Coucoumellisms

(Originally posted on thinkspot)              I'm going to try to put some perspective on the Wet'suwet'en situation here, to the best of my knowledge, (which isn't perfect and this may need to be tweaked later - if anyone sees anything that is not exact - let me know).              To begin with, you should understand that First Nations people (or Indigenous peoples) are separated into different cultural groups (similar language and social structure. ) For instance, you have the Iroquois , who are not a nation, but a group of nations including Cayuga, Cherokee, Huron, Mohawk, etc. You also have the Algonquians , another group of nations which include Cree, Ojibway, Algonquin, etc.               Within these groups or families, you sometimes have smaller families. And within these smaller groups, you have the different nations (or tribes,) and within those nations, you h...

What do you get when a white family moves north to live among the Cree? Dad grew up a pioneer in what was still a sparsely-settled province of Alberta. Mom grew up on a farm in New Brunswick that had been in the family for generations. Dad was a Catholic French-Canadian, whose family had been in Québec for centuries. Mom was an English speaking Anglican of Scottish and Loyalist descent who lived in an area where people were suspicious of French-speaking people. Dad liked the outdoors, hunting, snaring, trapping and camping. Mom was afraid of horses, so she rode the bony backs of cows home instead. Dad on the right, on a hunting trip What do you get when you put the two of them together? Besides a Dad who knows the name of just about every fruit-bearing tree and potato plant available in North America; a mother able to tell the difference between McIntosh, Empire, Spartan and Cortland apples (as well as a few different breeds of cow); Midnight mass at Christmas complete ...

I am a White woman, who grew up in Moose Factory, just south of Attawapiskat.  This is my perspective on Idle No More.  There are a lot of things, besides the problems with how First Nations are funded , or the problems with the Indian Act that Ezra Levant has pointed out; there is also the fact that whatever privileges Native peoples have, they need to stay on the reserve to receive them or to even be considered Status Indians. They lose their status if they leave. So they feel like prisoners. They hate the reserve, hate being stuck there, but are forced to stay there if they want their treaty rights. At the same time, even if they do decide to leave anyway, White society is an extroverted society. Introverted whites grow up in that, and they learn to deal with it. Native society is much more introverted. So it isn’t just another culture, it's also another personality-type of culture. I stayed for 6 months in Paraguay in 1993.  The similarities in culture between Pa...

I was 18 when I arrived in Québec City, on my own.  Except for a four month stay in Timmins Ontario, I had never lived anywhere in my life (that I could remember) except for Moose Factory. Had I been going to live in India, or China, I might have expected different customs.  But I was just going to Québec City.  Other than the language barrier, how different could that be? Very different, as it would turn out. Moose Factory Island, Northern Ontario, James Bay Lowlands My sister's ex-boyfriend (a man from Gabon) went with her to visit Moose Factory once.  He was surprised to find that even in Canada, you could find the "third world". When I went to Paraguay, many mannerisms and customs (but not all) were so similar to those in Moose Factory, that I did not notice them until the people in the group I was with talked about how strange they were;  The way they would say, "Yeah, yeah, I'll be there." and then never show up;  The way meetings always ...

Cross-Cultural Conflict Historiography and the 1832 Hannah Bay “Massacre” An article by Cecil Chabot While these sources (Oral tradition from Cree and at least one person in the Orkney Islands descendant of Hudson Bay Company workers, and written accounts from Euroamericans) coincide in more than simply casting doubt over Wilson’s summary phrase, diversity and discord are also present. If they flow in the same direction, their origins appear to be nevertheless of very different colours, and the question remains: ‘can they ever merge?’ Addressing this question will help explain, diminish, and even remove significant obstacles in order to form and communicate a better understanding of what happened, in what context, why, and to what effect, at Hannah Bay in the winter of 1832. Conversely, attempting to answer these four historical questions may shed light on the historiographical problem that extends beyond the context of the Hannah Bay conflict in which it has just been framed. It i...

Just wanted to link to another blog, where you can find the eulogy of an amazing person, Nellie Fairies, who passed away recently in Moose Factory, where I grew up. The eulogy was written by my brother and you can listen to a conversation he had with her last summer there too. http://thomaschurch.squarespace.com/saints/

Got this in my inbox: Top 10 ways things would be different if Santa were Aboriginal 10> At bedtime, kids would leave dry meat and bannock for the big guy. 9> He would wear a red turtleneck to hide his hickeys. 8> Santa's new moccassins are made out of Dasher. 7> His name would be "Santa Bear Claws" instead of Santa Claus. 6> There would be a bingo marker under every tree. 5> His elves would never show up for work on Fridays and sometimes on Mondays too! 4> His sleigh would need a boost every other province. 3> His outfit would consist of a red flannel ribbon shirt, with matching leggings, moccassins and a beaded black belt with matching beaded rimmed hat all to match his oversized gift bag; underneath it all would be a beaded thong with a small delicate plume attached to the back. 2> Indian preference hiring would require you to hire all Crees to fit in those tiny elf outfits. And the number one way things would be different if Santa were India...

This song is from Cree Alias The Shihbastik . A guy from Moosonee. I have to laugh every time I hear the beginning, (oh heck, the whole song) because of the dialect/accent. That's Moosonee/Moose Factory for you. That's how I used to talk too... Besides, how can you not love a song that talks about hunting, the Polar Bear Express , drinking tea on the front porch, (me man) and teepees in the back yard ... You know, there might not be a drop of Cree blood in me, but it doesn't matter. This song speaks to me of a place I used to call home. A place I still call home. It speaks to me of who I AM. I might not be the cree man providin' for his cree clan, (I don't hunt) but I can relate to pretty much everything else, including the love of nature and the outdoors, the bush and the river, "way up and way down, across the river to the base..."

... for genuine moose hide gloves. I have been wanting to replace the leather gloves I have now with ones that actually fit. The ones I have were a bit tight when I bought them and they didn't have any larger sizes, so the lady told me they'd stretch. What she didn't tell me is that gloves that are too small for you do absolutely nothing to keep your hands warm when it is very cold. In fact I could almost swear that my fingers keep warmer without them on! So I was talking to my sister Rose Anne the other day and mentioned that I would get some made in Moose Factory, except that I didn't know if I could actually depend on anyone to get them here. She reminded me that our brother Cecil is going next week. So I called him up and put in an order. http://www.iti.gov.nt.ca/iea/Traditional_Economy/tanned_hides.htm (These ones are from the North West Territories though, not from MF)

I played volleyball with Marc today, (oops, um I guess that would be yesterday by now) and the weird thing is, after about the first hour, or the first 2 or 3 games, I started looking at the clock all the time, waiting for it to end. I actually got bored playing. I'd had enough and would have been ready to leave, but of course, I couldn't. I'm not sure why I got bored, because I love volleyball (at least I think I do). Maybe it was because of the lack of adrenaline and competitiveness that you normally get when you play in a league? I prefer to play soccer. I feel like I'm actually getting a work-out when I do. Plus the league I'm in might be recreational, but the teams are competitif, in the sense that we all have this very strong drive to win. Of course, it didn't help that I was constantly distracted, trying to make sure that someone (mainly Jean-Alexandre) was actually watching Nicolas and not letting him get too close to the game. The last time I pla...

Check out these artists from Moose Factory/Moosonee on myspace: Cree Alias The Shihbastik and Kevin Schofield and CerAmony (which is on Piczo instead)

I know there are a lot of good reasons out there for homeschooling. I often wonder if I should/could homeschool myself, except that my children are in a good school. However, it is not because there are not good teachers out there. I've had a few that really touched me in some way, and I'd like to honour them now. I grew up wanting to teach like them. Maybe someday, that dream will come true? I received an e-mail from someone who wanted to do a project on a teacher who had influenced native students. He had chosen John Delaney. Despite the hardships I suffered going to a practically all-native school, often being the only white kid out of 22-24 students, for whom (until they got older and could think of better ones) the worst insult was "white man", I was privileged to know John Delaney. Below are the questions asked about him and my responses: What did he teach? I know he taught grade 8, but he also taught art, gym and enrichment classes. I never had him as a regula...

Hang around my family and I long enough and you may just hear a few strange expressions such as: "Where's the ji-jish?" "You big googoosh!" or even "You little alamus!" Hang around my siblings and I and you might hear a few more, like: "Remember the time we went way up and...?" or "I need to go get my shooliyan." Remnants of phrases or expressions from a language I never learned, growing up. I was 2 and a half when my family moved to Moose Factory Ontario, and I was 18 and a half when I left to get more education. From grade one to grade eight, I was often the only white child (or one of two white children) in my class. The rest were all Cree or a mix of Cree. We had Cree classes, in which we learned some words and phrases, some of which I still remember today, but quite frankly, when you're the only WHITE MAN in your class (worst insult one could come up with back then) and there is a discipline problem in the Cree clas...

Le père Joseph Baril est arrivé dans les missions du Nord en 1952. Il témoigne aujourd'hui de la vie heureuse et bien remplie qu'il a vécue auprès des autochtones . Il y a des personnes qui gardent un éternel air de jeunesse. Et pourtant, elles n'ont pas subi de chirurgie plastique. C'est comme si le temps n'avait pas de prise sur elles malgré le fait qu'elles vieillissent comme tout le monde. Cette jeunesse semble prendre sa source dans un cœur simple et débordant d'amour. Est-ce à dire que l'amour est comme une sorte de fontaine de Jouvence? C'est ce qu'on serait porté à penser en rencontrant le père Joseph Baril, o.m.i. Le père Baril n'est pas un géant et il porte très bien ses 83 ans. Cet homme est encore alerte et plein d'esprit. Il sillonne encore quatre fois par année le Nord afin de remplacer les missionnaires ou visiter les postes qui n'ont plus de prêtre. En plus de faire tout cela, il vient d'écrire un petit livre qui c...

Article on Jonathan Cheechoo, breaking records I did not know Victor Linklator was Jonathan's uncle. Is there no end of people in Moose Factory that Victor is related to? :) It seems that he is related to everyone, ha ha. Big family.

I just heard on the radio this morning that Jonathan Cheechoo of the San Jose Sharks scored a hat trick yesterday, leading them to victory. I had to smile. In fact, I had to grin with elation. Jonathan Cheechoo comes from the same remote village I grew up in. In fact, I knew his parents. His father was paster of the Cree Gospel Chapel in Moose Factory. I went to his house once with the youth group. I saw Jonathan a couple of times, but never paid him much attention because he was this little kid I barely knew and I was in my late teens, so I didn't have much contact with him. But, like anyone from Moose Factory, I am extremely proud of him for going all the way to the NHL. There aren't all that many people from remote regions in the NHL, even less First Nations people. But he did it! Way to go Jonathan!! We went to Moose Factory in July, 2004 for the Gathering of our People . Jonathan Cheechoo happened to be coming home for this event, and was signing autographs and posing ...