Shaash

Shaash means “finished” in Cree. Although we have one week of our internship left, we will be doing the wrap-up in Montreal. This is the end of our time in Chisasibi and we had to say goodbye to everybody and finish as much work as we could while we were still in the community.

During our last week of work in Chisasibi, we had meetings with the special needs educator at the daycare in Whapmagoostui through videoconference. We used these meetings to discuss the assessment results and intervention goals, and to explain and demonstrate the activities we will be sending to the daycare. Next week in Montreal, we will be calling the families of the children we assessed to follow-up.

Leah had a videoconference with one of her clients and his family to explain the result of his assessment and to discuss goals for the upcoming school year.

Alexandra had her last session with one of her clients to start practicing the use of her communication device prototype. She also led a team meeting to update the team on the work she has done with the client and to discuss how to proceed for the steps ahead.

We invited our friends over for a pot-luck to say goodbye to everyone. They surprised us with a cake and gifts. We were happy to have one last evening to celebrate the good times we had in Chisasibi with all the wonderful friends we met.

Later that night, Chisasibi’s night sky gave us another gift! The shooting stars of the Perseids meteor shower were passing through the pink and green Northern Lights that stretched over the entire sky. It was almost as if Chisasibi was trying to get us to stay.

Once again, the pictures can’t compare to the real thing!

We are really going to miss the community feeling of Chisasibi. On our last morning, we were sad not to have had the opportunity to say goodbye to our friends James and Clayton. Luckily, on our way to the MSDC, we came across James on his four-wheeler, and while we stopped to talk to him, Clayton drove by in his pick-up and we had a final family reunion on Chisasibi Road.

At the MSDC, we said one last goodbye to the wonderful staff who we got to know over the summer. It was hard to leave for the airport.

It was even harder to say goodbye to our supervisor Anny. We will miss working with her and spending time with her lovely family. Now that we are soon to be colleagues, we promised to keep in touch about our speech-language pathology careers. Even more exciting, she promised to send us pictures of her children growing up (since we are now unofficial aunties).

When we arrived in Montreal, we were shocked to see so many people in one place! Montreal was a big change of pace from Chisasibi. We are already missing the people, the beautiful skies, the mitchuaps, and the laid-back pace of Chisasibi.

Thanks to everyone for reading this summer. We had an amazing time in Chisasibi and we were glad to share our internship experience. We had our final evaluations and we are happy to announce that we passed! We will officially be S-LPs in one week.

We learned a lot from our time in Chisasibi, especially about how to adapt our practice to include considerations of cultural and linguistic background of the clients. We learned a great deal about the beautiful Cree culture and language, which we felt lucky to discover through all the wonderful people we met. We will always have Chisasibi in our hearts.

Miyupimaatisiiun

Miyupimaatisiiun is the Cree concept of health and translates roughly into living well and being healthy. We chose this as the title for this week’s post because we are learning about the Cree approach to healthcare and wellness. Also, since this week was Chisasibi’s annual pow-wow, we learned that many different symbols and components of the pow-wow represent healing, balance, and well-being.

The medicine wheel is a symbol that represents teachings regarding the Cree way of viewing the world and its cycles and a person’s stages of life and different components of well-being. Image retrieved from http://www.pbcfs.net/fwellness.html.

This week we had the opportunity to meet with Mimie Neacappo, a Cree linguist. She taught us a bit about the history of the Cree language and the origins of different dialects spoken in Quebec. We discussed some particularities of the Cree language and asked her some of our questions about the differences between Cree and English. We are looking forward to reading Mimie’s Master’s thesis, which is about how descriptions of the land, navigation, and orientation in space are formulated in Eastern Cree.

Leah arranged videoconference meetings with the special needs educators in Whapmagoostui. We will soon be presenting our intervention plans to them and discussing activities they can use at the daycare to work on the speech and language goals we have identified.

Alexandra finished selecting the vocabulary and putting together a prototype for a low-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device for one of her clients. She had the chance to present it to her client, explain its use, and help her client practice using it to communicate.

A lot of our projects are coming to a close and we are starting to notice that our internship is almost finished. The nostalgia is already starting to set in!

Naomi and Jacob Martin, from Six Nations, in their regalia.

It was our last weekend in Chisasibi, and once again it was pretty busy. This weekend was Chisasibi’s annual pow-wow. Dancers and drummers come from all over North America to participate in the pow-wow. Several different drum circles rotated throughout the event so that dancers could dance all day. For the duration of the pow-wow, fire-keepers are responsible for keeping the sacred fire burning in the pow-wow’s teepee. We visited the event a few times to enjoy the performances and taste the delicious food.

Mona Tolley, from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, in her jingle dress.

We were amazed to see all of the dancers’ beautiful regalia and dresses. We were told that the different types and parts of the regalia each have a different significance to the dancers and their communities. For example, the jingle dresses are traditionally used for healing dances.

Since we finally had nice weather during the weekend, we were able to enjoy the end of the beautiful sunset on James Bay, and later on, we had an excellent view of the Northern lights.

Trust us, this photo does not do it justice!

We are already starting to say our goodbyes since we are leaving next week. Before we left, we wanted to thank our friends the Stewarts for all the times they invited us to dinners and celebrations in their mitchuap (teepee) and cabin. We cooked a feast for them over the fire in their mitchuap and spent the evening hearing stories and gossip. We were honored to receive the compliment of being good cooks!

Awaash

Awaash means “child” in Cree. We chose this as the title for this week’s post as this week, we had the opportunity to attend a workshop on traditional parenting practices and talk to parents about recommendations for the children we assessed. Awaash is also the name of the division of the Cree Health Board services for pregnant women and children aged 0-9.

The logo for the gathering, retrieved from http://www.creehealth.org/.

The 2015 Residential School Gathering on Fort George island was an event where people from Chisasibi and other Cree communities across Canada who experienced Residential School came to attend workshops and discussions on topics surrounding the continued impacts of Residential School, mental health, and overall well-being.

The traditional parenting workshop was part of the program for the gathering. We found the workshop really interesting, and relevant to the work we do with children and their families in the communities. It included different teachings on the Cree view of childhood as a very spiritual time in life. It outlined the importance of the early years being the ideal time for children to learn obedience, respect, and humility, as well as listening skills, which are important in Cree society.

Of course, feasts and games were also part of the program for the event. We had the chance to eat traditional foods including caribou stew, bannock on a stick, and goose heads.

We spent the rest of the week working on our intervention materials that will be sent to the daycare in Whapmagoostui. We also started calling parents to discuss the assessment results and language stimulation recommendations.

Since we spent an afternoon at the gathering and our placement is coming to an end, we are noticing all the things we have left to do in the short time we have left. We spent some time working from home. It was not the ideal time for a power outage, but luckily we are very resourceful!

Minshtuk

“Minshtuk” means “Island” in Cree. We chose this word because we spent a part of the week on the beautiful island of Fort George for the Mamoweedow.

This week we had the chance to participate in multidisciplinary team meetings with the occupational therapist and pediatrician to share conclusions and recommendations. The goal of the meetings was to formulate global conclusions and recommendations for the children we assessed. The pediatrician on the team was in Whapmagoostui to assess the children and meet with the parents so we met with her through videoconference. We had most of our meetings in the videoconference room at the hospital and on one occasion in the surgery room!

Last week, we learned the word “tihkaayaau”, which means “cold”. Unfortunately, we’ve had many opportunities to use it this week including inside the MSDC (more specifically in the conference room where we work most of the time)! We haven’t yet figured out how to control the air conditioning…

The weather warmed up just in time for our work day at the mamoweedow! We participated in the “Eeyou healthy walk”, an event organized by the Cree Health Board to promote physical activity and healthy life habits. The professionals from the rehab team (physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology), the nutritionist, and community health representatives were all present to walk with people from the community.

Reggie Tomatuk from the Cree Health Board was part of the organization team for the event, and built the michuap

The walk started and ended at the Cree Health Board michuap. The nutritionist prepared healthy snacks and boxes of healthy food choices to give out as prizes, med students took blood pressure readings, and we gave out Cree children’s books to children and parents.

Audrée (the nutritionist) making raisin bannock to share

We also had a bit of time off in our work afternoon to visit some of the michuaps and taste some traditional food!

William Tapiatic preparing bear meat in the Elders’ michuap to share with the community

We also had the chance to go back to the mamoweedow during the weekend. We had time for more dancing, games and feasts with our friends (and adoptive family) the Stewarts!

The weather cleared up just in time for us to see a beautiful sunset on the island. It felt like a little vacation and we are feeling recharged for the week ahead.

Mamoweedow

The Mamoweedow (“gathering” in Cree) is a yearly celebration on Fort George Island, the original location of the community of Chisasibi, lasting around 10 days. For the mamoweedow, lots of people from the community spend the week in their cabins on the island and participate in the festivities that include traditional dancing and games, social activities, and feasts. We got a chance to attend part of the activities on the weekend.

This week, we finally completed our reports and sent them to the pediatrician on the developmental clinic team. We are also almost done with our intervention plans and we will spend some time this week putting materials together to send to the daycare educators.

Anny was part of a multidisciplinary clinic for assessment and intervention of  Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. The multidisciplinary team organized a workshop for the case managers working with families in various communities. We volunteered to help Anny prepare some of her materials and activities for the language assessment and intervention section. On Thursday, we attended the afternoon portion of the workshop and helped out a bit during the group discussion activity. It felt a bit like being back at school!

This weekend was the beginning of the mamoweedow on Fort George Island. We went to an evening event with traditional dancing and games that lasted part of the night. We joined in for a few games. The mamoweedow committee was nice enough to translate the instructions into English for us, but we still didn’t understand half of the rules and got eliminated pretty quickly. We took a break from the festivities to get a late-night snack. We learned the virtue of patience while we waited an hour and a half for poutine at one of the chip stands on the island. We’re glad to say it was worth the wait.

Our friends invited us to stay in one of their cabins for the night. We got our first clear view of the stars since there is no electricity on Fort George and we were finally up late enough for the sky to get dark! Even though the island is close to town, going to Fort George is a good way to find peace and quiet and take a break from the city.

The next morning, we enjoyed a traditional breakfast at the michuap of the mamoweedow, where food is served pretty much all day during the events. We are hoping to go back to the island to participate in more events during the week.

Eeyou Istchee

The Robert Bourassa reservoir at LG2.

« Eeyou » is the Cree word to designate Cree and « Istchee » means land or territory. We chose to call this post « Eeyou Istchee » because this week we visited parts of the Cree territory that are important for the people of Chisasibi and that have been impacted by governmental development projects.

It’s been another busy report-writing week. We’re finishing up our conclusions and are jumping into our recommendations and intervention plans. We’re getting there! Apart from the reports, we are also working on other cases in parallel. Leah is working on language development goals for a consultation in Waskaganish, another Cree community south of Chisasibi. Alex is working on choosing the vocabulary to include in a client’s alternative communication device and developing creative ways to explain the process to her client.

Leah’s parents came to visit and we tagged along on their tours!

We visited the Robert Bourassa (also known as LG2) hydroelectric facility, which is the biggest electric plant in the La Grande complex. The La Grande complex includes 7 plants at various points along the La Grande river. LG2 was the first project and was put in service in 1979.

No photography is permitted inside the plant… this is the closest we got!

The famous spill way, called “The Giant’s Staircase”

When the Quebec government came up with the hydroelectric development plan, the Cree people were opposed to the project because it involved flooding large parts of their hunting grounds, affecting their traditional way of living. The Cree then initiated what would be a long juridical battle for their rights to the land to be recognized and respected. The James Bay Northern Quebec Agreement was signed in 1975.

The Robert Bourassa reservoir lies on top of territory that was originally Cree hunting land.

If you are interested in learning more on the matter, you can watch the series of documentaries Together we stand firm, Delivering the promise, and We rise up on the Grand Cree Council’s website: http://www.gcc.ca/together-we-stand-firm/

We also visited Fort George Island, which is where the community was originally located. Chisasibi was established in 1978. From 1978 to 1980 about 200 houses and one of the churches were moved by boat to the present location.

Most people from the community have a cabin on the island. Our friends were preparing their cabins for the Mamoweedow, a yearly week-long gathering on the island. We visited them and got a tour around the island in the back of their pick-up truck.

We got to see the sunset on James Bay before returning to the ferry on time! Looking forward to returning to Fort George for the Mamoweedow!!

Owah Saa!

Owah saa is an expression that means “great!” or “nice”. We learned that expression this week, and we had lots of opportunities to use it.

We are really growing to love our sewing nights. Last week it was warm enough to sit outside and enjoy the weather (before the mosquitoes came out). We brought a bunch of Diane’s furniture outside, including her coffee table full of books. Diane spoiled us with some delicious apple rosette tarts, and Janie with some boudin, a traditional boiled raisin and cinnamon bread. We learned some new words and listened to some stories while sewing. We might finish our moccasins before we leave if we keep going at this pace!  

Alex has been missing her bike and her prayers have finally been answered! Our friend Violet was kind enough to lend us her bike for the summer. She even made a special delivery and brought it to the MSDC. Our friends Derek and Diane did a tune-up on the bike that same evening, much to Alex’s happiness. It was like Christmas Day for Alex and she tried the bike out right away.

The week’s nice weather continued and on Friday we got to do some fishing and sight-seeing. We got to cross two more things off our list, as we saw one of the dams (LG1) and James Bay in the same day. While we had no luck with the fishing, we really enjoyed the drive out to Long Point.

 

Sunset is a beautiful time of day on James Bay (and the mosquitoes think so too).

 

Nuuhchimiihch

Nuuhchimiihch means “in the bush”, and it describes the land where Cree people hunt and have their camp. Most Cree families have a camp on their traditional territory. At the camp there is usually a cabin and a mitchuap.

  

Janie (our sewing teacher) invited us to her camp, which is about 45 minutes from Chisasibi, to celebrate the end of the school year. Lots of people in the sewing group are teachers and are leaving town for the summer. We spent the day having a party as a way to thank her for teaching us how to sew moccasins and being so patient with us. We also said goodbye to our other friends who are leaving Chisasibi.

Our work week was calmer than the previous, since now we are organizing our files, interpreting results from our assessments, and starting to write the reports. We will be doing a lot of report writing in the coming weeks! It is going to be an interesting and challenging task because we need to take into consideration the distinct linguistic and cultural background of the children.

Another reason our week was slower is because there was a holiday on Monday for Aboriginal Day, and another holiday on Wednesday for St. Jean Baptiste day. The Cree don’t really celebrate St. Jean Baptiste day, so we had a potluck with some staff from the Cree Health Board. Later we had a campfire outside and sang some Quebec folk songs. There were no fireworks, but the Northern Lights came out right on time at midnight. We had the day off for St. Jean and we spent the day sewing at our friend Diane’s place.

The weather this weekend was beautiful and we were happy to spend most of it outdoors. On Saturday, we initiated our first potluck at the beach and we were pleasantly surprised when everyone we invited was able to make it!

Our router has been broken since we got back from Whapmagoostui. We will keep updating the blog when we can, but we have had pretty sporadic access to internet. For now, we are going back to our roots and writing letters to friends down South.

Whapmagoostui

Our supervisor Anny covers five Cree communities including Whapmagoostui, which is farther North than Chisasibi, along the coast of Hudson Bay. It is only accessible by plane or boat. We had the opportunity to go to Whapmagoostui with Anny to be part of an interdisciplinary clinic project. The community is half Cree and half Inuit, and the Inuit name for the community is Kuujjuarapik. Both names mean “great whale”.

We had a false start on Monday when our plane to Whapmagoostui was cancelled due to the cloud ceiling. We still got some work done while waiting at the airport, including rescheduling appointments and interpreter bookings!

Since all our food and luggage was already packed, we had an opportunity to try out Pash-Moar Pizza, the only pizza place in town. We went to bed early, hoping that we would have better luck the next day.

We finally got on the plane on Tuesday and got to work as soon as we arrived in Whapmagoostui. We had a busy week trying to fit in all the clients we were supposed to see, especially since we lost a day on Monday. As well as French and English, we had the opportunity to work in Cree and Inuktitut thanks to the help of interpreters, the daycare educators, and the medical centre staff.

Even though we didn’t have much time to explore the community, we still had a beautiful walk around town and along the beach of Hudson Bay.

Great Whale River.

On Thursday we were surprised to wake up and find the whole community covered in snow. It is amazing how quickly the weather can change from day to day.

After a busy week of work, coming back to Chisasibi felt like coming home.

We managed to get up early on Saturday morning to help out at Run Chisasibi, an annual event including 1, 5, 10, and 21k races. We handed out water and oranges to the runners and chased after empty cups. It was really nice to see the community congratulate the runners at the finish line!

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out in some friends’ michuaps eating goose and bannock around the fire. This made the feeling of being back home even stronger.

Aakutaah

We are learning some new words! Aakutaah /ægʊdʌ/ means “ok”, “alright”, or “ok, bye”. We though it was a fitting title for this post since we are settling in and getting comfortable. Also, it’s a word that we hear all the time and it’s pretty easy to pick up.

We had a pretty busy week with lots of unexpected events and developments. We got confirmation on Tuesday that we would be travelling to Whapmagoostui (a community further up North) on the following Monday. After that, we had a whirlwind time getting materials together, gathering contact information for clients we will be seeing, and making travel plans. However, our busy work life didn’t keep us from attending lots of social events!

We were invited to go to a potluck at the beach with some other health professionals from the Cree Health Board.

We had a bonfire and spent part of the evening admiring the progression of the sunset and enjoying the beautiful Northern sky. Some people stayed later and saw the Northern Lights. We unfortunately missed them since we had to go to practicum the next morning.

Some teachers and health professionals get together every Wednesday night for sewing and knitting. One of the Cree teachers is showing us how to make baby moccasins based on her traditional pattern. We hope we will have time to finish our moccasins while we can still benefit from her expertise.

The highlight of our week was the Walking Out ceremony that we attended. A Walking Out is held when a baby is around a year old. It is symbolic of their first steps outside the mitchuap (teepee) and represents their welcoming into Cree society.

It is held at dawn, and the babies who are walking out are dressed in traditional clothing representing roles of women and men in Cree culture.

Our supervisor Anny with her daughter Emiliana during the Walking Out.

After the ceremony, the hosts provide breakfast, and later in the day everyone comes back to the mitchuap for a feast. Since our supervisor and her daughter participated in the ceremony and the hosts were some of the educators who work at the MSDC, we were lucky enough to be invited to attend and help out with preparations and cooking.

Our day started at 5 am cooking French toast for the breakfast. Ingrid, one of the occupational therapists with the Cree Health Board also came to help us out.

After the breakfast, we got started right away preparing stuffing for the nisk (goose). Our hosts taught us how to clean out the geese, stuff them, and sew them up to be hung around the fire for roasting. They were great teachers and they were happy to see that we were learning quickly. Then we spent the afternoon roasting the geese (hard work, since they have to be turned continuously) while hearing some stories and trying to learn some more Cree words.

The feast was delicious. The Cree sure know how to throw a party! Along with the goose and bear meat, there were plenty of homemade treats like fry bread, donuts, cupcakes, and 5 different cakes. According to Cree tradition, guests have to finish their plates or bring it back home but no food can be wasted. We ended up bringing lots home.

Looking back, it’s hard to believe we’ve only been here for two weeks. Looking forward to more travel and to discovering another Northern community next week!