WE consider living) or abiotic (what WE don't consider living); everything has personhood everything has spirit.

I think that one of our Grandfather teachings encapsulates this idea of equality amongst all beings beautifully. This is the teaching of love. In Anishinaabemowin our word for love is Zaagi’idiwin, but it doesn’t really translate to the English meaning of love. This is a verb that describes the following: zaag means "to emerge, come out, or flow," idi implies reciprocity, and win refers to the manner in which something is done. Taken together, Zaagi’idiwin expresses unconditional love and respect that flows reciprocally between all beings—human and non-human alike.

I have also come to learn that what isn't in our language can be just as revealing and just as amazing as what is in our language. A word or concept lacking in a language can tell you so much about the culture. In Anshinaabemowin, we have no word for garbage, we have no word for waste, we have no concept of throwing out these gifts or what we now call natural resources. Gifts were always meant to be borrowed, they were always meant to be returned and recycled back to our Mother the Earth. Imagine if we were a culture with no concept or word for garbage. How would things be different today? What if we didn't speak of gifts that we utilize as waste, or if we didn't speak of other beings as things?  Anishinaabemowin isn’t just a language, it is a roadmap providing a path to walk in this world with respect and reciprocity for all beings.