Missinaibi Lake

Overview

An elder's memories of travelling Missinaibi Lake by canoe with family, and the balance and gratitude the lake taught.

About this video

When you speak about Missinaibi Lake, you're talking about memory and family as much as water and trees. This story, shared on behalf of Lucy Tangie, remembers travelling the lake by canoe, reading the wind and the water, and a life of trapping that taught patience and responsibility.

The lake taught that survival and respect go together. Protecting it, she says, protects young people's chance to keep learning the land through travel and tradition.

Transcript

Now I'm going to share a story on behalf of Lucy Tangie, one of our elders within the community. Hello, I'm an elder from Brunswick House First Nation. I'm thankful for the chance to share these words here today about Missinaibi Lake. Because when you speak about that place, you're not only talking about water and trees, you're talking about memory, family, and how life was taught.

Missinaibi Lake has a way of staying with you when you're there. You can feel how the land holds history. It reminds you of the days when people traveled with patience, when they listened to the weather, and when they respected the animals because they depended on them. I remember a time back in the day when we traveled by canoe with family.

It wasn't just a trip to get from one place to another. It was a part of how you live when you grow up connected to the land. We prepared the way we always did, knowing the lake would be the road, knowing the water would decide how the journey felt.

You watched for signs, you watched the wind, and you watched the surface of the water. You paid attention because attention keeps you safe. It also keeps you respectful. On that trip, we weren't rushing to finish. We were learning, we were noticing.

You learn so much when you travel slowly enough to listen. And in those days, trapping and living traditionally was more than work. It was living. It taught responsibility. You learn to set things carefully. You learn that every action has meaning.

You learn patience because the land doesn't rush, and you can't control it. Trapping teaches discipline and respect. You provide for your family, but you also understand the balance. You understand that the land has to keep living. If you take without respect, it doesn't only affect one season, it affects the next season, too.

Missinaibi Lake taught us balance. It taught us gratitude. It taught us that survival and respect go together. Today, we still need to protect the places where these teachings happened. Missinaibi Lake is one of those places. Protecting it means more than history.

It means protecting the ability for young people to keep learning the land through experience, through travel, and through tradition, and through respectful living. Miigwech.