The Power of Stories and Language

 In the Marrow Thieves, by Cherie Dimaline, the author shows how language and stories are utilized as important tools in order to both preserve and maintain identity, cultures, and memories. Additionally, language is shown to help ensure survival for the main character, Frenchie, and the rest of his found "family." 

    A key example of the importance of language comes from Frenchie attempting to learn as much of his culture's language as he can, through Minerva, who is one of the only people left that knows it thoroughly. Frenchie explains how the accumulation of his knowledge of the language makes him feel, "[A] prayer I couldn't add breath to, a world I wasn't willing to release. It made my lungs feel heavy, my heart grow light, until the juxtaposition of the two phased into sleep" (Dimaline 39). It is through this language that Frenchie is able to come into himself and truly identify with his culture.

    Dimaline shows how the character's stories and language are two of the limited things they have left that they can always hold onto, even when everything else they hold dear is stripped from them. The youth yearn to be let in on these stories and bits of the language because it is the only way they are able to take back their identities and cultures from those who are trying to eliminate them. When Migg first tells the tale of how the first schools were opened, he says, “But we got through it, and the schools were shut down. We returned to our home places and rebuilt, relearned, regrouped” (Dimaline 24). Here, Migg utilizes language in his storytelling to the children to encourage them to practice resistance and to fight for their identities. Therefore, as long as language and stories continue to be passed down from generation to generation, Indigenous people will continue to fight, and eventually return to their homes, where they belong.

    Minerva emphasizes the significance of going home and returning to one's roots e to the children with a special word, “Kiiwen. Kiween, promise?” (Dimaline 21). It is later discovered in the novel that "Kiiwen" means “You must always go home” (Dimaline 211). As long as messages such as these are passed on, elders such as Minerva and Migg know that their cultures will live on in future generations, and that their people will never let their identities die out, as they will stay true to themselves in the face of opposition.