The Koko Jones Show

As Canadians, we grow up believing that reading, talking and listening in our own language is a basic human right. This is not the case for the Indigenous population where learning in your own language used to be outlawed and language transfer needed to be carried out in secrecy. One’s self identity and world view is established through language. In the absence of learning one’s own language prevents culture from being passed intergenerationally. For First Nation populations, suicide rates, substance abuse and truancy can all be addressed through learning one’s ancestral knowledge at an early age, but these languages are disappearing.

These Indigenous Language children shows address the need for learning materials in ones own language in school systems, Indigenous language responses to new media and broadness of population learning the same vocabulary and language lessons at the same age.

Creating shows in Indigenous languages can be both time consuming and expensive for individuals to produce.

These shows have been produced with the condition that they will be displayed for anyone in the marginalized populations to consume at no charge. By working closely with school systems and child care programming in Northern Ontario, a rich compendium of learning resources (books, songs, work sheets, games) has been created along with the shows to augment the learning of the language for use by parents, teachers and childcare workers to advance the cause of revitalizing the endangered language. Traditional knowledge is infused throughout the shows, totally provided in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language) in the effort to produce healthy children with healthy minds.

Before production can start, cultural protocols like approaching an Elder with a tobacco offering were adhered to. Elder committees offer the teachings and cultural knowledge that go into each show. All actors used are Indigenous people from the territory the filming takes place in. The writers are also Indigenous to properly reflect the learning that each show is designed to convey.

The shows are regularly downloaded in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and North Dakota, all territories where the Anishinaabeg are densely populated.