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.