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February Ancestry
Ancestry: Family Ancestry and First Nations is the February Focus of the PWRDF Family Calendar -- you can explore this important concern with your family at any time of the year.
PWRDF Story: Supporting Cultural Recovery with the People of the Flint
Kanien'kehá:ka means "People of the Flint". The Kanien'kehá:ka are indigenous people of North America. Following the influence of Europeans they became known as Mohawk. Their traditional homeland stretches to the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York to southern Quebec and eastern Ontario. As original members of the Iroquois League, or Haudenosaunee, the Mohawk were known as the "Keepers of the Eastern Door" who guarded the Iroquois Confederation against invasion from that direction.
Today the community of Kahnawake, one of the seven Mohawk communities that comprises the Mohawk Nation, is situated on the banks of the St. Lawrence seaway located directly across the city of Montreal. Kahnawake’s population consists of approximately 8,000 Mohawk citizens. Like many indigenous languages across Canada, the Mohawk language is in danger of extinction. The loss of ancestral language is one of the lasting consequences of the Residential schools, where children were prevented and sometimes punished for speaking their own language and practising their cultural traditions. The survival and active usage of their ancestral language has become one of Kahnawake’s most pressing challenges facing the community today.
Puppet used in KOR cultural show
PWRDF is a partner with Kanien’kehaka Onkwawén:na Raotitiohkwa (KOR), a cultural and language education center located in Kahnawake, established in 1978 to preserve, promote and enrich the language and culture of the Mohawks. The organization serves as a cultural resource center with a specialized library and documentation center, a language center, an exhibit area, a video production unit, and a photographic archive. KOR's programs include an Adult Language Immersion Program a Young Girls Traditional Singing Group and a beginner's language program video series for local cable television. Tóta tánon Ohkwá:ri is Children’s Language Immersion Puppet Show.
"KOR is extremely grateful for the generous contributions from PWRDF and their support to our organization. Our partnership with PWRDF has given us the opportunity to strengthen and empower our community in many ways such as actively promoting and providing various language and cultural projects designed to increase and validate our own cultural knowledge and understanding of who we are as Indigenous peoples."
Questions for Reflection: If you could write your own family or neighbourhood treaty what would you include? What symbol would you choose?
Family Activity
How and when did your family come to live in Canada? Your family history may or may not have direct connections with early encounters between Europeans and the Aboriginal people (first people) of the country we now know as Canada. But that history is still very important today. Today many Aboriginal families are still struggling to heal from the loss and pain of their experience in residential schools. The suggested children's book, Shi-shi-etko by Nicola Campbell, tells this story from a child's point of view.
One teaching from those early days of first contact that offers a beautiful symbol of hope for the relationship between Aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples is the Two Row Wampum -- marked by a Treaty in 1613 between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Dutch. This treaty of peace and friendship is recorded in the beaded belt known as the Two Row Wampum. The belt was made with two parallel rows of purple wampum (sea shells) on a bed of white beads. The purple beads signify the paths of two boats -- a Haudenosaunee canoe and a European ship -- traveling down the river of life together, side by side, but in their own boat. Neither nation will try to steer the other’s vessel. This is also the first written treaty to use the famous phrases: "as long as the sun shines upon the earth; as long as the waters flow; as long as the grass grows green, peace will last." This treaty that symbolizes friendship, peace and respect is still a good vision for life in Canada. PWRDF strives to further this path through our Canadian Development Program: Indigenous Communities.
SWEET DEAL!
Share your family story with PWRDF and we send you a fair trade chocolate bar. More....
Bring it home: Storytelling with Family Elders
How does your family story intersect with the history of Aboriginal peoples and early settlers in Canada? What are the stories about how your family came to live in Canada? One way to deepen your understanding of your family's history is to interview a family elder.
Host a family gathering and settle in for a time of storytelling. Use the following questions as a guide. See which ones might interest you and/or add others.
Build in participation: You could cut the questions up and let the little ones hand them out. Some questions can also be answered by more than one person. Consider making a video of this time, or having teen age children write down some of the best parts. If the time goes longer than you like, just keep track of the questions that you want to explore further another time.
At the end of the time, invite everybody to say something that they learned that they didn't know before. In many aboriginal communities it is traditional to honour the elder with a small symbolic gift.
The Two Row Wampum belt was made with two parallel rows of purple wampum (sea shells) on a bed of white beads. The purple beads signify the paths of two boats -- a Haudenosaunee canoe and a European ship -- traveling down the river of life together, side by side, but in their own boat. Neither nation will try to steer the other’s vessel.
Activity for ages 3-6: Paint a two row wampum belt
Materials: strip of canvas, white and purple acrylic paint, scissors. Beads and decorative items are optional.
1. Cut a piece of canvas leaving room at the ends to cut a fringe. The fringe will be used to tie the belt on. Don’t cut the fringe until the end.
2. Paint the entire canvas white and let it dry completely.
3. Add two long purple stripes to show the paths of the two boats travelling down the river side by side. Let it dry again.
4. Cut a fringe into each end. You could add beads or more decorations here.
5. When it’s dry your belt is ready to wear. It will remind you of friends living in peace together, just as if they were paddling their boats down the same river. Maybe you want to make one for a friend? Crochet or knot a two wampum bracelet using white and purple embroidery floss. Make them for your friends and use it as a chance to tell the story of the two row wampum.
Shi-shi-etko By Nicola Campbell.
Age 8+ A a moving story set in Canada about the practice of removing First Nations children from their villages and sending them to residential schools. Shi-shi-etko counts down her last four days before going away and tries to memorize everything about her home. ISBN-10: 0888996594 Available from Amazon.
Activity for ages 6-10: Crochet a Wampum friendship bracelet
Materials:
Crochet hook: 1.65mm
White and purple floss or cotton wool. These instructions are for a 6-7 inch bracelet. Adjust the length as necessary.
* ch - chain
* sc - single crochet
* sl st - slip stitch
1. Starting with white, chain 55. Single crochet in 2nd chain from hook and each chain to end, turn.
2. Every row, Chain 1, single crochet 54 ch1, turn.
3. To create the wampum pattern, work 4 rows in white, 4 purple, 4 white, 4 purple, 4 white.
4. To finish, chain 1, single crochet all around the edge of your band, working 3 single crochet into each corner, join with slip stitch to starting chain then finish off, weave in ends.
5. For the bracelet ties - Cut 6 X 6 inch lengths of thread. Group 3 together and hook through center single crochet along short end. Bring 6 ends of thread together. Separate threads into 3 pairs and braid to about 1 inch from the end. Tie single knot, trim ends. Repeat for other end.
Activity for ages 10-15: Watch the Trails of Our Ancestors Video
"Trails of our Ancestors" is a canoe trip along traditional waterways of the Tlicho First Nation in northern Alberta that has been supported by PWRDF. Hundreds of young people and elders have had the opportunity to travel the traditional trails of the past between all the Tlicho communities, reclaiming stories and lost language as they go. Request a copy to borrow from PWRDF.
More Ideas and Information
Anglican Church of Canada Indigenous Ministries
Anglican Church of Canada Residential schools information
Anglican Indigenous Network
KAIROS Aboriginal Rights Program
National Aboriginal day - June 21
National Association of Friendship Centres
