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Pauingassi First Nation

Winter Solstice! & Other Celebrations to Enjoy this Season

December 17, 2019

There is a lot of joy to experience right now in Pimachiowin Aki, including these celebrations:

1. Joyful Month – Kissing Month

As people gather for winter celebrations, they greet each other affectionately—with a handshake and a kiss on the cheek—so December is known as the joyful month and January is known as the kissing month. In Pauingassi First Nation, December includes a Christmas dinner for the entire community. There is a similar feast for the Bloodvein First Nation community, with each household receiving a turkey.

2. Winter Solstice

December 21 marks the day with the shortest period of daylight in 24 hours and the longest night of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere), all thanks to the tilt of the earth.  

This date also means that winter is officially here. In Anishinaabemowin, winter is called Beepoon. The December moon is called makoshkish giizis and is known as the joyful moon. 

The colder, shorter days bring with it a peaceful silence, a kind of muffled quiet as you walk outdoors to gaze at the stars in the night sky. Enjoying a warm fire, being cozy under a blanket, ice-skating, playing hockey on the frozen lake, snowshoeing, tobogganing, and cross-country skiing are just some of the activities to look forward to as we celebrate the joys of winter. 

3. Magu zhi giizhigan & O gen du giizhigan

Younger generations of Anishinaabeg follow the 12-month calendar, but Elders in Pimachiowin Aki used the seasons to measure the days. We followed the 13 moons, which meant 13 months of 28 days, explains Bloodvein First Nation Guardian, Melba Green. “They didn’t really have holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving,” she says. Today, many people in Pimachiowin Aki celebrate Christmas, known as Magu zhi giizhigan, and the New Year, known as O gen du giizhigan.

Filed Under: Cultural Heritage, First Nation Communities, Indigenous Language Tagged With: Anishinaabemowin, Bloodvein River First Nation, guardian, Pauingassi First Nation

Fall Moose Hunt

September 16, 2019

A moose can provide six months of food for a family, but moose hunting is more than just practical. It’s a family tradition, passed down through generations. 

Norman Pascal of Pauingassi First Nation learned how to hunt from his grandfather, Bushie Pascal, when he was “old enough to know how to handle a gun,” at the age of 14. Today, he hunts duck, geese, moose, beaver and muskrat. He learned from past generations to only take what you need. “Just because you see five moose, you don’t shoot five moose,” he says. 

When someone kills a moose, they think about the whole community. If a family doesn’t have the capacity to hunt, hunters will share the meat with them. “We share the meat with whoever asks for it,” says Norman. 

Hunters will also hunt for the Elders in the community. Pimachiowin Aki Guardian Dennis Keepers says that there are eight people who look after the Elders in his community of Little Grand Rapids. They will harvest beaver and duck, and fish and hunt moose for them. Dennis says he “has lots of family in the area,” but the Elders he hunts for are not related to him. The Elders give him gas or other hunting supplies as payment. 

Moose hunting is so important to the Anishinaabeg of Pimachiowin Aki that many children enjoy official breaks from school in order to join their families on fall moose hunts. 

Dennis, who also learned how to hunt from his grandfather, plans to pass on his knowledge to his son when his son turns 10 years old. “I will take him and his friends out to learn how to survive out in the wild,” he says. 

In October, when moose are mating, you can hear the bellow of the males along the lakeshores.  Hunters use horns made of birch to call them. They typically lure the males by imitating the sound of a female moose (cow), or by imitating the sound of a male moose (bull).

Anishinaabeg are careful not to be wasteful. They honour the Creator’s gifts through the continued harvest of plants and animals in a manner that ensures continuity of all life on the land. The Guardians in each community of Pimachiowin Aki are constantly monitoring their areas, building relationships with hunters, and watching out for poachers and trophy hunters. 

In our ancestors’ time, a person who wasted an animal would be punished, explains Bloodvein First Nation Guardian Melba Green. “You take only what you need and don’t waste it,” she says. Today, community members report back to the Guardians, sharing what they observe when they go out onto the land. Any illegal activities or other areas of concern, including wastage, are passed along from Guardians to the relevant authorities. 

Anishinaabeg are respectful of all living things. Once a moose hunter skins the meat and hide, to share the good news of their successful hunt, they display the head in front of their home. It is a show of pride, but also a show of respect for the moose, which has given up its life to feed the people of Pimachiowin Aki. In an act of respect, the moose beard is hung in the trees. This tradition is to give back to the land, Norman points out.

Sadly, not all traditions are being kept alive. “The older generations used to make leather from the moose hide but there’s nobody doing this anymore,” says Norman.

Dennis stresses the importance of talking to the Elders, to learn from them. “All the knowledge they have, once they’re gone, it’s gone.” Knowing this makes Dennis’ job as a Guardian all the more important. A huge priority is to bring youth and Elders together on the land, he adds.

Photo: Hidehiro Otake

Filed Under: First Nation Communities, Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, Indigenous Youth, Uncategorised Tagged With: Elders, guardians, harvesting, moose, Pauingassi First Nation

Naming Our Ancestors

June 25, 2019

Aniin (Hello)! Languages play an important role in the daily lives of all people and contribute to the world’s cultural diversity. But thousands of Indigenous languages have been in danger of disappearing for many years. 

We are excited to share that in 2019, the International Year of Indigenous Languages, language preservation is happening all over Pimachiowin Aki. One such example is the work being done by Gerald Neufeld. Gerald grew up in Pauingassi. For almost 20 years, he has been meeting with every community in Pimachiowin Aki and going through ancestral photos with residents to help identify Elders. This is Gerald’s way of giving back. He knows that making a connection to the past is important to current and future generations.

Fairwind (Naamiwan), a renowned medicine man from Pauingassi
Fair Wind (Naamiwan)

Gerald has been giving presentations to schools and community members, and the Pimachiowin Aki Board of Directors. Pimachiowin Aki is grateful to Gerald for volunteering his time and energy to maintain the language, songs and stories that form the unique cultural link between Anishinaabeg and Aki (the land). You’ll hear more about Gerald’s work in a future newsletter—about the Elders he has identified, like Fair Wind (Naamiwan), a renowned medicine man from Pauingassi, and the people he is still looking for answers about. Maybe you’ll be able to help him identify a photo?

Named Places

By documenting our ancestors’ names, we recognize and honour them. This is true, also, of documenting named places.

Each place in Pimachiowin Aki is known, understood and named. Some places are named after the topography or plant life found in the area. Other names reflect the histories of the people who have traveled through, observed, and made use of the land—like Kookooko’oosagasawining (Owl Smoking Island) on Poplar River ancestral lands, named after a woman Elder named Owl, where smoking ceremonies took place.

When my father was describing where he had been, he would say to us kee’apay namaytoowag, which means he could still feel the presence of people who had been there before. The stories of our ancestors are connected to those places and to us by the place names. 

—Sophia Rabliauskas

Poplar River First Nation has researched and documented 150 named places, and forwarded them to the Canadian Geographical Names Database so that they will show up on official maps sold to the public, and on popular sources like Google Maps.

Connecting Youth

Truth, Honesty, Respect posters

Posters line the hallways of schools in the four First Nations communities in Pimachiowin Aki. The posters feature inspiring messages and named places, giving meaning to these places and helping to keep their stories alive.

Follow us on Facebook to see more photos and information about language, culture and Keeping the Land in Pimachiowin Aki.

Filed Under: Cultural Heritage, Indigenous Language, Uncategorised Tagged With: Anishinaabemowin, Gerald Neufeld, Mapping, Named Places, Pauingassi First Nation

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