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Widening the Story - Artifact 3

Traditions, Language, and Culture

Context

Janet Sofea and her daughter Martha Beaver made the Ojibwe beaded gloves, in the photographs below. specifically for Mona Stonefish as a commissioned gift to honour her knowledge and wisdom. The gloves are an active reminder that agents of colonial eugenics were not successful in their efforts to eliminate the ᐃᔑᑭᔐᐧᐃᐧᐣ, ᐃᓇᑎᓯᐃᐧᐣ, ᒥᓇ ᑫᑌ ᐃᔑᒋᑫᐃᐧᓇᐣ (language, culture, and traditions) of ᓂᑕᐠ ᐊᐃᐧᔭᐠ (Original Peoples).

Janet Sofea is from ᓀᐡᑲᑕᑲ ᐊᓂᔑᓂᓂᐃᐧ ᑕᓇᐱᐃᐧᐣ (Neskantaga First Nation), Ontario (formerly known as Landsdowne House). Her first language is ᐊᓂᔑᓇᐯᒧᐃᐧᐣ (Anishinaabemowin). Sofea lived along the trap lines until she was 12 years old. Then she was sent to Moose Factory Island Indian Residential School. Sofea continues to trap today.

The gloves are made with deer hide, ᐊᒥᐠ (beaver) fur, and beads. Each has important meaning and significance.

ᐊᒥᐠ (beaver) plays a large part in preserving the water. And that’s who used to clear our water and clear the streams for us to make the water, make sure that the water is flowing, you know, cleaning it as it goes. Here, they had a ᐊᒥᐠ (beaver) cull and all the ᐊᒥᐠ (beaver) were gone. And now the farmers are complaining that they’re back. They don’t realize the importance of the ᐊᒥᐠ (beaver). So, on these gloves there is beaver fur because they play such a big part in keeping the water pure for us. And the flowers that are on here are clearly Woodland flowers that were here thousands of years before we were here. So we give ᓇᓇᑯᒧᐃᐧᐣ (thanksgiving) for these things as well. It is my dream that we never forget who we are as a people. We have always contributed to the universe, and we still contribute today.

Agents of the Indian Residential Schools tried to take away our language and traditions as part of a strategy to take our land. But they were not successful. White settler approaches to child development and care try to teach our kids to be ashamed of themselves. It is our obligation to keep our language and traditions alive. We have the gift of our own culture. And Traditional Knowledge is passed on through our language. There is much work to be done to retain our language. We need teachers to speak our language. ~ Mona Stonefish