Category: Under the Northern Sky

I’m Being Followed by a Moon Shadow

Most people seldom take the time to look up at the night time sky. I guess we just never think about it much and we assume that there is nothing much worth seeing up there. From time to time, I try to take a few moments to look up and ... read more ››

The Night That Lightning Struck

It is a cold summer night; the wind is blowing wildly across the muskeg and forests surrounding the small community on the banks of the Attawapiskat River. A boy has bedded down for the night with his family and everyone lies awake inside the small canvas prospector’s tent. The wind ... read more ››

Reading Between The Lines

One of my favourite pastimes is to sit back and enjoy a good book. I have always found it comforting. It allows me to slip away and enter into a whole new world by reading through a few chapters and imagining each of the scenes. I feel that reading is ... read more ››

Fields of Grass

Recently, I took some time to bicycle for a few days while on vacation. It was refreshing and exciting to be back on a bike as I spent most of my day riding through trails and parks in the warm weather during the last few days of summer. One afternoon after ... read more ››

Keep Your Pants On

The other night I sat out with friends in the backyard to enjoy the summer weather on a warm evening. My friends were wearing T-shirts and shorts to cool off after a hot sunny day. I had my jeans on. As the sun fell below the horizon and twilight ushered ... read more ››

Babies Are a Lot of Work

I grew up in a large family of two younger brothers, five older brothers and two older sisters. By the time I became a teenager, my older brothers and sisters had started their own families and for several years we were all surrounded by babies and young children. My younger ... read more ››

Sitting With Elders

Recently I had the opportunity to meet two remarkable Elders through two First Nation organizations – Wabun Tribal Council and Mamo-Wichi-Hetiwin Employment and Training. Elders Alex Solomon of Constance Lake First Nation and George Endugesick of Brunswick House First Nation made some time for me and filled me in on ... read more ››

Mooshoom’s Memories

On a bright spring afternoon my grandfather James Kataquapit, or as we call him in Cree, Mooshoom, steps out of our home in the middle of the community. My family has just finished a hurried lunch of moose stew while on a break before returning to school and work. Mooshoom ... read more ››

Lakitusaki – A Time Capsule

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 ... read more ››

Wild Tastes

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 ... read more ››

Learning from the Past

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 ... read more ››

Staying Ahead of the Game

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 ... read more ››

A Day on the Ice

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 ... read more ››

It’s Time to Reach Out

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 ... read more ››

More Than the Beavers Were Trapped

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 ... read more ››

A Sunday Drive

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 ... read more ››

Chasing the Puck

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 ... read more ››

The Coming of Age…

Many of us go through various stages of life, some happy, some sad, some serious, some funny. Of all the various stages of my life, none struck me as much as when I left home to go to school down south. Every fall, as I can recall, we would all ... read more ››

When The Rain Comes

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 ... read more ››

Walking on water

Winter has arrived early this year. The snow is on the ground and the cold weather has settled in for the season. Everyone up north is excited to see the cold and the snow return again. It is a time of year when there is a lot more freedom to ... read more ››

US cracks down on Native tobacco dealers

U.S. investigators call it a modern-day Prohibition. The only difference is, this time the hot commodity is cigarettes, not liquor. Law enforcement officials claim Western New York is a hotbed of cigarette smuggling, a centre for a new wave of illegal activity spurred by higher state taxes on cigarettes. In the ... read more ››

Voices of the Land

Voices of the Land is an unusual compilation. It is neither music, nor poetry, nor spoken word and teaching. It is the combination of all these that takes you on a journey. It is the journey of the people of Chisasibi and it is a beautiful one. It contains anger, ... read more ››

Under THe Northern Sky Sleeping Under The Stars

It is September 1992 and we are on the open waters of the great James Bay on a freighter canoe heading south to Attawapiskat. We have just wrapped up a moose hunting trip along the Opinigau River about 200 kilometres north of Attawapiskat along the James Bay coast. I am ... read more ››

Under The Northern Sky A tradition in sports

You might not know it, but we First Nation people have played and enjoyed our own sporting activities for hundreds of years. Summer activities and games were part of life as they were times to use up extra energy and to spend time with family and friends. It was a ... read more ››

Two spirits converge in Alberta

The Alberta Two-Spirit community will welcome delegates to the 14th Annual Two-Spirit Gathering at a foothills location in southwestern Alberta Aug. 12-15. The gathering will take place at the Nakoda Lodge onthe Morley Indian Reservation near Calgary. Organizers promise unparalleled Two-Spirit company and humor, great scenery, information and workshops, spiritual and ... read more ››

Under The Northern Sky Memories of another time

Most First Nation elders I know like to be out on the land. They have followed a very traditional lifestyle from early on in their lives. It has been difficult for many elders to adjust to a different pace of life in our modern First Nation communities. I have talked ... read more ››