Cree Literacy Network

National Aboriginal History Month Day Ten: ayaskîmow

Urban Native Magazine and Regina Aboriginal Professionals Association have launched a photograph challenge (for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) in honour of National Aboriginal History Month. They’re using the Twitter hashtag #NAHM2015PhotoADay.

Here at the Cree Literacy Network, we’ve decided to play along, by gathering the images suggested – but (with help from Solomon Ratt) captioning them in Cree.

For Day Nine, the word is Inn=uit.

ayaskîmow / ᐊᔭᐢᑮᒧᐤ

There is only one community in Canada where Cree and Inuit First Nations People live side by side. Located on the east shore of Hudson Bay, it’s known as Whapmagoostui in Cree; in Inuit, it’s Kuujjuaraapik.

According to [http://www.cen.ulaval.ca/en/page.aspx?lien=stationkuujjuarapik], “this bicultural community represents the ancestral limit of the Cree and Inuit territories. It is both the northernmost Cree community and the southernmost Inuit community in Quebec. Whapmagoostui-Kuujjjuarpaik has a population of about 1400 inhabitants.

The spoken languages are Cree, Inuktitut, and English with some French.

The gathering was opened with the lighting up the Qulliq at the Whapmagoostui Justice Building. Two Inuit Elders prepare to light up a traditional Inuit lamp. Afterwards, they asked a grandchild to bring the flame to a young Cree who, in turn, gave the flame to a Cree Elder, who then lit a fire inside a Cree teepee.
The gathering was opened with the lighting up the Qulliq at the Whapmagoostui Justice Building. Two Inuit Elders prepare to light up a traditional Inuit lamp. Afterwards, they asked a grandchild to bring the flame to a young Cree who, in turn, gave the flame to a Cree Elder, who then lit a fire inside a Cree teepee.

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