Kohkom Kisewatisiwin Camp
Dylan Lightbourn • July 18, 2017
This weekend we packed up our vehicles and headed north-east from Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton) towards Onihckiskiwapowinihk (Saddle Lake Cree Nation) for a weekend of workshops and ceremony led, facilitated, and attended by women of the Kohkom Kisewatisiwin Society.
This weekend we packed up our vehicles and headed north-east from Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton) towards Onihckiskiwapowinihk (Saddle Lake Cree Nation) for a weekend of workshops and ceremony led, facilitated, and attended by women of the Kohkom Kisewatisiwin Society.
When we arrived the grandmothers were preparing food for campers who were setting up for the weekend in the field near the Eagle's Healing Lodge. Already standing in the field were two tipis and two Métis canvas tents, a big top tent, and a sweat lodge at the far end, tucked away from the activity areas. Near the entrance there was a kitchen area and washrooms.
We set up camp and went for lunch, greeting the kohkoms. The old people like it when young people greet them, one of them was to tell me later, so we made sure throughout the weekend to go shake hands and greet Elders like they did when they arrived. Their greetings and this practice of saying hello and shaking hands with everyone gave the camp a real feeling of community.
There were activities planned for all three days of the camp, with reflection periods and meal times between, and they began on Friday after the opening circle and prayers and our first meal together as a camp. At the first talk, we all sat in a circle (as we did many times throughout the weekend) and listened to a traditional Elder speak, and wavers were passed around for camp-out participants to sign.
The Elder spoke about how back in the old days before colonization, people gathered and did ceremony on the land without having to worry about laws that made it difficult for them to do so. Of course there were territories and protocols around doing ceremony and gathering, but the cultural protocol and traditional laws had more to do with being respectful of the land and nationhood than reporting to the government and getting permission and wavers from their legal system.
It can be arduous, confusing, intimidating, and expensive to get insurance and do the paper work needed to host a gathering. These kohkoms do it anyway because gathering and sharing knowledge is important. We all signed our wavers happily and gratefully because the kohkoms had done so much to be able to welcome us to the camp. We thought and spoke about the Treaties and the land we were on, that the Saddle Lake Cree Nation are custodians of. Many of the kohkoms in attendance were from Saddle Lake and have relations living there today. Some of them had lived there for their entire lives, and were in their 80s.
In the opening circle talk Elsie Paul shared with us about the value of learning the customs and beliefs of different nations. She spoke not only of Indigenous nations but of groups of people from around the world, and those living on Turtle Island. It is important to learn about each other, she said, because when we learn the customs and beliefs of others we can better respect and honour them. She gave the example of two different nations; one that sees it as respectful to eat all of the food you are given, and the other that has to keep giving food until the other stops eating. If these two are unaware of their customs, there will be some sore bellies and empty pantries in the end, and either side might feel disrespected; the ones who will keep eating will eat until they feel sick and might think that the others are trying to make them feel terrible, the other might think they are trying to eat all of their food stores.
Stories, beliefs, ceremonies, and language were shared over the course of the three day retreat between participants, and the long lineages many of them represented.
Nêhiyawêwin was spoken by old, and sometimes even the young attendees. There were Cree speaking circles, but the language was also spoken in the kitchen, around the dinner tables, by the fire, and just about anywhere the kohkoms went. One of the children in attendance said a Cree prayer in a ceremony and everyone around the circle let out a sigh because it was so beautiful to hear the little Elder speaking her language. Someone said at one point during the weekend "we're not losing our language, it's that our Cree spirit is sleeping and we have to wake it up within ourselves, we will listen to Cree and come to understand." The importance of language and passing it down to the little ones was made clear throughout the weekend. Being immersed in the language periodically throughout the weekend was a valuable experience because as one attendee expressed later in a closing circle, it's not often that one can be immersed in the Cree language; you can't just go somewhere for that. At one of the language circles it was said that some people see those Cree speaking spaces as spaces for healing because for a long time they were not supposed to speak their language, or they were shamed for it. They say "we're speaking again" in regard to participating in Cree sharing circles. Language is more than a practical mode of communication: it has to do with ancestry, nationhood, culture, and story-telling.
There was an overall theme to the weekend, and a message for the kohkom attendees from Elsie Paul; and that was that everyone accumulates knowledge, experiences, and stories, and that their teachings are valuable, that everyone has gifts to share. That is part of the kohkoms' role in community, to pass on experiences that are educational for younger generations, and to show everyone in the circle that they have something to share, and to encourage them to use their gifts and help their community in the ways that they can. That is why we are working together to create the Stories from the Grandmothers teaching calendar.
Circle Teachings staff were incredibly grateful to be a part of the camp-out retreat, and we would like to thank the Kohkom Kisewatisiwin Society and Elsie Paul for inviting and welcoming us into their community of learning and sharing. Thank you for honouring us continually throughout the retreat by publicly announcing our role at the camp to support the preservation and recording of important teachings and traditional knowledge in partnership with the kohkom society. It means a lot to us! Kinanâskomitin, hiy hiy!
If you would like to support the good work the kohkoms are doing please go to their gofundme campaign and contribute whatever you can! https://www.gofundme.com/dashboard-kohkom-teachings-story
And keep your eye on our blog and social media for photos, video, and audio from the retreat.
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