Acknowledgements
It is our honour to welcome you and to introduce you to the heart of this project, the Indigenous translators who have brought this work and this project to life. These distinguished translators are: Madame Vera de Montigny of Brandon, Manitoba ('Heritage' Michif, 'Southern' or 'Cree-Michif') (Note that these terms and spellings for Michif/Mitchif are working terms only and do not necessarily reflect the views of all cultural communities that speak these languages.); Drs. June Bruce, Lorraine Coutu and Agathe Chartrand, Mesdames Andrea Rose, Suzanne Zeke, Joyce Dumont, all of whom are from St Laurent, MB (French Michif); Mesdames Donna Beach and Debra Beach Ducharme of Animo-ziibiing [Lake Manitoba First Nation] (Anishinaabemowin); Monsieur Jules Chartrand, of St Laurent, MB (French Mitchif), and the late Monsieur Francis Fontaine, our French expert. Francis's interest and dedication to French, and Michif, in the early part of the project before we lost him, was so much admired, and is much missed — he was a true friend to us.
It is our honour to welcome you and to introduce you to the heart of this project, the Indigenous translators who have brought this work and this project to life. These distinguished translators are: Madame Vera de Montigny of Brandon, Manitoba ('Heritage' Michif, 'Southern' or 'Cree-Michif') (Note that these terms and spellings for Michif/Mitchif are working terms only and do not necessarily reflect the views of all cultural communities that speak these languages.); Drs. June Bruce, Lorraine Coutu and Agathe Chartrand, Mesdames Andrea Rose, Suzanne Zeke, Joyce Dumont, all of whom are from St Laurent, MB (French Michif); Mesdames Donna Beach and Debra Beach Ducharme of Animo-ziibiing [Lake Manitoba First Nation] (Anishinaabemowin); Monsieur Jules Chartrand, of St Laurent, MB (French Mitchif), and the late Monsieur Francis Fontaine, our French expert. Francis's interest and dedication to French, and Michif, in the early part of the project before we lost him, was so much admired, and is much missed — he was a true friend to us.
Co-investigator on this research project, Neil Weisensel, Adjunct Professor of Music, CMU, and I, are very grateful to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for funding this project. We are also grateful for our collaborative partner, Monsieur Vic Froese, MLIS, Chief Librarian, Canadian Mennonite University, for advice, contributions, and especially initial forays into the Omeka database, laying out the design of the Li Keur database, and working with our research team. We cannot understate Vic's contributions.
Last, but not least, the project's communications assistant, Bryna Link of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1), and the production assistant, Hannah Connelly, have done a fabulous job recording, transcribing, editing, and organizing this complex project — we cannot imagine this project without them.
For more information on the opera itself, please visit our website: Li Keur Website