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what you're doing this would you could you say something about the matching one we're doing it right now
take care of things to respect things
and one of the biggest teachings from the match one is if you respect the environment around you you respect yourself and once you respect yourself you respect the environment
it's not like that that much nowadays
we forgot
we forgot to respect ourselves
so it's one of the biggest teachings that we can do is go to land and the match one is always going to be there
even I know it
the match one is all about balance
it's about it's not about you
it's not about you and I
that's what the match one is
it's about everything around us
and it's not something you can learn overnight to you
it's all about patience as well
taking time to tend things
if it takes longer than usual than you would
patience is a crazy thing to do about the match one you can't rush things
it's like these trees are around us
it's like we're moving on to something
it's one of the things that the world has always taught us over time
things will go their way
you know it's like skutille
skutille it can't start on itself
it always has to be something
you and I are that same thing
it's like a child
you take care of a child eventually that child will take care of you
the first thing that we did after we agreed that we wanted to work together
when I got to his home in Little Red
he took me out on the land
we drove as far as we could get
in his big 4x4 truck
and then we walked for a couple hours
and we got up actually onto a high point
there's a height of land there at Tekwachi
the Karabu Mountains
quite culturally significant
ecologically significant zone
and you can see it's an area in the Borough Forest where you get height of land
you can look out and you can see quite far
the shape of the land
and he said this here
this is why you've come
this is what we're doing here
this is the work
this space
and I want to introduce you to her
he spoke in that way
and that kind of like this is the person that you're meeting
he's literally brought me to meet this family member
and as the months unfolded
I learned that the name of this family member
was Kimamano, our mother
and in that time
I also witnessed Konroy's work
become increasingly
engaged with industry
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we're here in Little Red River
with Konroy Swapegaham and Willard Talkry
and myself, Davide Lertzman
and we're sitting down together
and we have a conversation about Pimacahun
and the main thing is
just to introduce that
and hear what people have to say about the meaning of that word
and take it from there
so thank you so much for coming
and yeah, so what does Pimacahun mean?
well for myself, Pimacahun is basically
living off the land
and all the stuff that the land has to offer
for not only first nations people
but for humanity as a whole
there's different ways of Pimacahun
I look at it as the holistic way of Pimacahun
the physical, the mental, the emotional
and the spiritual way of life
I can only talk about it as the first nations perspective
my name is Willard Talkry
I was born here in Little Red River
my father, he was an expert busman
he lived off the land
and for him he passed all the teachings on to myself
as much as he could, living off the land
Pimacahun, that's my understanding of that
yeah, thank you
anything you'd like to add?
just to add a few things with Pimacahun
Pimacahun is more above, beyond the self-class culture
the classes in terms of, you know
when he speaks about spirituality
it goes beyond that
it's just the tip of the iceberg
when he talks about the cultural teachings
even that is the tip of an iceberg
when we talk about each class of what Pimacahun means
within this context, within the round of staple
I think it would take eons
just to understand what it means
and let alone not just understanding it
but living it
there are just two different things that
a lot of non-indigenous cultures need to understand
when we talk about the holistic way of living
or the spiritualistic of spiritualism within
well, for example, a tree
it means more than that
it means that being indigenous
or being First Nation
we don't necessarily just go out there
and cut everything down for the sake of cutting it down
it has more deeper meaning
if we're getting poles for in-meat rack
there are stories associated with the meat rack
there's a story of how that moose was hunted
and how our fathers went to Gooskinda moose
and what happened
is that we created micro-stories that tell
the whole being of this whole moose
is then tells a whole story
it's like a film in itself
so every time we do go out hunting it's beyond that
we're thirsty for that experience
it brings back the memories
it brings back the stories
and brings us more of a total being
of being First Nation
it helps us seize this whole picture
of this grand scheme of things
like we're just a little piece of the picture
but knowing that even though we're just a tiny speck in the universe
we get to see everything that comes into play
so with Willer's experience there
he can tell the story
and he can tell it in such a way that he can tell you
each footstep, he can tell you what it means
it's like, oh, well, my dad did this
and why did he do that?
it's like, well, because you know, based on the moose
and it's supposed to be with our duck hunting stories
when we go out hunting, we don't just go out hunting
for the sake of killing the ducks
it means more than that, it means to live
but being out there in the field with them
for me personally, it's like, well, we're writing our own films
and every given year
I'm always excited to come by spring
we send Willer's text messages, give him calls
it's almost duck hunting, right?
it's beyond that
we always bring a lot of youth
we try and teach them as much as we can
I think last fall or a couple of falls ago
we had some youth there having their iPods
and put that away here
it's more than that
but yeah, Bimatchewin for us is
not just for the sake of doing it
it's something that we were instilled in
it's within our blood
and it's one of the things that I want Willer to be part of
is because he's a key role in this community for us
he's trying to help a lot of these community members
bring back what Bimatchewin means
it brings back the way of life
it helps them kind of see the whole picture of things
instead of this narrow view
and Western society has focused us
because everything we're taught in universities
it's not really as diverse
it's one topic at a time
focus on this, focus on that
what Bimatchewin is like, well
we look at the whole kind of aspect of it
and see, okay, well
this is what it means
it's not just a cup of tea
it's a multitude of cup of teas
that's what Bimatchewin for me means
and for when you go down the road
and interview more people
what Bimatchewin means, it's diversified
some of them might focus on more spirituality
some might focus on more hunting
or fishing
and this is why, like I said
if people were to look at Bimatchewin
it would take eons because
Bimatchewin is diverse
and it involves within families
as Bimatchewin concepts
will be different than my Bimatchewin concepts
so having a diverse group
come to the table and speak
about Bimatchewin is what gives you
a little window of opportunity to see
it's like, wow, it's beyond that
it's a multiverse
of spiritualism
a multiverse of languages
of teachings, of customs
a multiverse that will take
like I said, eons for you to
go through the whole text
you know, we have a Bible
we have a library
that teaches us
what it means for us to be in India
or what it means to be
in the hero in the woods
so if what I'm hearing correctly is
the school of Bimatchewin
starts pretty young
and the university
is
out there
it makes me wonder
what does it mean for people that
what do you do with someone
because I'm sure in your work
you encounter young people
who may not have had the same experience
that you do
or others who may not have had
the same experience that you do
or others who are even maybe older
so how do you
how do you introduce something like that
to people that weren't as fortunate
as yourself to have that experience
yeah
so I think
times have changed now
considerably a lot
whereas back in my
in my youth
in Little Red River
especially John Rohr
with the technologies and stuff
right there we didn't have
too much
things were still pretty simple
so
all the teachings were still there
and I think they still are
I can't say that we're losing them
but the teachings aren't passed on
as much as how they used to be
in the past
so a lot of the parents
the grandfathers
the grandmothers
and dads
they had passed on all these teachings
but now with the time
how the times have changed
a lot of people aren't doing the stuff
how they used to live off the land
as much as they are now
so now the youth aren't getting taught
all the stuff
of living off the land
all the simple stuff
as how I was brought up
and probably Connery as well
so now it's up to us
to pass on
those teachings to our youth
some of the youth
they're not as fortunate
maybe they don't have the teachers
that have them for their upbringing
so that's where I think
it's up to the people
that have that knowledge to
sit down with the youth
and pass on the knowledge to them
not only those teachers
but people that are
in Connery's position
or any other
people that have a position
to pass on any knowledge to the youth
such as
youth workers in communities
or myself
I'm a native worker
and one of my beliefs
as a native worker
is
where our true healing comes from
is living off the land
and the teachings that were passed on to us
from the creator
the grandmothers, the grandfathers
the teachings off the land
that's Mother Earth
all those teachings
we have so many issues in our communities
that affect us in different ways
the addictions
and what are
you know
why do people drink
because there are unresolved issues there
so that I believe
that those addictions
why people drink
those
the residential school era
the intergenerational trauma
the colonialism
so
saying that
before those things
the first nations people how I see it
they had all those teachings
they had the core parenting skills
they were taught
the ways of the land
the simple teachings
the values, the morals
the issues that played us before
you know and then when the residential school era
came
and then
how it affected those
first nations, the kids right
they were greatly impacted
because
I'm not too sure if you're aware of the residential school
but
they put forth
on the
kids some very bad teachings
they didn't
the kids weren't nurtured because
how I see this was they were
taken away from their
biological parents
and placed into these
schools and
they weren't taught too many good things
they were abused physically
mentally, emotionally
sexually and
as a kid you know
a lot of times too they were told
not to say anything too right
they couldn't
really heal from that
and they carried all those things
and some of them even passed away
because they had unresolved issues there
so as they
progressed into being youth
and adults
well they didn't have the teachings as
maybe their mothers
or fathers or grandparents
that weren't in residential school right
so they were
so they didn't have those teachings
to their kids as well so they had all these
negative things affecting them
and as they grew
older
they
they weren't
how can I say this
they weren't really
productive
citizens I guess I can say
so the land is really
the place where
yeah and that's where
living off the land
is where our true healing
comes from we got to get back
to living off the land
the teachings and
utilize all the
stuff that we have with
the new technologies
making everything
easier what I
hearing here also is some
hopefulness as well
that even for people
that maybe didn't have
that opportunity or may have
literally had them
had it beat out of them
there's still an opportunity
because the land is still here
and that's where that comes from
so even for someone who didn't
grow up with it there's a chance is that
what I'm hearing
yeah well
like what I was saying
we have competing technologies
we have competing self interest
like if there's a
17 year old youth there
and you know a lot of these elders
and a lot of these teachers are always competing
with social media or competing
with these different other
social media interests
or maybe we're competing with Facebook
maybe we're competing with Twitter
maybe we're competing with an Xbox or a PlayStation
you know it's hard
it's hard to compete with that when something's very
very engaging it's very up front
you know a lot of those
social media as they invoke
reaction they invoke emotion
with our teachings
you know it's settle
or you know if it's walking down
down to the wooden you'll boil
wood forest or
you know tracking down a game animals
it's soothing
it's totally opposite
of what a lot of the youth are now
engaged in their activities as being engaged on
you know it's not
right in your face here's a frag
you have instant reaction right
with our teachings it's
calm it's soothing it's
but be ethic slow
you know it's like steeping your tea
you know you don't rush it
because it's not going to taste good
it's like that our teaching is
when it's steep nice and slow
it takes time
it takes time
so when you ask how can we teach that
to non-indigenous folks or
even with our people that are not
you know not we're able to
granted that type of teaching
so how do we do that and really at the
end of the day we have to teach them
patience
you know it's not like
you don't get an instant reaction
you're not going to get instant gratifications if you go
walking the land and say here it is
you're not going to come out there and say wow
I'm changed you have to
do it repeatedly you got to do it over the years
it's slow healing
and you know
and without slow healing
it's not really true healing.
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