(submitted photo/kâniyâsihk Cultural Camps)

By Nicole Reis

CULTURE CAMP

Kâniyâsihk Cultural Camp calling on youth and knowledge keepers to assist with preserving traditional practices

Jul 17, 2020 | 5:57 PM

The kâniyâsihk Cultural Camps (kCC) and kâ-nêyâsihk mîkiwâhpa Cree Academy of Excellence-Immersion School (kCAE) were created by Dr. Kevin wâsakâyâsiw Lewis as a way to preserve the Cree language and to promote traditional Indigenous culture, land-based teaching and healing.

Lewis told meadowlakeNOW kCC teaches Cree language outdoors in all seasons by incorporating traditional practices. He said teaching Cree language outdoors provides the ability to truly disconnect from the outside world allowing the senses to become heightened and to see the language in action.

“You need to be outside where the language comes alive and flourishes,” he said. “When you start putting together sentences and communicating, you’re also moving, smelling and seeing. That’s the methodology and the secret of teaching outside.”

The cultural camp began nearly 20 years ago as Lewis’ masters paper to a PhD project. It originated as a fall camp teaching traditional outdoor survival practices to students from the First Nation University of Canada. As demand increased over the years, the camp is now an all-season offering focused on youth development.

(submitted photo/The kâniyâsihk Cultural Camps)

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“The Cree language is structured with a lot of verbs [in its vocabulary],” Lewis explained. “It makes sense to take students into nature to see and feel the language come alive as opposed to explaining a language inside four walls.”

Lewis said his youth groups have recently learned about the birch tree where nothing from it is wasted. Groups learn how to understand nature’s signal of when trees are ready to be tapped for sap, to scale the inner-bark of the birch tree to make nutrient-rich flour, and to further use it to make canoes, baskets, snowshoes and bows.

In the winter months, students learn a range of survival skills including trapping, building tipi shelter, snowshoeing, and skijoring. In the fall months students could learn gardening, canning, or hunting practices while preparing for winter with sewing, beading and working with fur.

Lewis is also an assistant professor who developed the Indigenous Language Certificate program at the University of Saskatchewan. He said to preserve traditional practices, the community urgently needs more young language keepers to protect and share the stories from Elders.

“We need people to record them, people to create apps and use technology to incorporate [the language] in schools, and in hospitals,” he said. “We need translators and transcribers, so there’s lots of work that needs to be done.”

(submitted photo/The kâniyâsihk Cultural Camps)

His mother, Matilda Lewis, co-developed the Cree-Immersion program for youth aged five to 12. She said traditional life skills are needed most among young people and is calling for more adults to come forward with their traditional knowledge to share it among the broader group.

“We’re losing a lot of our Elders at an alarming rate. We’re really worried about that,” she said. “We’re losing our language and, as we know, language comes with the land.”

The kâniyâsihk Cultural Camps training offers a number of various educators open to teaching traditional medicine, ceremonial practices and other traditional wisdom. Matilda Lewis says she wants more youth who are interested in preserving the Cree language and land-based knowledge.

According to Matilda, the non-profit organization is among few in the province to offer all season cultural education programs on an ongoing basis. There are various programs and camps offered for individuals at any age.

More information or to donate to kâniyâsihk Cultural Camps at Ministikwan Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6 territory can be found here.

Editor’s note: this story was amended to reflect the cultural camp began nearly 20 years ago as Lewis’ masters paper to a PhD project.

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nicole.reis@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @nicolereis7722