Sharing, learning and healing a big part of Pays Plat cultural week

By Rick Garrick

PAYS PLAT FIRST NATION – A residential school sharing circle was one of the highlights during this year’s Pays Plat Cultural Week, held July 20-24 in the Robinson Superior community.
“We had a group of people who did a sharing circle,” says Pays Plat Councillor Raymond Goodchild. “We all learned why they tried to assimilate us and … all of the abuse that occurred there. It was very healing and very cleansing. A lot of young people, myself included, poured tears to understand the hurt that occurred, the abuses that occurred in residential school, like sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse.”
The Cultural Week also included sharing circles every morning; teaching circles such as Reduced Family Violence and Drumming Teachings; Elders’ stories about the Robinson Superior community’s history; and boat rides on Lake Superior to Battle Island.
“Boat rides are spiritual,” Goodchild says. “Once you get on the water, water has healing medicine. It relieves us, relaxes us, drains all of the tension out of us.”
A group of about 15 youth travelled from Thunder Bay to participate in the Cultural Week’s youth camp. Pays Plat is located about 180 kilometres east of Thunder Bay.
“It went great,” says Cheyenne Gray, cultural week organizer. “We had some people come in and do workshops about traditional teachings of the drum. We had sweat lodges two times during the week — a lot of people attended those and they really liked that a lot.”
Gray says invitations to attend were sent out to all of the communities in the surrounding area.
Sierra Nowegejick, from Thunder Bay, and Nelson Kakegamic, from Slate Falls, enjoyed learning about their culture during the five-day event.
“It was awesome,” Nowegejick says. “I learned a lot about my culture and I’m totally confident in practicing my culture.”
Kakegamic enjoyed participating in the sweat lodge.
“It was my first time in the sweat lodge and I really found it empowering,” Kakegamic says. “I felt amazed when I walked out (about) how those people were singing in there. It was dark and I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear the people singing.”
Ron Kanutski, a Red Rock Indian Band citizen, enjoyed interacting with the youth and sharing some of the traditional knowledge passed on to him.
“I actually got to reconnect with myself a little bit and think about what is more important in my life right now,” Kanutski says. “I sat in circles, I sat in a health fair and I am sharing teachings this afternoon.”
Goodchild enjoyed singing songs and talking about the drum during the Drum Teachings session.
“We talked about how it heals — there are some healing songs in there,” says Pays Plat Councillor Raymond Goodchild. “And then we had the participants participate on the drum.”
Gray plans to make next year’s Cultural Week bigger and better.
“We’re going to start looking to book more entertainment,” Gray says.
After the Cultural Week activities ended, Pays Plat held its annual Pawgwasheeng Pow-Wow from July 24-26.