UNDER THE NORTHERN SKY – Where I Come From – Omushkegowuk Aski

By Xavier Kataquapit www.underthenorthernsky.com Attawapiskat First Nation is my home community, and it was where I was born and raised with my family. When I think about where I grew up, I feel like I came from some different country or part of the world that is not part of Canada at all. It was so different to everything I later learned about that was outside my home community. My first language is Inineemoon, or as its known in the English language as ‘Cree’. We never referred to ourselves as ‘Cree’. That was a descriptor that was applied to us by European cultures. We knew ourselves and our people as Ininew, our word for ‘people’ and our language as ‘Inineemoon’, which translates as ‘language of the people’. The language that…

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