ARTICLES BY
Xavier Kataquapit
It is 1988 and I am sitting in an old two-story cabin on a high bank of the Lakitusaki River. I am taking part in this year’s spring goose hunt, 200 kilometers north of the Attawapiskat River, with my dad Marius, my brothers and an Elder, Abraham Paulmartin, my mother’s ...
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Our family could always rely on our mother Susan to provide every member of our group with a nourishing meal during the day. We were lucky to have a mom who was capable of preparing meals for two daughters and seven sons. Mom was a great cook, one that could ...
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I often imagine what my native home on the James Bay coast was like before contact with European people. It must have been a special existence that was simple and followed ancient customs and traditions that have helped my people survive for centuries. At the same time it was probably ...
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I grew up in my home community of Attawapiskat during a time when technology in the world was changing. You would never have known it if you lived in the middle of the wilderness on the banks of the Attawapiskat River. What was commonplace in terms of technology in southern ...
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I am fourteen years old and my dad Marius and my younger brothers Paul and Joseph and I are heading out onto the river for some ice fishing. It is not a long ride on dad’s powerful long track Bombardier Cheyenne snowmobile. We are heading to a location close by ...
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During my childhood there were many challenges that our family had to overcome. We had no running water and the high cost of food forced our parents to work very hard to make enough money to support our family of 11. Life was a lot harder for my parent’s and ...
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On a cold and bitterly freezing January evening, a small silhouette of a man is walking along a pristine white layer of snow along a river. He has on a thin old parka that has been mended many times. The dark coloured coat hangs down just below his waist and ...
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On a bright, cloudless day our family is preparing for a ride out onto the land. It is bitterly cold outside and the temperature has dropped to 30 below zero. Dad and our older brothers warm up our family’s two Bombardier Elan snow machines. They also haul two wooden toboggans ...
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The weather has turned bitterly cold in the community and the snow has started to accumulate over the past several days. It is the late fall and winter has come early. The sudden cold weather has driven everyone indoors. My younger brothers and I stay in and entertain ourselves as ...
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On a grey, fall afternoon my friends and I are bundled up in warm clothes and wandering the community. We are ten year old boys playing out an ancient tradition our ancestors have acted out on a regular basis and one that is common throughout the world. We are hunting.
We ...
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We live in a world where we depend on services such as electricity and natural gas. Everything we do seems to involve turning something on. We keep our food stored cold in coolers, preserve food for future use in freezers then cook our meals with the help of microwaves and ...
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It is a way of life in the north to be resourceful and self-sufficient. People learn from a young age to fix, maintain or even build whatever they need to get a job done. Hunters and food gatherers out on the land have to be able to find solutions to ...
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I was saddened recently when I heard the news of a passenger plane crash near the community of Nibinamik First Nation in northwestern Ontario. I am familiar with this community and I know that the local leadership works hard to build a good place for their people to live in. ...
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Rainy days always seem to bring about a down or depressed mood. In a small remote community in the north this kind of weather can have a less-than-desirable impact. The gray, sunless weather depresses many in the community and also creates a muddy, wet mess for the entire town. Most ...
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A generation ago, very few of my people were able to purchase any luxuries to make their trip on the land easier. Equipment such as toboggans, sleds, snow-shoes, canoes and paddles were tools that required a great deal of work and money to acquire. Freighter canoes were purchased at great ...
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I was back home in Attawapiskat recently. The flight with Air Creebec was in a new Dash-8 aircraft. This aircraft was a big change from the noisy and rattling Hawker Sidley planes that I remembered from past trips home. This flight was quiet and happily uneventful except for the fact ...
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Freighter canoes are important vehicles that are used to make life easier on the James Bay coast. The rivers are our highways and these canoes provide our transportation. Just about every canoe bought up north is a canvas covered wooden boat purchased from the Northern Store. These boats come at ...
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As children my younger brothers and I were taken on many boat trips over the years. Our education on the water started very early and we all learned how to operate a boat on the Attawapiskat River and out on the great James Bay. We understood that this kind of ...
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It looks like the start of a long hot summer this year. Many people up north are happy to see the warm weather after having to deal with a cold winter. Although many people along the James Bay coast prefer the snow and ice to the mosquitoes and black flies, ...
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Pow Wows are very popular these days all across North America. A good friend of mine, Peter Sackaney, recently invited me to the first Pow Wow in Kapuskasing, Ontario. The two day ‘Honoring All Nations’ Pow Wow in June featured a lot of great dancers, drummers and singers and it ...
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On a beautiful summer morning we are in our family freighter canoes skimming along over the water of the Attawapiskat River. We are heading out to spend the weekend on Akamiski Island. We are travelling with two boats. Most of my family, including myself, rides in Dad’s 22 foot canoe ...
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One night I sat down to watch a movie on CBC television called Sea Of Love that was made in 1989 starring Al Pacino and John Goodman. I was excited to watch the film with a couple of friends. After all, this was a movie that was special to me ...
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It is a bright spring day in May of 1985. The whole community of Attawapiskat, or most of us anyway, have come out to stand on the river bank to watch the annual break up or what we call in Cree: Maachestan. There is a lot of anxiety in the ...
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I am a young ten-year-old boy and only just starting to learn the work that is involved in gathering geese for food. During the hunt I spend my time in a blind with my dad or my older brothers. They do most of the hunting although I have a few ...
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When I think of my home community, Attawapiskat, on the James Bay coast, many of my memories have to do with certain landmarks or buildings. When my parents first moved to the community there were very few buildings. By the time I was born the community had developed quite a ...
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There are two things that I like to do very much. I like to write and I love to travel. My writing allows me to share my stories and my travelling provides me with learning experiences.
It has been difficult to make many of the decisions I have had to make ...
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