Growing up as a Native.

Chelsea Edwards & Keisha IahtailJ

JR. Nakogee School

Grade Six

Growing up as a Native.

Watcheye! Attawapiskat is a wonderful community. In the Community we learn how to cook in the traditional way, Pow-wow dancing, how to make traditional crafts and ways to camp safely. The people of Attawapiskat are very kind, caring and thoughtful. Traditional cooking is a very important part of a Native culture. The elders in our community have increased the population of those who can now cook in the traditional way. We have learned is how to cook bannock, smoked-goose, and how to make tea-bloss, etc. We are lucky to have these elders to help us learn our traditional style. If they weren’t here to teach us our cultural way, we would lose our tradition. Many people reported that our traditional way is amazing. We are thankful for our elders, and learned a lot from them.

Traditional cooking.

Different people have taught us how to Pow-wow dance our cultural way. We have heard many stories from elders who pass stories along to the younger adults who will pass it onto younger children in the future. We have even learned how to cleanse our selves by smudging smoke into our spiritual body. Washing the bad things away is a positive thing because we are cleansing our selves.

Pow-Wow Dancing.

Traditional craft making is important to us because it has been a part of our culture for many generations. We get hide by killing the animals that live around us. The animals die for us. They give up their lives for us to eat, make things such as drums, mittens, etc. We’re lucky to have these animals and are thankful for them.

Traditional craft making.

In our culture, hunting and camping is very important. Before camping, we make sure we have all the supplies we need. Once we’re at the campsite, we build our cabins/tents, get snow, wood and settle in. The very next day, we go hunting in our blind. We build the blind by using tamarack, grass, branches and pine trees to put onto the ground.

This is a campsite…..

When people come into our community, we welcome them in our hearts. We perform ceremonies to welcome them. Having friends into our community is important. We share and care about them. The people here all know each other because we grew up in this community as a family. The community of Attawapiskat is really getting along. The arena keeps the children occupied so they don’t get into trouble and it keeps them active. We are glad this arena was built for the whole community.

Celebrating Ceremonies

The community of Attawapiskat has gotten better in our opinion. Many young people have learned our cultural ways from elders who are passing the information onto the future. These elders have told us to use our Cree language everyday and into the future so we can pass it into our children. God gave us this language to keep.

Attawapiskat