Healing the wounds of school by returning to the land: Cree elders come to the rescue of a lost generation

Abstract

How can indigenous peoples react to a situation of change that has a particularly strong effect on their youth? This article attempts to understand whether young Crees, who today find themselves all too often in a situation of double social exclusion, can complete their schooling, thus qualifying for work in the dominant society, while at the same time gaining command of the knowledge and know‐how of their own society. Among the James Bay Cree Indians, some elders welcome youngsters after a period of delinquency and who are having problems into their hunting camps, and by initiating them to life “on the land” succeed in restoring their relationship with the world. This exemplary experience makes it possible to imagine solutions for helping indigenous youth fully to benefit from the two worlds in which they have roots. The elders, by inventing a healing process based on an initiation to the natural and cultural environment, offer a modern‐day shamanism.

Social-ecological resilience in indigenous coastal edge contexts

“…Indeed many interactions at these sites of encounter have been negative, mixed, and/or difficult to fully assess; the degradation of Cree lands and loss of tradition linked to the James Bay hydroelectric project and the experience of the Residential School system being the most widely documented of these (Niezen 1993, Roué 2006, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada 2012. Until recently, occupational and leadership roles have been grounded in life lived on the land with the greatest threat to Cree values and way of life coming "in the form of unparalleled pressures and inducements towards urbanized standards and styles of living" (Helm et al 1981:157).…”

Recherche-action participative et collaborative autochtone

“…Ces routes et produits permettent de croiser une entité géographique (la côte de la baie James), un territoire ancestral (Eeyou Istchee), des thématiques (la culture et les modes de vie cris des neuf Premières Nations) et une histoire (les accords de Les routes touristiques créées dans ces ateliers reprennent des chemins et des itinéraires traditionnels utilisés dans le passé pour le commerce des fourrures, la visite itinérante des familles et des amis en canoë ou à pied, et aujourd'hui pour les pèlerinages et expéditions en raquette et en canoë organisés chaque année pour des motifs de guérison 3 et de réhabilitation des jeunes en diffi culté (Roué, 2006). D'autres routes relient les lieux de fêtes, festivals et cérémonies traditionnelles comme les pow-wow et les lieux de fabrication d'objets d'art et d'artisanat.…”

Sami Place Names and Maps: Transmitting Knowledge of a Cultural Landscape in Contemporary Contexts

“…Others described it as a verb meaning to explain a process, step by step, like explaining a recipe without a book. It can be used to explain a path to someone, as the narrator re-enacts an itinerary, revealing a series of landmarks that the listener would have to follow: The same approach involving elders and apprentice travelers has been observed among other indigenous peoples, notably the Cree Indians in Canada (Roué, 2006) and the Inuit (Aporta and Higgs, 2005).…”