I am happy for my mom. She got a great gift this hunting season with a helicopter trip back to her traditional family home on the shores of the Nawashi River. This place is special to my mom and I understand that.
Susan, my nigawi (mother in Cree), was born and raised on the land along Nawashi. She is the most recent link for my family to the traditional life that the Cree lived for thousands of years until the coming of the European.
She and her family of Paulmartins lived on that river and in the traditional Cree way until the late 1960s. In other words, my mom and her family hunted, fished and trapped to survive. They lived in shelters they built themselves on the land. She remembers as a child her family lived a more nomadic life and their homes were usually temporary in the style of wigwams, tents and askikans. Askikans are traditional wigwam like structures built of frozen layers of moss over a wooden frame.
Although her life on the Nawashi was difficult, there was also a time when she remembers being at one with nature. Her family unit survived together in the most harsh conditions and freezing temperatures. Often, they would not see anyone else but family for weeks and sometimes months on end. The closest form of comfort and supplies was the old Hudson Bay trading post on Lake River, or Lakitusaki in Cree. That post was many kilometres away but the trek was worth it from time to time to pick up necessary supplies like flour, sugar, lard, tea and to trade their furs and hides.
In those days, during the ’50s and ’60s, modern life in non-Native communities featured all kinds of luxuries like cars, television, radio, easy access to all kinds of foods and entertainment as well as comfortable well-built homes, mostly heated with gas. My mom’s life in the ’50s and ’60s on Nawashi was very basic and more-or-less typical of the way my people lived for thousands of years.
It must seem strange to my mom to be living in a place now in the community of Attawapiskat, where everything revolves around politics, local stores and money. Many of the most important things remain, such as respect for the Elders and care for the children, but that old traditional life of being free
on the land and feeling connected to Mother Earth is slipping away.
When my mom told me recently that she had travelled by helicopter back to her original home on Nawashi, I had an idea what it meant to her. There in her homeland she would feel comfortable and safe. Her mind would be at ease and visited with the memories of her family, many who have passed on. She would have this deep sense of peace and she would feel grounded in a place that always made sense to her.
On this trip, mom was dealing with a lot of arthritic pain so she stayed mainly at the camp and cared for the family who spent time goose hunting or fishing. I know she spent a lot time around the fire cooking and chatting. She would have enjoyed the fresh air and the fragrant perfume scent of the forest. My mom has a very kind, quiet nature and she has a good sense of humour, so she would have been a great comfort to those she was out with on the land on the Nawashi.
It amazes me when I think about where my mom came from and how it has only been a few decades ago that she was living the life of prehistoric people. She is the last of the generation of Cree of the James Bay coast that have actually lived full time, the traditional life on the land. She has a lot of knowledge and she is very generous in passing it along to others.
Now that mom is back in Attawapiskat and going through her daily chores, I know that often she pauses to sit back and think about another time in a faraway place called Nawashi.
