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Devolpement and education starts in the home...

Starting at home: A revival of Cree culture


Posted on July 24, 2011 by Jack

LAC LA RONGE, Sask. — Several of Louisa Ratt’s Cree kindergarten students cringe as John McLeod pulls the hair and skin from the head of a dead moose.

McLeod, one of several instructors at a cultural camp held on the grounds of Bell’s Point elementary school, explains that none of the animal will be wasted.

By one of the teepees, an elder instructs older students in the art of oar making. Under the shade of a birch thicket, another elder tells stories in Cree to a group of kids sitting attentively.

And at the outdoor kitchen, Beatrice Charles and other helpers prepare bannock loaves, moose meat soup, smoked beaver and other dishes. Fish filets are being smoked in the adjacent open teepee.

The atmosphere is festive, but officials say the camp is about something much deeper. It’s one part of a major push by the Lac La Ronge Indian Band — and a number of school divisions and First Nations — to revive the Cree language and traditions.

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