Solomon Ratt

Air Date: October 4, 2022

Summary

In this episode, Andrea Custer speaks with Cree professor Solomon Ratt. He is a professor with the First Nations University of Canada but he is also a contributor for https://creeliteracy.org/and the pîkiskwêwin podcaster for Solsquatch Speaks.

SERIES

Cree and Coffee with the Crazy Crees

HOST & PRODUCER
Andrea Custer
Charlotte Ross

Episode Guest

Solomon Ratt has been a professor of Cree language and literature at the First Nations University of Canada for over 30 years. Through his work, he's inspired thousands of students and community members across the country.

Solomon’s work has been essential to keeping the Cree language alive in Saskatchewan and across Canada.

Solomon is from the community of Stanley Mission in northern Saskatchewan. He was born in 1954, in a trapper’s cabin along the banks of the Churchill River. Cree is Solomon’s first language, and he grew up learning all the traditional stories in Cree. Although Solomon was sent to the Indian Residential School in Prince Albert as a child, he managed to keep his Cree fluency into adulthood.

As a young man, Solomon attended the University of Regina, but at that time there were no Indigenous language classes at the university. So he left university in the 1970s and worked for various media outlets reporting on events in Canada’s northern communities.

In 1976, the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (now the First Nations University of Canada) was founded. In the early 80s, Solomon returned to the University of Regina to attend that college. This was a pivotal moment in Solomon's life – for the first time, he was in a post-secondary learning environment with other First Nation students.

In 1984, the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College recruited Solomon to teach Cree courses. He’s been teaching ever since and has helped to build a successful Cree language program. He also earned two Bachelor of Arts degrees and a Master of Arts.

Solomon has written and published many textbooks for teaching the Cree language, and several books of Cree stories. He's also prominent on social media, where he is a main contributor to the Cree Literacy Network website, and Facebook groups, such as Cree Word of the Day.

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