'That there
is a place where we can learn ... I really appreciate the opportunity,'
says participant
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Rhonda
Oblin Cooper at a moosehide workshop in Waswanipi. (Susan
Bell/CBC)
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Growing up in Montreal, Rhonda Oblin Cooper never got the chance
to learn how to prepare a moosehide a skill practised by
her people for thousands of years.
Now 42 years old and living in the Cree community of Waswanipi,
in the James Bay region of Quebec, Oblin Cooper is busy learning
the skill and showing it to her 16-year-old daughter, Tyra, at workshops
organized by the community's cultural department.
Oblin Cooper is in her second year of attending the workshops
at the cultural village by the Waswanipi River, an area where people
from the community go to practise their culture.
"That there is a place where we can learn, that there are teachers
here I really appreciate the opportunity," she said.
This year, for the first time, the workshops were so popular
that there were often lineups for the workstations, said Oblin Cooper.
On one day in mid-March there were dozens of people working
on different parts of the 22 stages of moosehide preparation
skinning, separating the fur from the hide, scraping a frozen hide
outside, and soaking the hide in a mixture of boiling water, dish
detergent and oatmeal.
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Rhonda
Oblin Cooper's daughter, Tyra, learns how to prepare moosehide.
(Submitted by Rhonda Oblin Cooper)
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"Every year there are more people coming," said Mary Ann Kitchen
Otter, who ran the workshops this year. "They want to know how to
do moosehide."
Kitchen Otter said she learned the skill 10 years ago from an
elder named Christine Saganash, so she could "pass it on to other
people."
Diane Cooper, the cultural programs co-ordinator for Waswanipi,
said she's noticed a trend in people learning these practices.
New exhibit showcases importance of walking in Cree culture
There's been "an awakening of people picking up hands-on work with
Cree cultural skills," said Cooper. "I notice there is a lot of
transference of knowledge through teachings and hands-on work."
Cooper has been in her position for 19 years. But when her department
first started with a snowshoe-making workshop, there were only two
people who attended and no available moosehide to finish them, she
said.
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Diane
Cooper, the cultural programs co-ordinator for Waswanipi,
said she has noticed a trend in people learning cultural practices.
(Susan Bell/CBC)
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When Cooper introduced the moosehide preparation workshop three
years ago, her department was trying to show how "everything is
interlinked," she said.
"Last summer we noticed it had built momentum because a lot
of moosehide preparers had passed on," said Cooper. "Their daughters
were left with missing techniques."
She added she is proud to see how much interest there is in
relearning the skill.
"I'm proud to be who we are," said Cooper, who has dreams of
doing something similar on a regional level. "I understand the greater
picture. A greater awakening of our people."
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