The traditional spring goose hunt season is more than just hunting, says Mushkegowuk Council’s youth director.
It's about coming together and forging family bonds, and the council's youth department is looking to document these experiences in its upcoming book.
When the COVID-19 pandemic started, the youth department was looking for ways to stay engaged with local communities, said youth director Rex Knapaysweet.
As many Cree families get out into the land and stay at camps for a few weeks during the spring goose season, the department came up with an idea of collecting stories and experiences of the young Cree people camping and harvesting geese in James Bay coast area.
“We know there are a lot of stories to be told, so we’re hoping to capture and share those stories,” Knapaysweet said. “Who better to tell these stories than the kids, the hunters themselves?”
“It’s more than hunting the geese. It’s all about family dynamics and being together as a family unit and strengthening that bond."
Participants aged six to 29 are welcome to send their stories and they will receive a $25 honorarium.
Entries can be submitted as a story, a poem, a drawing, a photo or in any other format that can express participants’ experiences. Submissions can be about their first goose kill or favourite hunting or camping memories.
The department has received about 10 submissions so far and is looking to have from 10 to 20 stories in total.
The ultimate goal is to publish a book before the school year starts in September and send it to local and coastal schools and libraries as a way to showcase the rich history and traditions of the Cree people in the area. The department is also planning to have something available online.
“The whole idea is to capture the fun experiences, exciting, dramatic, some of the scary stories,” Knapaysweet said. “The stories you hear around the campfire but it’ll be more based around the spring harvest of Canadian geese for the Cree people.”
“There are so many stories to be told and that’s one of the reasons we’re doing this project is because we want to capture these stories and we want to share those stories,” he said. “And (we're) hoping that people really enjoy them as well.”
