Skywalk Lecture – Pīsim: Revitalizing and Reclaiming Rocky Cree Culture, Identity and History

Mon. Feb. 5, 2018

On February 14 from noon to 1 p.m., Six Seasons researcher, Kevin Brownlee, will be presenting as part of the Winnipeg Public Library Skywalk Lecture Series in the Carol Shields Auditorium (2nd floor) at the Millennium Library, 251 Donald Street. His presentation, “Pīsim: Revitalizing and Reclaiming Rocky Cree Culture, Identity and History,” will discuss the following:

Archaeology has laid the foundation for a collaborative research project that will help the Asiniskow Ithiniwak (Rocky Cree) in northern Manitoba to reclaim their history by revitalizing their stories of cultural identity. This project’s journey began with the ancestral remains of a woman known today as Kayasochi Kikawenow (Our Mother from Long Ago), found on the shores of Southern Indian Lake in 1992. Her unique tool kit represented a pivotal time in Cree history, just prior to contact with Europeans, a time called the Protocontact. During this period European goods were being traded inland much further than Europeans themselves had moved. In north-central Manitoba during the mid-1600s, stories of Europeans no doubt accompanied the new trade goods. Kayasochi Kikawenow’s tools and remains provided the foundation for our project’s first picture book Pīsim Finds Her Miskanow. We are now expanding on this first book through our new project, “Six Seasons of the Asiniskow Ithiniwak.” This large, seven-year partnership project that will examine the Late Woodland, Protocontact, and early Postcontact periods. The goal of the project is to revitalize and reclaim Rocky Cree culture, identity, and history, and reconnect youth to their heritage by integrating real places, artifacts, and oral history into historical-fiction picture books, educational resources, and exhibits.