Back again to the North

I just spent a really wonderful week back north, in one of my favourite Cree communities, Waskaganish. Waskaganish is perched on James Bay, where the Rupert River comes to meet the bay and is really lovely. It's a smaller community, with around 1200 residents, and they are some of the nicest people you will ever meet.

I was up there to run a program I had come up with last year, of bringing some of the things we've (the scientists who I

work with) have learne

d about the medicinal plants of the Cree, to students there. Very few kids in these communities spend much time in the bush anymore and often haven't learned much of their elder's knowledge regarding plants' use and I wanted to try and bridge this gap. I've been working on th

is project on the side basically since last fall, with a fabulous collaborator from the Cree Board of Health (who contributes to a pr

etty cool blog herself all about Montreal, who also talks about going up north, check it out here). My collaborator had first run it in another community but I was still feeling a great deal trepidation to try out the idea that I've been mulling over for so long.

Luckily, I wasn't on my own, I was accompanied by my very dear labmate x-ine, who had lived in Waskaganish for 6 weeks this summer doing interviews for her Masters. She was

returning to do some follow up work and help me out with the program.

From the first day we arrived we had a blast. Fall is an incredibly busy time for the Cree, there is fish to catch, and both geese and moose to hunt. Our first afternoon in town we went

to an area known as the Gravel Pit where a number of elders live year round, and where they had set

up an area to catch and prepare some of their traditional fish. The river from which they fished however, the Rupert, has been recently dammed by Hydro Quebec and the doors are due to be closed the first week of November. This is the last season to catch fish as they always have and understandably, the community is nervous a

bout whats going to happen. However, they are also resolved to preserve as much of their traditional life as they can, and teach their skills to the next generation. At the camp I visited, there were both elders and younger people there to learn how to clean and c

ook the fish in traditional ways.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of whitef

ish cooking and prepared (it's delicious by the way) and will tell you more about my visit to Waskaganish tomorrow.

Christine and I taking pictures of each other taking pictures of each..... you get the pic

ture (ha!).

The Rupert River on a cloudy day.

Whitefish!

Cooking in a traditional meechwam.

Delicious fried whitefish, side dish of fried fish eggs and liver.

Back to the north!

Sorry for the severe lackage of posts. I've only been back in the O-town for a few weeks and they have been busy. I've been trying to purge a bunch of stuff as I absolutely cannot fit it all into my room at my parent's house, editing papers, hanging with people.... it's really nice to be home though.

I had a quick sojourn back to Mtl to give my quasi defense and it went really well I'm pleased to report! Now we're just waiting for the university to find an external reader and get my thesis processed, hopefully in time for me to start my job.

As of tomorrow though I return on my way up north, to Waskaganish, one of my favourite places in Eeyou Istchee. I'll be both trying to report on the results of my Masters, do a few interviews and run a class in one of the schools teaching kids about medicinal plants, how both their own culture and science can study plants. I hope it goes well! I'll be going up with the lovely x-ine and so am sure I'll be having a great time, and will do my best to keep you updated!