“When they came into the world, their first words of welcome and comfort were in Salish. This was our gift to both of our children,” said Emma Noyes on Nov. 15 as a guest speaker at the University of Idaho for Native American Heritage Month.
Noyes is an artist, author, researcher, and language activist, among many other things. In her speech, which took place in the UI Library, Noyes talked about the book she wrote and illustrated that was published in 2020, titled “Baby Speaks Salish.”
Noyes, who is a part of the Colville Band of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, talked about how she grew up without the Salish language because her grandmother did not want her family to be discriminated against. As a part of that, Noyes did not grow up with her native language.
“I grew up in a town where there were very few language speakers. I grew up with the gift of getting to hear the language spoken at our feasts and our Chinook dances. I got to hear elders in that context, but sometimes things would be translated and often they wouldn’t,” said Noyes. “It was generally acceptable that, of course, my generation didn’t know what people were talking about, or what they were saying. So in that, I would ask questions and I learned a few words here and there, but really, I missed out on the opportunity to learn from a lot of incredible first speakers.” Noyes said.
Noyes also talked about what she was able to experience in her culture.
“What I didn’t miss out on was gathering our traditional foods, hearing stories, the English version of those stories, and a lot of our cultural practices that can exist without language, but with language make so much more sense and are so much more rich,” said Noyes.
To connect more with her heritage, and to give her children the opportunity to as well, Noyes is studying Salish and teaching her children their native language as well.
“Baby Speaks Salish” started as a zine Noyes illustrated with a couple of words she was learning while pregnant with her first child. Her zine was picked up by a local publisher, Scablands Books, to be extended into a fuller book.
Noyes talked about how she regularly writes and illustrates in daily journals. “Baby Speaks Salish” is reflective of Noyes’ 2D art style, with simple words that she wanted her children to grow up with.
Noyes purposefully made “Baby Speaks Salish” to be interactive for children in other ways as well.
“My work [“Baby Speaks Salish”] is in black and white,” Noyes said. “For early education purposes, it’s great to have materials that are in black and white because of how eye-catching it is to the earliest infant’s eyes.” Noyes said.
People are also able to interact with “Baby Speaks Salish” by writing in it themselves.
“I wanted the manual to be something that people could write more notes in or add more words to as they learn them and they could also color in and engage with the child with,” Noyes said. “Some of my other work has a lot of bright vibrant color, but very intentionally and very purposely, this does not,” Noyes said.
“These bits of language, I think as I learn them it’s an opportunity to reconnect with their world or be able to heal from some of the great wounds of trying desperately to be able to protect the family and create safety, even if it meant to the detriment of being who you are,” Noyes said. “So the gifts of those, the past family and my family at present, that’s being able to grow and thrive with language learning. My future family that I imagine is going to have much more fluency than I ever will.” Noyes said.
Georgia Swanson can be reached at [email protected]
