Awaash

Awaash means “child” in Cree. We chose this as the title for this week’s post as this week, we had the opportunity to attend a workshop on traditional parenting practices and talk to parents about recommendations for the children we assessed. Awaash is also the name of the division of the Cree Health Board services for pregnant women and children aged 0-9.

The logo for the gathering, retrieved from http://www.creehealth.org/.

The 2015 Residential School Gathering on Fort George island was an event where people from Chisasibi and other Cree communities across Canada who experienced Residential School came to attend workshops and discussions on topics surrounding the continued impacts of Residential School, mental health, and overall well-being.

The traditional parenting workshop was part of the program for the gathering. We found the workshop really interesting, and relevant to the work we do with children and their families in the communities. It included different teachings on the Cree view of childhood as a very spiritual time in life. It outlined the importance of the early years being the ideal time for children to learn obedience, respect, and humility, as well as listening skills, which are important in Cree society.

Of course, feasts and games were also part of the program for the event. We had the chance to eat traditional foods including caribou stew, bannock on a stick, and goose heads.

We spent the rest of the week working on our intervention materials that will be sent to the daycare in Whapmagoostui. We also started calling parents to discuss the assessment results and language stimulation recommendations.

Since we spent an afternoon at the gathering and our placement is coming to an end, we are noticing all the things we have left to do in the short time we have left. We spent some time working from home. It was not the ideal time for a power outage, but luckily we are very resourceful!