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| Our very first dinner invitation on the reserve |
Since our task was done for the day, it gave me time to
catch up on my writing back at the Youth Centre.
It was also my turn to cook dinner. I put
the pork tenderloin which was marinated from the previous night along with some
potatoes, carrots, and pineapple into the oven ( preheated at 400 degrees F.) After an hour, dinner was ready and the pork came out beautifully cooked!
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| Our host's family keeps some horses on their property |
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| The animal lovers on our team were very excited! |
A. and her family live in a house on the reserve. The house is built on a pretty large property where animals like horses and dogs can roam free.
Since there were a few animal lovers on our team, we spent some time with the animals while we were there.
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| A. shared some native games and stories with us |
A student of the notorious Residential School for ten years, A. was taken from her parents when she was young separated from her family and community. She shared some of the unpleasant stories with us as well as some Cree traditions, games and stories.
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| A. demonstrated a popular hand game to us |
A’s mom was a mid wife and she told us about the trick her
mom used to help deliver babies among aboriginal women.
Before the invention of
the epidural, in order to reduce pain and help the baby to turn around in the
mother’s womb, A.’s mom would ask the husband to go out, find a snake in the
woods and bring it back.
The mid wife would place the snake on the mother’s stomach to help induce labour. Feeling the movement and vibration of the snake of the mother’s stomach, the baby would turn around with his/ her head down towards the birth canal and ready to come out from the womb. We were all spellbound by these very interesting native tales indeed!
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| The Saskatchewan River flowing through the Cultural Heritage Park of this northern community |
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| Learning about the Cree stories and cultures outdoor |
A. and her family were very gracious and hospitable toward our group.
The whole family including A., her
husband, Audrey, her daughter and her grandchildren took us to the Cultural
Heritage Park where we could see the Saskatchewan River flowing below us.
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| A. & family were generous with their time and gave us unique experiences |
We lay down some blankets and listened to A’s stories about the native Sweat Lodge and the treaties between the first nation people and the government of Canada.
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| These little fern leaves make great mosquito repellent! |
When the mosquitoes started to attack us, A. and her family showed us how to prevent the annoying bugs from biting us the native and natural way!
They pulled up a few pieces of fern like leaves off the ground and told us to squash them in our palms and spread it on our hands and feet.
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| We have much to learn from the wisdom of our Aboriginals |
A natural bug repellent was made!
We have so much to learn from the wisdom of our aboriginal people!
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| Three bottles were set up for target practice |
Hunting was a way of life for aboriginal people for centuries. Some still hunt on the reserve.
After the stories were told, A. and the family took us to the gravel pit. .
They set up three bottles on a pole and showed us how to
do target shooting.
Some of the young people tried it for the first time. I was
not interested in guns therefore I just stood there and took pictures.
The
young people all had lot of fun! It was something they did not expect to do on
this trip!
We got back to our host’s family at around 10pm. L. was there and we
chatted a little while she showed us pictures of her family and her daughter’s
wedding. It was a lovely time we spent with our host and learning a little bit
more about her. We look forward to more time like this with our host!
R.T.
Alberta
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