A marriage made in Attawapiskat

I was happy to hear recently that my little niece Rita Shisheesh married her childhood sweetheart, Trevor Koostachin. Rita was always an angel and the first grandchild in our family. She had these big friendly almond eyes and her smile was infectious. She was fussed over for at least two years before the next baby in the family arrived.
Rita’s mom (my sister Jackie) and her dad Clarence always made sure education was at the forefront of her life. She was bright, eager to learn and she also picked up a lot of knowledge from my mom, her grandmother Susan. When I think of Trevor, I think of Rita because they always seemed to be together from an early age. They make a good couple because Trevor is a very bright and hard working young man.
Thinking about weddings in my family reminds me of the story related to my grandmother Louise Paulmartin. Life was not so easy way back then. She was born in 1916 on the shores of Hawley Lake in what is now Polar Bear Provincial Park. Her father John Chookomolin had been taken by the Canadian Armed Forces in 1917 to take part in the First World War in Europe. He was one of many from that area of James Bay that the army swept up for the war. Her father never returned and there was no news of him for many decades.
It ended up that he had died soon after arriving in England and was buried there near the city of London. My grandmother’s mother Maggie ended up marrying Jacob Edwards.
A couple of years later, Maggie passed away and my grandmother Louise was left with only her stepfather. Tragically, he passed away shortly after his wife in an accident on Akamiski Island. My grandmother became an orphan and she was passed around with family before ending up in the Catholic run orphanage in Fort Albany. She spent her childhood and early teen years there.
You must remember that life for an orphan in the far north during that time in history was incredibly difficult. These were hard times and few wanted the burden of an extra mouth to feed. When my grandmother Louise was only 16 years old, she was paired by the church with a young Cree man by the name of Xavier Paulmartin. This was done because the church run orphanage had a policy that they had to release a child at 16 years of age.
Can you imagine what my 16 year old grandmother must have gone through? At 16 she was being married off to a total stranger. I recall her telling me that she had nothing but the clothes on her back and a few sewing supplies from the nuns who ran the orphanage.
Then she left with her new husband and headed far out into the wilderness to live on the land on the Nawashi River, on the southern end of Polar Bear Provincial Park. Thankfully my Mooshoom (my grandfather) Xavier and his family were good hard working people who took care of my Kookoom Louise.
I am not sure what the ceremonies were in bringing two people together in our Cree culture before the coming of the missionaries. That history was more or less removed by the European influence. When foreign religions came onto our lands they began to exert control through their beliefs and culture. Marriage was one of the principal factors in these new religions.
The Catholics had control over the northern part of the James Bay coast while the Anglicans were predominate in the southern part of the bay. People were encouraged to get married in a church as part of being good Christians.
Although my Kookoom endured such a hard childhood and had such an unusual marriage arrangement, she had a good life with her husband. They produced a wonderful family.
In a way, my little niece Rita owes everything to the strength and determination of my Kookoom and her Chaban (great-grandmother) Louise. Through her will to survive and a lucky set of circumstances, Rita exists today. So I am feeling strong and proud of the fact that a little orphan struggling in the wilderness has left a very good trail for Rita to follow.
Congratulations to Rita and Trevor for their dedication to love and may their lives be full of joy and harmony.