Fall harvest another success for Seven Generations

Corn soup, popped wild rice, bannock and labrador tea were on the menu at Seven Generations Education Institute’s fall harvest in Thunder Bay.
“I’ve got wild rice soup inside (for the volunteers),” said Mark Sault, director of Seven Generations’ Post Secondary Student Support Program. “I might bring that out this afternoon (for the students) if they don’t eat it up at lunch.”
Originally from Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation in southern Ontario, Sault also made corn soup with 10 to 15-year-old dried corn during the fall harvest, which was held from Sept. 25-27 at the Fort William Historical Park in Thunder Bay.
“It will last pretty much forever once it’s dried,” Sault said. “Just like wild rice, it’ll last forever too once it’s dried.”
More than 600 elementary and high school students attended the fall harvest, where they learned about a variety of traditional activities, including storytelling, drum teachings, fishnet making, wild rice preparation, fish preparation, bird preparation, medicines and teas, hide preparation, moccasin making, traditional foods and traditional crafts.
Eabametoong Elder Felicia Waboose noticed the students are becoming more interested over the three years she has been helping with the fall harvest.
“Some kids will say I was here last year,” Waboose said. “Where’s your partridge, where’s your mallard.”
Waboose taught the students about the different parts of game birds and how they were traditionally prepared.
“For example, when you bagged up what you cleaned, there were no Ziploc bags,” Waboose said. “Instead of Rubbermaid containers, birch bark baskets were used mostly.”
Couchiching Elder Willie Yerxa has been helping out with the Thunder Bay fall harvest for the past four years and the Fort Frances fall harvest for about 15 years.
“I enjoy sharing with the kids the little bit that I know,” Yerxa said. “They are becoming very knowledgeable of how to process it all through the different stages.”
Yerxa received his knowledge of wild rice processing from his parents when he was “very young.”
“They passed it on to me and I’m trying to pass it on to the kids,” Yerxa said. “They’re listening; they’re learning.”
Pic River’s Nathaniel Moses taught the students about traditional drums and songs.
“We’re trying to show our children the understanding of who we are as Anishinabe,” Moses said. “We’re trying to share that we are all good people, no matter if we’re green, purple or pink. We’re all one and we’re all community.”
Ecole Gron Morgan vice-principal Darren Lentz taught the students about snowshoe weaving, the history of snowshoes and the different types of snowshoes.
“I learned from an Elder from Ogoki Post, Gilbert Baxter,” Lentz said. “He passed on that knowledge and it’s nice to be able to pass that on to kids.”
Lentz said the fall harvest provides students with an opportunity to experience a variety of traditional activities “hands on”.
“It’s getting to see people doing it live right in front of them and getting to experience, you know, taste the food, try out burning the feathers off the goose, weaving a snowshoe,” Lentz said. “It’s authentic and they get to do it. Then they can take it back and read and write about it in the classroom.”