Fall harvests on the horizon

Metis jigging and wild goose roasting are two new activities at Seven Generations Education Institute’s Thunder Bay Fall Harvest Celebration.
“They’re going to show and demonstrate jigging,” said Mark Sault, director of Seven Generation’s Post Secondary Student Support Program. “And they’re going to get the students to do a few steps.”
Sault said the wild goose is going to be roasted over an open fire.
“I’m going to try to have someone cooking the geese over the fire, you know how they twirl them on a string,” Sault said. “The only problem this year is we are not allowed to serve the students any wild meat or game.”
The Thunder Bay fall harvest is scheduled for Sept. 25-27 at the Fort William Historical Park while the Fort Frances fall harvest is scheduled for Oct. 2-4 at the Nanicost Complex.
“This is our seventh one in Thunder Bay and we’ve been doing them in the Fort Frances area for over 20 years,” Sault said. “We’ve gone to two streams so we accommodate more students (in Thunder Bay). We try to limit it to 600 students a day from the school boards, from Grade 5 and up. We have limits of 30 students per class.”
Sault is planning to set up two stations for bannock making this year, one for fry bread and one for bannock on a stick.
“And we have jam making,” Sault said. “We’re going to have blueberry jam, wild cranberries and some strawberries and raspberries.”
Storytelling, drum teachings, fishnet making, wild rice preparation, fish preparation, bird preparation, medicines and teas, hide preparation, moccasin making, traditional foods and traditional crafts are among the other activities at the Thunder Bay fall harvest.
“And we have one we call the interactive booth, where a guy will be making snowshoes,” Sault said. “The (Fort William Historical Park) is involved with that one as well. They have some of their hides out there.”
Sault said the Fort Frances fall harvest is smaller than the Thunder Bay fall harvest with about 200-300 students per day and about 10 stations.
“The students zip through the stations in the morning,” Sault said. “They all have their own fire pit and fry pans and pots, so they get to cook their own lunch.”
Sault said the bannock making station is the most popular activity at the Fort Frances fall harvest.
“After the guys get the fish cleaned, they’ll start cooking the fish for up some samples,” Sault said. “And they’ll usually pop some wild rice. And if they have some deer or moose meat, they’ll fry up some of that.”
Sault said the goal is to pass on some of the traditions to students.
“This is a lost art, especially in the city here,” Sault said. “A lot of the students, not just the students but the adults too, have never seen this stuff and they don’t know how to
do it. So they get hands on and learn how.”
In addition to the two Seven Generation fall harvest gatherings, Sault also organizes fall harvest gatherings for Lakehead University and William W. Creighton Youth Services in Thunder Bay.