Interview #1

Naomi Adelson: Okay Emily, I am going to start by reading the consent form out loud.

Emily Masty: Okay.

Naomi: I have a tape recorder and a video recorder recording. Okay so the consent form says the research being conducted for this project consists of the interviews with Emily M. any published or online results of this project will be co-authored with Ms M as a joint initiative, further the interview process will be discussed with her at every stage at the interactive and engaged ethnographic life history interview process is recorded as part of the data. The research methods include an open-ended questionnaire. The questions and responses will be recorded. Ms. M. can choose to answer the questions in Cree or English. There are no risks to participation. A benefit of participation is that Ms. M. will have a document of her own life history to share, as she wishes with her family. Ms. M. may choose to respond or not respond to any of the questions asked, again without prejudice or penalty. Unless I have clear approval otherwise, Ms. M.'s name will be held in confidence andher anonymity assured. For any questions relating to this research, Ms. M may contact the Office of Research Ethics, York University. The details of this project have been discussed with Ms. M. and this statement has been read aloud to her. So the first question I want to know, is would you consider using your full name and you don't have to answer that now but I'd like to know at some point along the way if you would consider, if you want to use your full name or not?

Emily: Yeah, I would like to. I don't mind using my full name.

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: Because I would like to dedicate this to my grandchildren and future grandchildren.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Since Robert got married recently.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: So.

Naomi: The first thing I do want to talk to you about is the collaborative nature of this project, we've been collaborating for years and I know it’s weird now that we’re talking on tape.

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: But this to me is something that I want to do to help you in this process and I would like for us to think about what it means to do this kind of a life history and how we can record that both in terms of the process, to think about the process what we’re actually physically doing right now and how life histories come about in terms of recording them and then how you would like this to be recorded again we don't have to answer all of the questions right now but I want to propose to you that we consider various forms that's why I'm taking the opportunity to record it on video as well as on tape so that if you want this as some sort of video history we have that as well, as we haven't had it in the past, were recording a life history, so we can do that. There might be other elements that you want included whether you want other stories included or images or something. It doesn't have to be a website, but if you want something that's digital for your grandchildren, or you know just go back to a basic transcription of a story and then make them read it you know, and then have it available for them to read.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: Let’s think about that, as we move forward with this, let’s think about what we are going to do with it together and what I can help you do with it as well, what you imagine it to be and how can I help you bring that forward. Okay.

Emily: Well I don't know if they are not here now.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: (Grandson) Justice is a very good reader.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And I'm sure (grandson) Hunter is. Yeah and the others are just, you know, starting, kind of starting school.

Naomi: So we’re going to have to take one of your stories and turn it into a children's story.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: Just as an idea you know.

Emily: Oh, yeah, yeah, okay.

Naomi: You know as a story comes up you might say that's a story I could do as a separate video for the kids, you could do it in Cree for them right into the camera, if something comes up that emerges that you think this is what I really want to have for the grandchildren to have to think about, or to have let’s do it because this is a chance that we have here.

Emily: Yeah, I don't know how it will come up, but I don't know; I’m not thinking of telling old legends.

Naomi: No, no, stories about yourself.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: Yeah but if you decided there's a story I really want to tell but wait hold on, let’s switch this and just tell that story, why not? Let’s take that opportunity, if we have it, let’s just take the opportunity, okay?

Emily: Alright.

Naomi: So think about it and at any time during these sort of more formal lists of questions, just stop and say yeah but I want to talk about this or let’s think about that, don't be afraid, this is completely open, you know?

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: And it’s ours, so you can stop and say “I don't like that question; I’d rather that it be asked this way,” so even the questions that I have are not set in that you can say “yeah, great question but I'm not going to answer that one, I want to answer this question instead, here's the question and here's how I'm going to answer it.” Okay and obviously tell me when you’re tired, when you want a drink, a break, anything.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: And let’s just take as long or as short as you want, just let me know. Okay?

Emily: All right.

Naomi: So, I’m not sure if this is really the beginning, I don't know if you want to start, I don't know, the question on the page says, when and where were you born? For me that's not the beginning, for you what's the beginning of your life story?

Emily: Yeah, well since you approached me on that or since we talked about it, this project, l have been trying to recall, you know my early years and I might recall more, I'll just have whatever comes out.

Naomi: Sure.

Emily: And I also feel that some stories will include the people that probably some I can’t name but I don't know if, I don't think my children or their generation can only or probably won’t be able to deduce who I'm talking about and impossible because just recently I was, within the last 3 months, I was thinking of this childhood thing, that you know I don't know, it didn't happen to me but that I don't even know but that I saw and that really affected me and is still haunting me in a way, you know.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: It must have been, I mean that I had forgotten it over many years now that I am kind of retired from my job.

Naomi: Yeah, on long term disability.

Emily: Yeah on long term disability for now and I have time to think of things that come out that I thought of and that had been if not thought about or suppressed, I don't think I suppressed anything it just weren't, I just didn't have time to think about them before, I don't think I have anything suppressed. I remember, like you said, most dramatic things, it’s mostly dramatic things that I remember right and to me in my life it won’t be dramatic with other people you know, but to me.

Naomi: Yeah, yeah.

Emily: So, okay, I don't know what that was. (Laughter)

Naomi: An introduction - you were saying that there was a story that had come to mind because I was asking what for you is the beginning, so.

Emily: So, I don't know if in this I’ve been trying to recount my sense, my genealogy.

Naomi: Yeah yeah.

Emily: For myself, I was born in 1949, November 11.Well ah, this was when I was a teenager, I saw my fathers’ ah writing, the years we were born.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: The years we were born, but the government says I was born November 24 and I changed that from what I saw, because just the numbers that he wrote in his bible and I knew what it was, George 1952 and I was 1949, 11. That's when you were born but I changed that to November 11. So not recently, in my teenage years and I worked with that you know, my permanent birth card says November 11, 1949. But, ah, I think my birth record says November 24th but all my life I was born November to me, you know? November 11.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And my parents were Ann Sheshamush, she was born in 1928. My father was Samson Masty, born 1920. And he passed away on August ‘89, August 16, ‘89 and my mother just passed recently, last year on July 17, which was what, 11?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah, 2011. She lived 22 years after my dad and um I remember that because of Jonathan you know; he's 22 years old and he was born in '89 and as far as I know my great grandparents and my great grandoarents were David Sheshamush and Mary Mamianskum, these were my grandparents.Now I'm working with my great great grandparents. And I know my great grandfather on my mother’s mother’s side, was called, somebody said his name was also David and that his Cree name was Gabowb’stowchiibii, Gabowb’stowchiibii and I was thinking what, what does that mean Gabowb’stowchiibii? and one of and I asked Susan Kawapit, who I took her stories to and said what does that mean? and it means that his, (s)he said that it was referred to his clothing. especially his pants, where I don't know it was in folds, Gabowb’stowchiibii, like he when walked, I guess he had such a big pants that it kind of flopped around and it was you know when you sit down, I guess, I don't know what kind of material he had, what was his pants made out of, maybe some kind of to me, I don't know. I don't know.

Naomi: Was it flannel or something?

Emily: Yeah something like that. Like ah, some kind of, ah, felt.

Naomi: Felt?

Emily: Felt, feeling material like for pants.

Naomi: Yeah, yeah.

Emily: And so when you would sit down, you know they always sit down on their knees. Feet and you know.

Naomi: It would bunch up or?

Emily: Yeah they would bunch up. And then when he would get up you would see all the creases, so anyway that was that nothing, nothing major. Ahhh, so they, you know, they gave names to people as they, as they ahh, as they fit, you know.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And they had nicknames and stuff and…

Naomi: So is that your father's father?

Emily: No that was my mother's, that was my mother's father's father.

Naomi: Father's father, okay. Great, great.

Emily: Yeah. And then, just recently I found out Gabowb’stowchiibii’s father was called Gowchii’mano, you know a chii’man, meaning a ship owner.

Naomi: Ship owner.

Emily: Or a boat owner.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: You know a chii’man.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah, Gowchii’mano, so and I was trying to recount how many years is that, those generations back, I give you, I give ah 60 years for each but they lived long time in the past too.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But I don't know which grandmother was that but this will be all you know,try to do more research on that myself as I've been doing that to my ancestry.

Naomi: Hmmm, Okay.

Emily: And, what's that, on my mother's side, her mother was Mary Mamianskum like I said, I don't know...his father, his mother was married, Mamianskum

Naomi: Umm...

Emily: And Mary Mamianskum’s father I don't know; I don't know if it’s Johnny or John.

Naomi: Mmmmhmmm...

Emily: And there I will, you know, further look for that, I'll ask of the, maybe, Abraham?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I know I have it somewhere but I can't recall right now.

Naomi: Hmmm ...

Emily: So ahhh, that's my ahhh, ancestry, my father, my father's father was Sam Masty.

Naomi: Uh hummm.

Emily: And Sam was, was adopted into the Masty family.

Naomi: Ohhhh.

Emily: When he was two years old.

Naomi: Ohhh.

Emily: And his father came from Chisasibi.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And he married a Great Whale woman.

Naomi: Uh hum.

Emily: Her name was Mina who was the mother, Mina's mother was, Piyaashiish’iskwaau, Bird Women.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But I don't know her English name, that ahh, I'll try to get it straight after.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: That's, that's, that's what I know so far and.

Naomi: Are you asking people for this information?

Emily: Yes, I'm asking people for this information and recently more like within the last twenty years, I have a thing in my throat...

Naomi: Do you want some water?

Emily: (Coughing) Yep. I had it here.

Naomi: There's no water there.

Emily: Nothing here?

Naomi: Nope.

Emily: There's some on the table.

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: Cough, cough.

Naomi: Do you want the bottle?

Emily: (Coughing) Yes. Sorry. Most recently maybe in the last fifteen years.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I found out that my, ‘because my mother use to say, that her aunt, Nancy had a very, I don’t know, when you say ushaau, meaning yellow fair? hair?

Naomi: ummhnun.

Emily: Yellow hair. Yellow hair and I would ask her where did she ah get her Yellow Hair and she said, Oh my grandfather married a women from, from Moose Factory.

Naomi: Uhmmrn.

Emily: Whose ancestry was you know maybe half English or white you know?

Naomi: Yeah, Yeah.

Emily: And ahhh, that's how she would, what she would say, where that, where she got her white hair, I mean yellow hair (laughing).

Naomi: Yellow hair, yeah?

Emily: l'm thinking of her ‘because she had white hair and I'm just thinking and ahhh some of those ancestors of that family, my family, you know, not necessarily my family. Elizabeth has you know brownish hair, right?

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: Dark brown hair and that's about it. And… uhhhh - where was I? Oh, my grandmother.

Naomi: Uh humm

Emily: Gabowb’stowchiibii’s wife.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Was half Inuit and half French.

Naomi: Oh.

Emily: And I told that to my mother and she didn't want to know about it, she said it’s not true but other people said that it was true - and ah…

Naomi: Why would that bother your mother?

Emily: I don't know, it's the lnuit part, I think.

Naomi: Ohhh.

Emily: You know, I don't know, in those days people were prejudiced against each other.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Or enemies or whatever in the past.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But that's, but she had her, one of her uncles married an Inuit woman, but any case, anyway, ahh, I don't know why it bothered her, I'm just assuming, right…

Naomi: Ummm.

Emily: Yeah, so. And it was funny and you know Janie Pachanos she was doing research, archive.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Archival research and she said and l asked her like two years ago, have you come across that kind of couple like that and she said yeah. She said yes ahhh, I think it was, I don't know his first… but that again I have to find out because she has that information.

Naomi: Oh, okay.

Emily: What was his first name? I think it was, he was working for the Reveillon Frères.

Naomi: Oh really.

Emily: A France company...

Emily: So, he said his last name is Levesque. So, I think his last name is Levesque but I didn't recall his first name.

Naomi: Hmmm.

Emily: So uhh, we were joking around and because of what somebody said about another famous person? He said, ohh, maybe René Levesque was our cousin!

Naomi: Laughing.

Emily: (Laughing) That guy's so funny. But anyway, umm that's the… but I want to get this all straight.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: As we go along. Inserts here and there.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: So that's my...

Naomi: And when you say you've been ahh, do you have files, are you doing this?

Emily: I don't have files, I have tapes still.

Naomi: You have tapes still?

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: So, you have more tapes to, to transcribe.

Emily: To transcribe, yeah.

Naomi: Oh boy. Okay.

Emily: And I wanted to also, you know since I've been, since this past year I'm thinking ohhh lots of things that I still want to do with what, with the remaining elders.

Naomi: Ummhmm

Emily: And because all the elders I have on tape with you.

Emily: All have died right, from your research too.

Naomi: Yes.

Emily: Have the, except for the Natachequans, right?

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: So its ahhh, it's all so interesting the way the stories that have always interested me because I grew up on stories and legends and that was my, as any Cree child, in those days these were my, like, books, right?

Naomi: Right.

Emily: But oral, oral books, histories. I had some favorite stories and, not stories but legends.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Legends, that my mother, you must have heard of t’siikwiis, t’siikwiis, its one of the legends t’siikwiis.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: It's the story of how the whales came to be.

Naomi: No, I have never heard that one.

Emily: Yeah, okay. And ah ...

Naomi: You, you have it on record? You have it on your tapes?

Emily: Ahhhhh, no, but I know the story by heart.

Naomi: Ohh.

Emily: And, but you know when I was taping the.... okay, how I taped those people, I’m going back and forth, right?

Naomi: That's okay.

Emily: How l taped those people when, the first time that I did, of course, you remember Lucy Turner?

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: At the, that's I think that's the t’siikwiis that's recorded there but my, my vocabulary at that time wasn't that good and I wasn't that really, you know into it, interested, helping her out and looking back ummm my vocabulary wasn't that very good and poorly translated. English, but still you know?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: To me, then after when I went back to school in ‘84 to my university degree.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: During the summers I was looking for a job so I thought maybe I’ll start doing that because one time I was, I don’t know if it was the first year or the second year, my parents went into the bush, they went for fishing trip, ahh, maybe they were gone for two weeks, they came back and they started talking, they were talking away and, like what, what did you say... you know like what's that? Like the language came back, the Cree language.

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: Since I was right in the zone of it, you taste it, oh how come I've never heard of these words before? Oh, because I haven't been in the bush for a long time, that the language is out there.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And that's where it was born.

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: So I was very interested in that, and at first l started asking them what does it mean? and what does that mean? and then later I thought well maybe two of the stories and the languages with the people in their stories.

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: I mean the legends and because I remember sometimes people would, say, would explain knowing that too, l don't, maybe in this generation, they wouldn't understand what this means.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: And I cannot you know, right off recall a word, what it means, I mean as an example right, in the legends.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Because they’re very old, and old language goes with them.

Naomi: Yeah

Emily: Ahhhh, so, so that's how I started recording this, be interested more for, for personal use.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: For the students and because I was like an educator now and now students are being taught in Cree language, so my, can use that and because I was also in the, well at that time anyway, you know doing my BEd.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Ahhhh. Okay.

Naomi: So, I'm going to go all the way back again.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: Because you talked about your family and you talked about sort of the development of language and I asked you to begin where you felt it was appropriate to begin, so I really appreciate that you began with elders and with your family history and with the idea that the legends and the stories are so, I mean, are so meaningful.

Emily: Yes.

Naomi: That, that's so important but I also want to know, ummm, if you want to share with me, the uhh, something about where you were born and what early, what life was like for you as child, as a young child.

Emily: Yeah... Okay.

Naomi: And you might, if you feel like you want to answer these questions again later or come back to something, if something sparks just you can come back to that later but you go through all of our years but I've heard very few stories about the early time.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: Before, before coming to the community, that you sort of, either things that your mother would have told you or your own early childhood memories.

Emily: Okay. Yeah... I think I mostly have childhood memories and the legends you know.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Ummmm, but sometimes l don't, I remember some you know just bits and parts of it but l don't know how old I was then, whether I was three or four or five, six. Then after that I think I kind of remember then, I can honestly say I was seven, eight, or nine years old.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But before that I just, I just remember bits and pieces of, of our bush life, you know, and l know I was four maybe even five years old that, I guess we were in the bush, I remember we were three families, maybe four if you count my grandfather and John who he raised.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: With my aunt Mary. Who was already married then.

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: Because Jane was there and, already, my friend Jane.

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: And then my aunt, uncle Isaac and his family and our family. And I think... I don't know, ahhh, if George, George was born 1952? I don't remember him being there...

Naomi: Hmmmm.

Emily: Because ahhh we were in ahhh, we used to live three families even in the wintertime they would make big, big tipis...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Miichiwaahp for all of us to live in. I remember that time very well like my uncle Isaac and his wife Phyllis were living across from us, you know where the entrance is?...

Naomi: Ummmhmmrn.

Emily: There was a big open fire and we were living on the south side and they were living north and my grandfather was... kind of, next to Isaac and Phyllis and then Mary, my aunt Mary, my father's sister.

Naomi: Umhm.

Emily: And uh, George, is her husband and my friend Jane were living in ahhh, next to us.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But my grandfather and John were living, in the back of the miichiwaahp, tipi.

Naomi: Ummhnunm.

Emily: Miichiwaahp. (Laughing)

Naomi: Miichiwaahp, miichiwaahp, yeah (Laughing)

Emily: Or here we say iiyiuukimikw, Our eyokom.

Naomi: Iiyiyukimikw. But it was connect, connected.

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: With a central space

Emily: Yeah. We were all in one space.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And we had an open fire.

Naomi: Ummmhmrmn

Emily: I remember that very well because I, something happened to me that's my, I may have recalled another story, I’ll tell you before that, that's what… where we were they had killed a lot of porcupine.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Because as soon as the tipi is made by the women and men helping with ah,cutting the post because this is an early winter, right?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Maybe, I don't know if it’s in February around that time or January.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: After a woman would finish up the poles and I think, I even think that the men just left, put on the fishing lines and then go hunting…

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: They came back, they came back with ahhh, two porcupine each and they put them outside. And I was scared of them (laughing).

Naomi: Really?

Emily: Yeah (laughing). The porcupine, because they were so many and I know my father got two and Isaac, my uncle lsaac got two and I think ahh, George two. Ahhh had two? Two? So, there were a lot of them, all lined up outside.

Naomi: (Laughing).

Emily: (Laughing) And it was getting dusk, right? and then, I never saw so many caribou, I mean not caribou, porcupine.

Naomi: Porcupine.

Emily: Porcupine in my life, so I was scared l couldn't go out, I was just picking through the, the entrance way, that's one thing I recalled, very, I mean, startling for me.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: So I recalled that and the other time we were, I was in a, in a canoe paddling, I think this was before, I might have been three, and I was in the middle and I was putting my hand in the water.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: As we were paddling along and my father stopped a kind of stop near the shore of I don’t know if it was paddling near a lake or river, on a river or lake but he took something from the river, from a plant that was submerged in the water.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Took it up and it looked like a, looked like a celery, now I recall, it looked like a celery.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But it was, round it had those ridges the celery has, all down along and he took it up and he had some, he ate it and it was crunchy.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: It was crunchy so, that's one memory.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ‘Because he told me, again he told me, don't put your hand in the water, you know if you lean to close you might fall out, you know? Or something like that, we were in a canoe, my mother and my father were paddling the canoe.

Naomi: Really?

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: Where, about where on the land?

Emily: Ohhh, out around Clearwater Lake, that area.

Naomi: That area.

Emily: And I was born near there, near there too, by the way.

Naomi: Oh okay.

Emily: Near Clearwater Lake.

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: That yeah, he’d go in land and there, he would hunt all around that area, go further, further north of there, and ummm and Josep, Joseph has his camping, his uh, camp there these days.

Naomi: Really?

Emily: He goes inland.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: And ahhh and he told me to come along one of those days and he's got his camp set up there. So, he's been going there for the last ten years I think.

Naomi: Up to Clearwater?

Emily: Out to Clearwater Lake.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: And made his camp there and that's where he goes hunting and fishing, that's where, he took my mom with him, all those years, right?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And when he would go there from two months to three months in the fall and in the springtime so, l mean, after Christmas.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Ahhhh, so that's where my grandfather and my father and uncles used to hunt there, their hunting territory.

Naomi: So where would they go, for you know, for supplies and for things like that?

Emily: Oh yeah, there was at Richmond Gulf, there was a post there.

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: In the forties, early fifties, of the Hudson Bay Company and Reveillon Frères for a time, I don't know what years.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: So that's where they would go and I think it closed up, I know, Elizabeth was born fifty... She says fifty-four-... fifty-four... fifty-five. Fifty-Four.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Christmas, near Christmas, so, December 5, 54. Ahhhhh, what was the, what, where was I, on my getting at, ohh the post.

Naomi: The posts.

Emily: Yes, so that's where we were, that's, I was born there and my parents, that's where they would come for their, my grandparents.

Naomi: What do you mean you were born there, you were born at the posts?

Emily: No, no, no.

Naomi: No, no. You were born...

Emily: Inland.

Naomi: Inland.

Emily: In land, so that was ....

Naomi: So who would be with your mother, when her babies were born?

Emily: Ah uuh, anyone of those women, is it Phyllis or Mary.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Or his or her, her mother.

Naomi: And your mother was also a good mid-wife wasn't she? Did you say she use to help out as well?

Emily: Ahhh, yes, yes. My grandfather, grandmother Mary was the best.

Naomi: Okay

Emily: People would ask when they knew, they would want to know where she would be.

Naomi: Ummmm.

Emily: Because they knew their wives or daughters were pregnant and they would make sure that they’re nearby when that time would come, that they would go to them or have her come to deliver their babies.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: So, she was a, she was a great, well, also medicine woman.

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: Because one time, um mm, what's his name, Weemish Petagumskum? In the mid 90's.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: He told me, he told me that my, my, there was an accident, an Inuit man at Richmond Gulf had shot his foot with a 30/30.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And there was a hole in his foot before they went inland and the Inuit came to get my grandmother because they were camping, l guess, along the coast line, not right, not right in the posts, so she, she ministered to her, is that the right word to say: ministered?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah, to, to him for maybe two or three days and told him what to do, I guess she used also clean it out and used the, like seal blubber and, I don’t know what else.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: To heal it or I don’t know if she even, how do you say, sealed it?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Cook it? You know what I mean?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: The hole, I don’t know how, with what, maybe a knife or metal to close up the, thebleeding.

Naomi: Really?

Emily: I think so, I don't, anyway but anyway, this is what he, Weemish was telling me: that a man had shot, the Inuit man had shot himself in the foot. They came to get my grandmother, he healed his foot, he didn't exactly say healed his foot but then ah, as he said, and I saw that man at Christmas and he was doing fine, fine like (laughing), he was walking around fine, you know?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I'm just assuming those techniques that she used.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: But it was, she didn't, he didn't say you know but all he said was they came to him, they came to him when he shot his foot and your grandmother went to do her healing works.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And then… (Answers phone for personal call) Okay where was I? My grandma, okay.

Naomi: Yeah, no...

Emily: And I think my, yeah she delivered me.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Because I was my mother's first.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: First born.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: Although my father had married before and my brother John was the only child from that marriage.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: Because her… his mother died of TP ...TB.

Naomi: TB.

Emily: Uhumm, Tuberculosis and married my mom… Ahhh, I don't know how many years later because John said he was born in 1942, my brother John.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And I was born 1949.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: So, I think they were married in either ‘47 or ‘48.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: Maybe ‘47. My mom and I saw their wedding picture once and, I don’t, I saw it once when I was young.

Naomi: Who would have taken the picture?

Emily: I don't know maybe... could be the post manager?

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: And that I wouldn't know, but I don’t who had it, was it my grandfather? So, it’s lost since since, eh?

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: You know, they had the, well, the traditional, not exactly at that time, shawl and a tam and a scarf, you know, and maybe a skirt with ribbons.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah, so my father had his, l don’t know what to call those caps, you know those old ahhh, caps they had a little ah, tweed, made out of tweed.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah, but anyway, I remember that…

Naomi: Like with brim and was it soft?

Emily: Yeah soft

Naomi: Like a soft hat with a brim.

Emily: Little.

Naomi: And around ...

Emily: Just in front.

Naomi: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Emily: And it had a little clasp like in the middle.

Naomi: Oh yeah.

Emily: And you can open it up.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Open it up for the...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Mishkishii to come out the thing, you know? I don’t… the visor.

Naomi: The visor.

Emily: Yeah so, those types of hats.

Naomi: Yeah, I don't know the name.

Emily: I don't recall, his what he wore. But l saw it when I was about ten or eleven years old.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: So ahhh, yeah, my grandmother yeah she was a good, a good medicine woman. And then my mother also, my Phyllis, and my aunt Phyllis, aunt Mary and my mom they were always you know a family crew, they would deliver each other’s babies.

Naomi: Babies.

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: Yeah. But one, of all of us, I don't know who delivered who, I think Elizabeth was delivered, maybe my grandmother also delivered George. But I know Liz, because my grandmother Mary died when my mother was carrying Elizabeth.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: That, that summer, could have been in August she died, and then Elizabeth was born at Christmas, the same year. And she's buried at Richmond Gulf.

Naomi: Ohhhh.

Emily: Yeah. And ahhh, that's my mother’s mother and her father said she, he died just close, you know where, Madawow.

Naomi: Yup.

Emily: Madawow, up, that's where they went in land from is at Madawow and one of those lakes over there.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: That's where he was ah, that's where he died, she said, my mother said, when she was seven or eight years old. So...

Naomi: Hmmm...

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: So, what about again, just if you have any other stories or memories from your early, early childhood.

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: So, I guess I’m making a distinction between the land and the village, I guess that's...

Emily: Yes, okay. Ummmm...

Naomi: Maybe it’s not a fair distinction that you make but...

Emily: No... No well it seems ahhh, that I remember another time when George and I were just the two of us still.

Naomi: Yeah…

Emily: I don't know, Elizabeth was a baby then... we were living in ahh, somewhere... (laughing)

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: (Laughing) And my mother was, I think we were the only ones living with my grandmother.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Because she had been widowed for a long time and remember I told you my mother said her father died when she was seven.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: And here she was, I was recalling, the ages when how old she was when we were born.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And I remember thinking that she was probably 27 years old when Elizabeth was born. And, so it was around that time maybe she was 25, 26. She was living with our grandmother and she had, ahh, we had another cousin, Charlotte, who was with my, living with my grandmother.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And it was my aunt Naomi's daughter.

Naomi: Hmmmmm.

Emily: And I think my Aunt Naomi was in the hospital at that time, in Moose Factory.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: They would take them there by boat and...

Naomi: Really?

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: From Richmond Gulf.

Naomi: That was in a TB boat or just if they were sick.

Emily: Ahhhh, sometimes if they were sick for, maybe for supplies or, or TB boat, I don't remember ...

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: ... what kind of transportation she would have taken, my father was also taken from there around that time. The first time, I think George was born while she was away. While, the first time my mother went, my father went to the TB hospital in Moose Factory.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Ummm... ahhh... yeah George was a baby, I recall that, so l must have been, what, three?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: We were in the, in the land with my grandmother and Joseph Sheshamush and his two daughters Margaret and Lucy from his first marriage.

Naomi: Ummhmm.

Emily: And Margaret is my age. He was, she was born February ‘49.

Naomi: Oh, okay.

Emily: And I was born ahh...

Naomi: November.

Emily: And he and he had lost his wife then.

Naomi: Hmmm...

Emily: With TB ...ahhhh, so he was raising his two little daughters with the help of Charlotte, and my grandmother and my mother, I guess this is, that was the combination, I remember because l do remember my, my mother, l remember that time, l remember she told me that I bit George’s arm (laughing).

Naomi: (Laughing].

Emily: (Laughing).

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Yeah... And then she had to ahhh, get my, my jaws away from him like...

Naomi: Jeez...

Emily: She had to pinch me or something to let go you know, because George was screaming away.

Naomi: (Laughing)

Emily: (Laughing). Then that's, and that's all I remember of that time ...oh yeah... No at that same time, maybe same TP...? TV...? ahh you know in Miichiwaahp?

Naomi: Miichiwaahp?

Emily: Yeah, we were living.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Ummm, I cried for something. I think Margaret and them had like a syrup and I was crying for that and I, I wouldn't, l... my mother got tired of my crying.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And ahh, and she, and she, she threw me out of the tipi barefoot.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Yeah... to stop me crying because I was having a tantrum l think, so she, she put me outside and told me you come in when you stop crying. so I had to stop crying fast (laughing). I was trying to put my feet on the flap, you know the, the door...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: The doorway, the flap.

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: And try to stand on it but it was so, so cold.

Naomi: Jeez...

Emily: So, I stopped crying and I went in. And that was the end of my tantrum. (Laughing)

Naomi: My god...

Emily: (Laughing).

Naomi: So, what would have been your… can you remember a favourite food or favourite...

Emily: Aghh.. I don't recall, I guess, well anything to eat there you know?

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: At those times, it was just country food and, oh yeah porcupine yes, was my favorite food...

Naomi: Really?

Emily: Yeah …

Naomi: Even after seeing a row of them outside?

Emily: Yeah, even then ...

Naomi: Yeah, why?

Emily: After ...! don't know, it’s just, it’s like ahhh, its fatty and its smoke-flavored you know?

Naomi: Yup ...

Emily: So, I'd like that and it was ahh, it was softer meat than, than ahhh, I don't know, than other like caribou is...

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: You know, those bigger animals and bear and, we hardly had any bear, I don't recall much, maybe just once, I recall eating, eating a bear in those days ...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: There are... when you go inland as a group, family group there are times when you will separate to go trapping in different areas and so we did that, I recall, and I know I was the only one there, I was the only one, l don't recall any siblings.

Naomi: Hmmm.

Emily: We had, we came upon, my uncle Isaac and his family and we had been somewhere else by ourselves.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Ahh, maybe George was on a, ‘because I know, he didn't eat, when we were served after we arrived at their camp, I don't recall him at all, just me. My parents, um, put me in between them when we came in, and my aunt Phyllis, they she was cooking fish on a stick and I don't know if she, if she had a, they had a, yeah they had a stove because now they were living in a smaller dwelling.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I don't know if it was, ahh wiishkichaanichiwaahp or a tent, but in any case, they were, it was small and they had a, a small stove, my aunt still was cooking fish on a stick near the stove, right?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Still, it was still cooked and it was fresh and I recall my Uncle Isaac saying we don't have much to dip you know the fish in...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Akchomoyasin, akchomoya’ch ... I only have to see, he brought out a can of ahh, I recall now ehhh, a can... container of bear grease (chishaayaakupimii)

Naomi: Bear grease.

Emily: Yeah, bear grease.

Naomi: Ummhmm.

Emily: It was, it hadn't set yet, like, it was still oil.

Naomi: Oil, yeah.

Emily: Oil, and she says “this is all we have here, have some” and he was talking to me directly and so I was sitting between my parents and they put that can of oil in front of me that's why I recall I felt very special, you know (laughing).

Naomi: Awwwww

Emily: My aunt, my uncle doing that, honouring me like that.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And so my parents were keeping it on the side of ...

Naomi: Right.

Emily: My...

Naomi: You just happen to be in the middle.

Emily: Yeah, I just happened to be in the middle (laughing).

Naomi: That's very funny. That's great.

Emily: Yeah and he placed it, well, my mother took it and put it in front of me because he was addressing me, my uncle.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Saying, “Well, Emily we don't have much in the way of dipping oil, this is all I have you know” and...

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: My parents were smiling and because he was also half joking…

Naomi: Right.

Emily: ... with me and, so that's what we had for that meal and that's all I remember of that.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: Ummm, can you close that for...

Naomi: Sure.

Emily: For a few minutes.

Naomi: Sure.

Emily: K, thanks, thanks for like putting me back ...

Interview #2

Naomi: Okay here we go.

Emily: Everything?

Naomi: Everything is back on, I'll edit out (laughing).

Emily: Hmm.

Naomi: (Laughing) Okay, I'm going to grab a coffee in a second as well.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: Umm, so whenever you want to start again.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: We're going to go back to what you can if you have any more memories from your childhood, your early childhood and what you consider to be some of the more significant memories from your childhood.

Emily: Ummm.

Naomi: So, whenever you want to start that's fine.

Emily: Okay. Take these away.

Naomi: Yep. There.

Emily: Move these. I drank from bottle because ahh, I knock over cups, eh.

Naomi: Ummmm.

Emily: Cups of tea and water.

Naomi: That's one of those, a good accommodation.

Emily: Ummhmmm (drinking water).

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Adapt, like they said, “the queen never changes but she adapts”! (laughing)

Naomi: (laughing).

Emily: That was the news... now the cap is on the floor.

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: I think I had started to tell you, some other story with my grandmother.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: When we were living with her and Charlotte and my mom, only.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I think we were just, I think we were just me and George. That's, that was, yeah maybe my Uncle Joseph told my mother’s brother.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Or maybe she lived in another dwelling beside us ‘because that's all l recall because it was a small dwelling we lived in. And it was with a stove.

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: With Charlotte and, my cousin Charlotte, my grandmother, me and George. We were still small, I think maybe George was maybe one or two.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I must have been four, she, Charlotte was cleaning up, I don't, I think she put in, one of a few... ahh, twenty-two bullets ...

Naomi: Um mh mm.

Emily: Twenty-two caliber...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Bullets in the stove.

Naomi: Oh yeah.

Emily: So, the stove (laughing).

Naomi: Huhhhhh. Popped?

Emily: It popped! You know the and my grandmother was gathering me and George up and wrapping us in her feather down blanket, you know (laughing).

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Covering us, in her feather down blanket and and then when my uncle Joseph heard that saying...

Naomi: Hmmmm

Emily: What good would your feather, feather down blanket do, you know, against those bullets?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: (Laughing) But, ahh, that was ah you know, a joke...

Naomi: But did it, did it explode?

Emily: No.

Naomi: No, they just, they just popped?

Emily: They just popped and it didn't come through ...

Naomi: Ohhhhh...

Emily: It didn't come through... off the stove... metal?

Naomi: Yeah, yeah…

Emily: Or the mouth... or they just popped, think there were maybe two or three pops.

Naomi: Oh my God.

Emily: Yeah, so it was scary, so my grandmother... not knowing what to do, she grabbed us and wrapped us in her blanket and held us, I think, away from the stove.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah. We were scared, I think that's why I, I seem to remember just dramatic things.

Naomi: I'm not surprised. (laughing)

Emily: So, the day to day mundane living, you know, it’s not like, always the same, you know travelling and either in the winter with, you know, just canoe or on foot.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: The other thing I remember was, was in the spring time and my, my father we had gotten to where he left the canoe and he was ahh...

Naomi: So, they left the canoe somewhere for the whole winter?

Emily: Yeah for the whole winter.

Naomi: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Emily: And when it’s about spring they would and come get it...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Before there was any open water or...

Naomi: Umhmm

Emily: And he had George inside the canoe.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Because he was pulling it...

Naomi: Pulling it.

Emily: With ah, with ah, specially made taatiyaaskw we call it.

Naomi: Like a sled for the canoe?

Emily: Yeah, a sled for the canoe…with some belongings, and I was running behind and, while he was going, I tried to get in the canoe too! (laughing)

Naomi: Oh jeez...

Emily: (laughing) …and, I think finally she put me in there too, so that’s all I remember of that because it was spring, and it was very, the snow was very hard.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: …and crunchy, I'm sure it was in March. Or in the end of March when that was happening.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ...and again, I remember the lakes. Near the shore of the lakes were, were open water, like there was this this one, let’s say, cake of ice.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: A cake of ice, in the middle and you could still walk on it but you have to... jump from there to go, go on shore.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And that's where we were living, that's where l was getting water from, there.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: I mean with the dipping cup.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ...get water from there and… but we were too small and young to ahh, to jump like to get to the fishing hooks.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Like my, like John who was a, probably a teenager then, at that time.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And ahh ...Yeah, I was old enough to get water, probably six you know. Because my mother was saying: “just don't go fall in,” you know, like that.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Don't fall in...

Naomi: (laughing)

Emily: (laughing) and so I got the water and… the other time was, yes - now I'm getting older.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: (laughing) Now I'm getting older.

Naomi: You're getting older now.

Emily: Yeah, I'm getting older now.

Naomi: Okay, yeah, yeah.

Emily: (coughing) Yeah, Elizabeth was already there, I recall, ummm… in the winter time, it was winter time, my, when my mother first got sick, this was very vivid.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ...for me when she first had her stroke because she had a series of strokes.

Naomi: Um mhmmm.

Emily: Not major ones but the first one was kind of major because her right hand was, you know, she could move her but she was, was never strong enough for her to hold a needle.

Naomi: Ummm...

Emily: ...and ah that was five years before her death,

Naomi: Yeah, so we've moved forward quickly, okay.

Emily: Yeah and ahhh...

Naomi: We'll go back again soon but yeah, yeah...

Emily: Okay, ummm, what was...

Naomi: You remembered something specific about that...

Emily: Elizabeth was there... oh yes, I remember in the hospital when I was there, you know, remembering her ah, her life like...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And I remember, specifically this, it came very vivid, we were... it was in the wintertime and I know it was after Christmas, shortly after Christmas because after Elizabeth was born.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: Maybe two weeks.

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: I'm not sure, but I remember her sitting...George was inside the toboggan and she had Elizabeth on her back, in, um, you know, wrapped in a mahmkibaps, you know, a winter… she was in waaspisuwiyaan first.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And then you put the like blankets or feather blanket wrap her there with, ahhh, with a netting.

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: And that's how you would carry the baby in your, on your back. (niyumaausuu)

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: So I, and I, I'm sure Elizabeth was like maybe two or three weeks old, she was sitting on the, on the, we were walking it was winter time, it was snowing, the snow was coming and it was windy, because it was coming across.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Not falling down.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ...and George was inside the toboggan wrapped up and I was on top of her toboggan, sometimes walking.

Naomi: Umhmm.

Emily: And uhh, at that time, I remember, her sitting on the ice, well snow... feeding Elizabeth, nursing her away from the wind.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: You know, facing away from the wind, sitting there on the ice and the lake, on a lake along the trail feeding her, breastfeeding her and with the snow at her back, you know falling on her back, that was the picture that came and I think some, l do remember too, I saw she was also umm, walking with her snowshoes, and I know it was shortly after birth because she had, because we were walking and she had some blood on her snowshoes...

Naomi: ummm...

Emily: Still bleeding from the childbirth like...

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: It must have been like two weeks after the birth.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: And that's why I was thinking, oh she was 27 when this, when this happened, you know. And here she was in a hospital bed, half paralyzed you know.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: So that picture came.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: Yeah. I had remembered that once in a while, when the...

Naomi: Those are some really powerful images...

Emily: Yeah. Ummm, so that means I, yeah, must have been six or something. Because that's all I remember of that, because I don't know if we were behind or somebody was behind us because in those days, I don't know how long she sat there, but I remember we were, all by ourselves, her three children. And maybe my grandfather was far behind because he was always the last one to come along because he would, he would clean up the camp.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ...and put away stuff you know, leftover stuff and put it in one place and ahh, so she, he must have been far behind us and that's, that's all the images I have and remembering her life he said, well she raised us in the bush and you know stuff like that and she must have done that for me too, and George.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: You know stopping in the middle of a lake or to feed us while travelling because she breastfed all of us.

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: Yeah, so... there was another story I forgot to have ahhh, now moving forward like I said, I remembered a story just very recently, it's something else, uhhh, what happened? I think, this time I was eight years old when we were going into the bush, with all my family and other people, by then we had moved to Whapmagoostui, okay that's missing, there's some... in, I think in ‘50, I forget when the post was closed, do you remember Richmond Gulf?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ‘50...’54, ‘53...Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Uhh… and we always travelled inland from there, and so we had to come to Rich...to Great Whale River that first year when the post was closed, there was nobody there but while we were there I remember there was ah, I guess it was in the summer time before we went inland there was a dance.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: You would have a dance and we were you know, playing outside and my parents were in there and ahh, so I remember the music and the stomping feet you know. And then before it was closed I remember, you know those, there were crates of probably milk.

Naomi: Ummhmm.

Emily: And there was a big hole in the middle.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: It was just a crate out in the..., outside the store, and I used it as a house, I would crawl in there.

Naomi: Oh really?

Emily: Yeah (laughing)

Naomi: Yeah (laughing)

Emily: ...crawl in there and fit but I, it was hard to turn around there, you know, I was turning around but I remember one of the clerks kept talking to me, came, keep coming at me and pulling me out.

Naomi: Hmmm...

Emily: And I don't know what he was saying because he was speaking English and I had no word of English and after that, I found out that that was Stella's father, the clerk…

Naomi: Ohh...

Emily: Stella Masty.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Because I remember the dance and I remember him around my cousin Charlotte.

Naomi: Hmmm...

Emily: You know...

Naomi: Umhm...

Emily: and maybe it must have happened that time, but during the day I would play out there and he would come to me and twice he did that and when and I think the second time he or third time he didn't, he didn't ahh, he was just ah, I don't know, I think he gave up on me because I kept crawling in there, I think the third time he took it away.

Naomi: Oh jeez. So, but how old were you then?

Emily: Ah, maybe five.

Naomi: Oh wow, okay.

Emily: Five, six... I guess he was afraid I would, you know suffocate in there. Yeah. But that was a nice toy for me.

Naomi: Ahhh, yeah.

Emily: But it was, you know, maybe he thought it was dangerous for me anyway.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But this is all I have told you before, is the time we were still in ah, when the, ahh, Richmond Gulf post was still open.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: All those previous stories I had.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: And, and if it was closed in ‘54, ‘53, and ah I do remember too, l gues,s I don't know, I don't know when it was closed. But we still kept going there you know, I remember the, that Inuit manager too.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Sam Crow was his name. He managed that, that store after, you know with the tally at the end of the thing?

Naomi: Yeah

Emily: Ummm, and I remember this one time, the plane would come there too, l think it, that's one of the times too, the last time my father went to the sanatorium.

Naomi: Umhmm.

Emily: This was at Richmond, from Richmond Gulf. And another lady came, I think she was very young still there, a teenager, one of Sam's daughters or granddaughters.

Naomi: Umhmm.

Emily: Yeah, I looked at her because she, she was walking on the beach and I followed her she had ahh, poofy hair...

Naomi: Ummhmm.

Emily: Curled and she had a white blouse, a red skirt and a very big belt (laughing).

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: You know the fifty...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Fifties’ type... Very small waist.

Naomi: Ummmm.

Emily: You know, with her, she had high heels, with you know with a thick heel, she was able to walk.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Umm, but higher than most shoes I guess, women's shoe with white socks and I don't know if she has… and we followed her there just looking at her clothes you know (laughing)?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: First time we saw somebody dressed like that.

Naomi: Oh my goodness.

Emily: Because she had come from the sanatorium herself. I think on the plane my father went and we still kept going there after the post was closed because that's how, that was our inland route, right?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And, we had our supplies from here, from Whapmagoostui. And the last time… the DEW line came in ‘55?

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: I think they started ...was it in the summer of ‘55 or ‘54?

Naomi: I think it’s ‘55 but they might have started building in ‘54.

Emily: Yeah, it was the last time, yeah, they were already some ah, yeah... yeah I remember the siren and those when they were blasting rocks.

Naomi: Oh really?

Emily: Yeah and they would say... we were living... yeah... around this area.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ...and the siren would go at noon, they were blasting and we were living in tents and with, ah you know, homemade tables and things would still shake, you know (laughing).

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: Even though they were blasting. Did you ever see the old ah, what you call that word, the ... crunch up the rocks and to make them smaller...?

Naomi: I never saw the old one…

Emily: Stone crusher.

Naomi: The stone crusher, yeah.

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: I mean how old ...

Emily: The ?? tractor, yeah...

Naomi: I saw the one just up the hill.

Emily: No, no there was ?? tractor...

Naomi: Old, old, yeah no ...

Emily: They took us down there after a while in the early 60's because we were all hanging out there and go in there and you know...

Naomi: Ohhh.

Emily: It was a wooden structure so, yeah ...okay the... those were the memories there and I remember when my grandmother died. She was at Richmond Gulf in the summer time - don't know which month... but it was summer it couldn't have been, could have been mid-July because we would only stay at the most one month in the, on the post.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And go inland after, again.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: For the, for the winter. And she was, she ah, my mother, I think she said, my mother, yeah, they couldn't help her or take her out then…

Naomi: Umm.

Emily: Yeah, she was pregnant with Elizabeth like I said when, when my grandmother died.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Ummhmm...

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: Yeah, the year before yeah ... and there was the old mission there, the old mission the... what do you call it those French Catholic Missions.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: They were there for a while and after they left... we would go in that building and... some windows were broken and they left their carvings... some carvings.

Naomi: Ummhmm.

Emily: And, me and George would take them and play with them.

Naomi: Now, that was where? That was...

Emily: At Richmond Gulf.

Naomi: That's what I thought. At Richmond Gulf... Yeah, Yeah.

Emily: At Richmond Gulf.

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: We took some carvings, I think one summer...

Naomi: Yeah?

Emily: And played with them and we buried them somewhere in there I don't know where ... (laughing)

Naomi: Really?

Emily: Yeah, buried them to play with the next summer we came (laughing). I don't think we ever went back to find them but I know we buried them.

Naomi: That's really interesting.

Emily: And it’s two pieces.

Naomi: Really? What were they, do you remember?

Emily: I don't remember...

Naomi: No?

Emily: Uhhh, could have been ah, one ah, a human carving?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I mean of a man… and I'm sure the other one was a polar bear... because we were playing with it too, some kind of an animal anyway.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Uh... and I guess it was the door was open. (laughing)

Naomi: Of course.

Emily: And we were children looking for amusement!(laughing)

Naomi: Amusement, absolutely. So that was Richmond Gulf?

Emily: Yes, that was Richmond Gulf.

Naomi: And then they... abandoned Richmond Gulf...

Emily: Was it in ‘50?

Naomi: Well, did it coincide with... well did, did you ever go to Little Whale River?

Emily: No.

Naomi: ...to here.

Emily: Just to here.

Naomi: Instead of Richmond Gulf?

Emily: Ahhh...

Naomi: Or in, or both?

Emily: Both, we still kept, kept going that way even after it closed.

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: To go inland.

Naomi: Right

Emily: Yeah, we paddle along, we paddled over there and go in land from Richmond Gulf.

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: Umm, but I know the last, that last year I went, myself... that's when Ronnie was born, my father had been in the in sanatorium that year…

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And we came here then... with the rest of the... I guess my grandmother’s family...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I don't know who we were travelling with when we came because my father wasn't there, my grandmother wasn't there then, my father was in the sanatorium and my grandmother was in the... maybe with my aunt Edith and Sam...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Or one of her brothers but anyway we got here somehow and... in Great Whale.

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: And I don't know if we stayed... we stayed for, for a while umm... or did we stay one year here, I don't recall. And just go like... nearby, maybe at Madawow.

Naomi: Mmmm.

Emily: Because my father wasn't there and Joseph's wife had died and my uncle Ronnie's wife was in the... in the sanatorium, also.

Naomi: Umm...

Emily: So, they had all those, they were single parents, you know, for at least one or two years.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: And... and there and when my father was gone for two years my mother got Joseph then, I remember Joseph was born in ’57.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I remember that time, it was a hard time because my mother was you know being ridiculed and stuff you know.

Naomi: Umm..

Emily: Because my father wasn't there, and she was pregnant.

Naomi: Oh...

Emily: And that's my fa... my brother Joseph... everybody knows that, whose alive today, you know (laughing).

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And, ah, but it was seemed like a hard time because people were also, ah kind of well attacking us children. Elizabeth was young, maybe two years old. Joseph was born in May, l remember. Hello! (someone came in and interrupted).

Interview #3

Emily: ...was gone, right.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And Joseph was born.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: In May, and he came back that...that summer, maybe it was already September... I... I think so.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: He came back I didn't remember him when he came back.

Naomi: Really?

Emily: Ahhh, he was this man with a cowboy hat. He was, you know, trying to hold me, but I was stiff and he was... I think he was crying.

Naomi: Ummhmm.

Emily: And I remember that, that I had this, this dress, my first store-made dress. It had a red bodice.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And... and... the skirt part was white with probably strawberries or hearts, I don't remember. But it had red… things.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And I wore that, you know, for the whole summer.

Naomi: (Laughing)

Emily: (Laughing) And it was like you know dirty, you know spilling stuff and, you know...

Naomi: Wow...

Emily: Oh, because I always ate on the ground eh? Sitting on the ground, spill... (referring to a noise outside, laughing) Sarah... but anyways that's, that's what l remember about my dress and Joseph was in a mamapshun and I was stiff, this man trying to hold me...

Naomi: Wow...

Emily: I knew he was my father, but l... I didn't remember him ... I think he was gone for five years, no, excuse me, two years.

Naomi: That's still a long time.

Emily: Yeah, it was still a long time, there was the time he was gone when George was a baby.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: (Laughing] The time I bit him. I don't know if he (George) was born before he left...

Naomi: Mmmmm ....

Emily: I have to ask that, right?

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Because I remember, ahh... We were the only two of us and the second time we went was at this time when Joseph was born...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And ah in May he came back that summer and my mother was kind of upset you know ... not knowing, you know.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: How he would react. What is that? (referring to a noise)

Naomi: It's the kids outside...

Emily: Okay, I don't know how he would react, not knowing how... so she became on the... defensive I think…

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But it was okay, nothing happened and we...that's the time we went back in the bush again but that fall...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: As a family and...and I think it was that following year we came back, the following year and 1957... yeah, they had been... ahhh...The year my father came back Joseph was 13, the following... yeah for sure, we went in the bush and the... and Ronnie was born when, when we went back in... into the bush in ‘58...

Naomi: Ummmh

Emily: (Coughing) Excuse me… was born September 17, we were waiting for him... My aunt was here… My aunt Caroline had… was living in town all that time, she had been, you know, widowed for a long time, she had David and Robbie.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But she was living in, in town...

Naomi: Here?

Emily: Here. Yeah.

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: Ah or maybe she might have gone with her daughter Agnes and Philip Natachequan but they always went south of here and we were north.

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: Umm... we were waiting and waiting, finally the rest of the family left, my grandfather and my uncles and their wives, Phyllis and Isaac and George…

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: His name was George, George, right?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Jane’s father. And, ah yeah, Mary (George), my aunt Mary's, husband... And so we left anyway to... I don't know why but, but it was very windy and we couldn't carry on, continue with our trip, we left here... Down the river and went around and then we had to stop at the ah, the first point, second point...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah. Because, I think (where) we go riding, we keep telling you Ronnie was born here.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah so, so we stopped there because it was so, so windy and they pitched a tent and my father went hunting and my mother started getting sick.

Naomi: Hmm.

Emily: Not sick but you know... getting contractions. And my and they were coming fast and he said go back to town and start walking with George. But we couldn't go past the Inuit, Inuit dogs that were on the first point.

Naomi: Oh.

Emily: You know, and we went back and I don't know, and my mother started calling my father but it was… the wind was coming against him, where he had gone.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: But my father came back in time to deliver Ronnie.

Naomi: Oh my God.

Emily: Yep (laughing). Yeah, yeah, so...

Naomi: Geez.

Emily: I remember he was shaking and, and they, and...

Naomi: Who was shaking?

Emily: My father.

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: (Laughing)… and my mother told me to keep Elizabeth and Joseph and George outside to wait outside while my father was delivering Ronnie and finally my aunt came, on her own, or did my father go get him...her to tend to my mom and to the baby...

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: So then after that we continued on, I don't know how many days... (laughing) Like seemed to happen a lot ... travelling I remember with Elizabeth it happened and I'm sure it happened with George and me, and you know have a few weeks rest, or for this time it probably was just less than a week and we had to continue paddling to Richmond Gulf... yep. And ah... l think that time I don't know, Elizabeth, so we stayed there a couple of days and it was during a time I think, I don't know who it was probably... either George or Elizabeth, they came in with a frog, which scared my mother, they didn't want a frog around the house...

Naomi: Ummhmm...

Emily: In the tent… because it was a gift to Ronnie. (laughing)

Naomi: (Laughing)

Emily: (Laughing) But my mother was scared of the frog. Don't bring that here! We had to throw his gift away! Let it go!

(laughing)

Emily: And so that, that was that, and I don't have to, you have to remind me about ... yeah ... that was the year I was eight years old and we went inland and we came back I remember most things lot a lot, not a lot but some other major things happened during that time... yeah.

Naomi: Was that the time they started to build here?

Emily: Ah yes...

Naomi: So that was the, the coming back and discovering all of that...

Emily: That was before, I don't really, I remember those I told you about the blasting...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I didn't care much after that much about, ah wait a minute... I should have cared.

(Laughing)

Emily: (Laughing) I should have cared.

Naomi: (Laughing) Come to think of it...

Emily: (Laughing) Yeah, come to think of it… It’s like I said, I don't think we went in the bush, maybe only in the fall because that's when we started ah, living you know ah near that, near that big hole, what we call now “Canadian Tire,” where the garbage dump is now.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: That big... what do you call it, dip?... in the ground…

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Ahhh which... we think... I don’t know, maybe it was a lake before but it's all dried up or that meteor thing happening, I don’t know, but it's a big dip right?

Naomi: Is it on the, near the shore or in the rocks?

Emily: Near the shore...

Naomi: Near the shore.

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: Yeah, near the...near the dump.

Emily: Near the dump.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Past the other one. The other, the first dump, it’s also another big hole in the ground… a dip, a big dip.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Like it would have been a lake and that, and the one, yeah after the first point.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Um... after the first point yeah, so that's where we used to live there, near there.

Naomi: Mmm.

Emily: And ah and that's when we lived there that winter and we all got measles.

Naomi: Oh jeez.

Emily: (Laughing). And we were only two of us, I remember, one or two of us just with my mom in a tent frame, me and George and Elizabeth. And we all got, my mother got the measles, she sent me out to get some firewood but there was none nearby and...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I tried to cut some branches but I didn't have snowshoes. I kept going in the snow and our house was very, our tent was very cold, and I was wet and, you know, from falling in the snow and then my mother told me, and she was in bed, you know? Covered, and she told me to go tell my grandma, grandfather and he took us in.

(Phone ringing): Hello, ah 3653, okay, bye.

Anyway, why was my father not there... was that part of that... yeah, that was part of that, that was in the spring when that happened, the winter and then that summer he came in so I skipped that part so I'll tell you more about it. Can we stop now? (Laughing).

Naomi: Yes.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: Okay this is testing, yes and the machine is working. So I’ll put the...that's over there for day two ...

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: And I’m going to hit ‘record’ here... that's good ...

Outside voice: I invited Sarah for supper ...

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: Okay, we’re gonna, just turning the video on now, okay.

Emily: Okay.

Outside voice: Okay, sorry.

Emily: No...

Naomi: It’s all good.

Emily: Don't be sorry.

Naomi: Don't be sorry, exactly (laughing).

Emily: (laughing).

Naomi: Hold on, that just have to... do I have enough money with me? okay... alright there we go, okay, okay. So you're going to continue on with ah the stories from your childhood.

Emily: Yes, yes... I probably I remember the most like I said the last year we were going in the bush.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: My last year, anyway. Which, l was, which was, I mentioned Ronnie was born ...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: September 17, 1958.

Naomi: Yeah…

Emily: And we were like waiting around and then finally we left anyway to go, to go to Richmond Gulf and inland from there.

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: But that day, so happened that... was very windy and we couldn't go on and so we… and leaving here with supplies and everything, and our small canoe was just weighed down too much.

Naomi: Yeah, yeah...

Emily: And so, we… we landed at the second, the second point…

Naomi: Yup...

Emily: On this side, on the south side.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And so, well my mother was fixing the tent, my father had gone hunting and she started having her contractions.

Naomi: Right.

Emily: And sent us to get my aunt who was living in Whapmagoostui and… but we couldn't make it, but my father finally made it home, probably just in time to deliver Ronnie.

Naomi: Oh my God.

Emily: So, we continued on, travelling to Richmond Gulf. I don't know how many stops we did along the coast, right?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: For days, I don't know how many days, but at one point it was very cold and windy and we were in the bay... I don’t know if we were inside the sound still, you know before the pass...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I think we were before for sure and some Inuit people, they had a boat, picked us up right out of the water, like you know?

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And it was so, like, windy, and waves...

Naomi: Wow...

Emily: And, so we all got on and he gave us some food, but I was so sick like motion sickness...

Naomi: Motion sickness...

Emily: Yeah... from the waves and the boat and I couldn't eat. I think we came, we did reach Richmond Gulf that same day they picked us up. And my aunt was already there... Aunt Edith and my Uncle Sam.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And ah, I was going to mention about Uncle Sam after, anyway: Sam Atchynia

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And so we landed at Richmond Gulf that day and I couldn't eat, because I was so sick. My aunt was trying to get me to eat some of those Pilot biscuits that I'm still eating today! (laughing)

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And, with hot tea and sugar, but I just couldn't make it and I just laid down and I was still sick, you know...

Naomi: Ummm...

Emily: Still feeling the movement ...

Naomi: Ummhmm...

Emily: The next day I think I was okay... I'd never been so sick like that (laughing) like motion sickness and I think ...yes, I was nine years old... I turned nine ...no ...probably I turned ten in November that time, or I could have been… ah, I don’t know, around that age. So, we stayed there and we moved I remember more things than this time and ahh... because they were like dramatic things... like Ronnie was born and then we got a boat ride from the Inuit and I was sick, you know... So, I remember more of that time...

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: And so, I don’t know how many days later we went inland and the post wasn't there (Richmond Gulf) anymore at that time because we had gotten all our supplies here.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But I think we stayed at the Richmond Gulf, l don’t know, one or two days. We travelled inland and it was one of the longest portages, you have to do inland to reach this lake. A long portage yeah, and...

Naomi: Which lake?

Emily: I don't know which lake...the lake from, I think it's… ahhh…I almost remembered in, in Cree. But it's the first lake that you'll reach when you'll go from Richmond gulf ...

Naomi: Uhhumm.

Emily: And over the mountain and down to this lake and its very good for fishing, and we stayed there for a day or two, I think and… and that first day we had fish, you know fresh fish, lake ... lake fish...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Lake trout and speckled trout and speckled trout the one with the very red meat... right.

Naomi: Ummm

Emily: And this is, I came in my...I think I was called in, I don't know what I was doing, playing outside, and my mother said come in, honey, and there was… I had my food in front of me, you know, a big plate of fish to me at that time…

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: My portion, and I couldn't, I didn't finish eat...I didn't start eating yet when my aunt Edith said, “is anyone still hungry?” and I said “yes, I'm still hungry” (laughing).

Emily: I hadn't started eating my food yet!

Outside male voice: Hello Ladies!

Emily: Hi.

Outside male voice: Ahhh... You want me to get you some cash or something?

Emily: Yes, wait a minute... right...

Naomi: Okay that's on and I'm just going to turn the other machine on...

Emily: Okay...

Naomi: And... just a second... okay... go ahead and continue.

Emily: Okay so... yeah so... I got greedy on the fish.

Naomi: Yeah ... (laughing)

Emily: (laughing] Fresh fish...

Naomi: Yeah ....

Emily: Yeah... So that's, that's all I remember about that time and we did our thing and there are other bits and pieces I remember, I think it was that year that, that we caught a lot of caribou, we had a lot of caribou and that year I think it was in the springtime but before Christmas we were very...getting very hungry.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: We couldn't catch fish we couldn't catch any game but we still continued to travel from place to place and one time I was with my dad putting in the lines...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Fish hooks…

Naomi: Fish hooks, yeah...

Emily: Fish… fish hooks in the water and... I mean... it was wintertime and he had to chisel first and I hung out with him on the ice.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: Next thing I know, I’m back at the camp... I had fainted ...

Naomi: How... why?

Emily: From hunger, I guess? I was walking all day and my father was doing the...was doing his thing, you know, continue... to continue to fish and hunt, and my grandfather, l think for this very... for this very reason, like, we weren't starving...starving but we were hungry, maybe we had a meal a day or something I don’t know...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: But... they gave me... hot tea with, with you know Clim, powdered milk, in it and sugar so that got me (laughing)... I think I also had some kind of a stomach virus because I was sick after that a lot...

Naomi: Ummhmm...

Emily: A stomach problem and...and then one day my father asked me... I was getting better and he told me: “what would you like to eat, what is your…?”... something like... What would you like to eat today or something? And I didn't know what to say because I wasn't hungry because I was still sick, right?

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: Still lying around ... and I didn't know what to eat... so I just said, “rabbit...”

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: I'm feeling for rabbit ... so... so l went... so he went hunting and in the near evening or was getting dark, ahh… he sat... he sat beside me... he came in from hunting and sat down beside me and I was still lying on my bed... my bedding...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And, ahh, and he was smiling at me and I didn't notice, and I didn't know what was happening and... and... he told me look behind me and I saw he had a string like he was carrying something. I looked behind and it was a rabbit! (laughing)

Naomi: Oh jeez.

Emily: And he said, “l chased this rabbit all day long, once I found rabbit tracks and I had... I went after that!” (laughing)

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: That rabbit... and so they cooked it for me and I ate it and I was getting better after that... because they say there's a belief that, you know, when you are very sick and if you have a craving for some... something you know... you should eat that…

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Right? and so... so, I got better... I got better after that... I don't know how long I was sick but I was alright ...

Naomi: Wow ...

Emily: And that's ah...that's those memories l have…like I said in the spring we had, I think it was after January or February, that George, George ...

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: Jane's father killed some caribou ... I don't know if they were, he came home and he had some caribou and... my grandma… my grandfather, because we knew he killed some caribou because he bought the, ummm, something that you would carry home to show that you got caribou, I think it was some of, you know, the front legs or back legs and some other... ahh some intestines... maybe the heart and... and what we call weese ... I don't know what you it in… but that, that thing that's, ah, we call it weese...

Naomi: Weese...

Emily: Weese, its ah I think it's the covering over the stomach ...

Naomi: Oh, yeah ...

Emily: That...it’s like ahh… lacy thing but it’s all fat (laughing) (tripe)

Naomi: Yes.

Emily: Looks like lace…

Naomi: Yes...

Emily: (laughing)... anyway...

Naomi: l know... I'm trying to think of the name of it in English ...

Emily: Yeah... Yeah...

Naomi: I know, I know what you mean…

Emily: Okay...

Naomi: Ummm, I can picture it ...

Emily: Ummm... Yeah…

Naomi: Umm...I'II...I’ll try to remember the name of it…yeah ...

Emily: Okay so... so he was fed very well, like he got that... my grandfather gave him this new bar of soap to wash his face...

Naomi: Ummhmm ...

Emily: You know, clean up... and so… so, we still travelled around some and I remember another time when I think it probably it was the same year or another year that he killed also... my father did kill some caribou, too...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And... but we were living in a different, different dwellings... our... our family and their family and grand... my grandfather ... and... wait...(Answers telephone) So...and...my...my mother, I think she made her last flour bannock... like she made…

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ...Bannock, with her last flour.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Knowing that now we will have food for long time...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And she cooked too and gave one to their household...

Naomi: Ummmm...

Emily: Their tipi... so we were celebrating it was kind of a celebration, you know...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: A special celebration that caribou are killed so people can have ah new foods, caribou shoes...

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: Shoes ...you know what I mean, moccasins ...

Naomi: Moccasins ...yeah ...

Emily: And also, probably new... ah... snow shoes... and food for sure... and ah... and I think it was even when... that fall when we went by ourselves... umm... they had... cached some things... maybe some tea and, I remember, also oats...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: But they had turned mouldy.

Naomi: Mmm...

Emily: And my mother got rid of the mould, but they still smelt of mould and... but she made bannock out of that anyway.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And but it was so tasty, even though it was tasting like mould (laughing).

Naomi: Wow...

Emily: And it was also a special treat and so when we had gone off by ourselves after Christmas on our way on one of the trips my mother caught a small porcupine along the way...

Naomi: Ummhmm...

Emily: Which my father had gone ahead and when we got there he was already on the ice...umm but the...the hooks were already in the ice and he was gone so my mother… but he had chopped some wood for our tent...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And probably the poles for my mother to erect the tent...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And... so she went off also to chop more wood and cook that ...! think she roasted the… it was a very small porcupine, right...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: She roasted it... over the stove...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Near the stove and... when my father came home he didn't get anything in terms of ptarmigan... you know... small game...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And, l don't know if he came home with the fish but he was very, you know, very... thankful about my mom getting… and saying, “where did you get this, this roasted porcupine?” (laughing) She said, “along the way!”

Naomi: Hmm (laughing).

Emily: ... because he hadn't seen it, because he had gone first...

Naomi: Umm...

Emily: And so, he was grateful for that (laughing). And ah... and I think it... the... I don't, if I’m making two... two years, those other stories that I have...

Naomi: Umm...

Emily: There's another time... I remember when we were by ourselves again…

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And Elizabeth was in the maamaapisun... and we were, my father was gone the whole day and my mother was trying to check the nets or the hooks...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: The fish lines, and she told me “stay here with Elizabeth” and she had let the stove go out she trusted me and put Elizabeth in the maamaapisun...

Naomi: Ummhmm...

Emily: And, with blankets, and so said... she told me just ah... you know swing her when she cries...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And don't touch the stove... or... or try to make fire...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: So, that's what I did and l kept looking out... you know... to see her, where she was and she went with George. I think George followed her, that's the thing right… she said “look after your brother and sister,” but George had followed him (her) and I was tending to Elizabeth and... and George followed my mom and she saw him at one of the, the ahh… fishing holes.

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: With head... with legs sticking out (laughing) ...

Naomi: No...

Emily: Yeah... Yeah... with his legs sticking out, so... and she had her snowshoes ... she ran, you know... l don't know how far away because the fish lines are you know further apart. She ran to pull him out... and but he was okay because the ice was thick and... he didn't go right through. And so that was funny... to me...

Naomi: (laughing)...

Emily: I think she... she ah... she reprimanded me for a while, you know, said, “why did you let him go?” I didn't know he was outside and I was inside with Elizabeth but anyway… and then my father came home and ah he told… he asked my Mom... “what made you run so fast?” Like he could see her footprints of her snowshoes running, right...

Naomi: Really...

Emily: Yeah and something like saying “what were you running for?” You know…

Naomi: Yeah…

Emily: Such long strides – and (s)he told him about George... yeah... and, and I think it was at that same campsite that ... that my father had caught some otter, a couple of otters, and my mother had cooked the liver and it was that same day I think I kept eating the liver.

Naomi: Mmhm ...

Emily: And while she was away you know tending to the fishhooks, l was eating and eating them and I was so sick after that (laughing)... I overdosed on the otter liver...

Naomi: Ummhmm.

Emily: And you’re not supposed to eat it that... that much ...

Naomi: Mmhm ...

Emily: But, I had a couple, I guess, and I got sick from them...and ah ... and then ...and, I think, this was, probably, I was probably seven around that time.

Naomi: umhmm ...

Emily: Or, eight, so I'm going back and forth, these two years because now I'm remembering more, right?

Naomi: Okay good, good.

Emily: And ah... to continue with my last year in the bush with my family, the year Ronnie was born, that's how we remember stuff...

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: The year Ronnie was born; Jane and I used to... I cut, I cut my self with an axe but before that I use to cry wolf with Jane...

Naomi: (laughing).

Emily: I would say “Jane, I cut myself,” and I would pretend to cry and when it finally happened, like, I had a very deep cut here...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: On my um kneecap ...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: With an axe and because we were allowed then, eight, ten, nine, ten year old, you know, were supposed to learn to cut trees down and at our size...

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily:...and I get boughs and stuff like that. And so, she didn't come right...she didn't come to me then because she heard this story (laughing) ... So many times, or couple of times ...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: So I started screaming for my mom and she came and she saw that that I was bleeding and she ran home and they came and got me – it was a deep cut and I could see it when they were moving it, that it was blood spattering like a gash, you know what I mean…

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Like a... like a…

Naomi: Like ah geyser?!

Emily: Geyser thing, and I think my grandfather had the weeshinaow, the beaver things...

Naomi: Testicles?

Emily: (laughing) Yeah, that's what they used to cure me with...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Put one there and it’s healed ... and I healed, but I had a stiff leg for a while and John used to tell me there was this Inuit man... I think his name was Joe and he had a stiff leg.

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And this is how I walked when we were travelling ...

Naomi: Uhumm ...

Emily: And he would say, “Hey there goes Joe again!” you know?(laughing)

Emily: And sometimes my father would put me on his toboggan, on top, and pull me...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Yeah, because of that, and Elizabeth was walking by then and she would she would be jealous of that, I think, she would cry to get on too, but she was for what? you know, “you’re okay!” (laughing) I think that's when it started the whole thing ... (laughing).

Naomi: Oh no!

Emily: Our relationship now, but anyway... So that's that year we were doing alright, you know, we were pretty... pretty good in after Christmas ...

Naomi: When you mean: you’re doing...

Emily: I mean...

Naomi: When you say you are doing alright, that means there was food ...

Emily: Yeah ... there was food, enough food for everyone and my father was catching fur, you know?

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Then when we come back here and we had enough fish and, remembered too, one time when early… early in the spring or maybe late spring we went fishing with my mom on a lake; she caught a very big fish and also, she was taking those red berries ...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Currants... And, that were exposed already in the snow under the trees... So, she picked some and we went home. We had gone for the whole day. I think she… my father had gone hunting and she wanted to get away from home, too. I think we were already living with my grandparent, my grandfather and my Aunt Mary and George.

Naomi: Umhm.

Emily: And... so we came home with lots of fish and they were happy with the big fish and she made, you know, shikumin with the red berries...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: So that was that was a treat and I think it was that time that Elizabeth or was it Ronnie yeah, Ronnie was the baby that year, while we were fishing my... I don't know there was a very ah…we were on a hill but for some reason there was a very deep steep hole in the ground but at the bottom was water ...

Naomi: Yeah...Emily: A lake, I don't know, about the size not... not much bigger than this living room if we had to make it that round.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And there was still some ice in there but it was very steep I don't know what made that could be a meteorite that nobody dug it because it was probably from the ceiling down like sloping down and the bottom was just water right ...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: So... what could have made that, I don't know... could have been a meteorite I don't know... Really you know it was in a sandy hill and there was small trees around. My father, my mom put Ronnie standing up in his mamapshun and hiphaps...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Standing on the, on a clump of small trees and, l don't know what happened, I really don't know what happened, l moved him, I think.

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: To do... to tend to... because she was crying because my mother was out on the ice with her fishing...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And l don't know but somehow he rolled out... (laughing).

Naomi: Ohh... All the way down?

Emily: All the... no, George caught him – he saw him and he ran and just threw himself in front of him before he could hit the ice out down this formation, I don't know, but anyway he caught him and we dragged him out, up and, of course, he was crying but he stopped crying. He wouldn't have drowned but maybe hit his head on the ice (laughing).

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But yeah, that was, of course, we got all – my mother started shouting at us and stuff, you know, it was funny... yeah, that was that year Ronnie rolled down the hill and the other thing so did we have caribou that year? ... but it was the year before I think that.. that people were wondering where we were because everybody was in town already and we were the only ones.

Naomi: Hmmm...

Emily: … not coming in and we were coming in... in, I don't know, maybe in July, I don't know when in July because we had so much food with us...

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: Caribou food and dried food and all that bimmie... you know?

Naomi: Umhm ...

Emily: And so we had to make many trips back and forth in the portages and also... yeah that was the year before and they were wondering ah what had happened to us but finally we came and all the village was there, down the bank, you know...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: ...greeting us and helping us set up and they were also very excited because they saw all the packets of food, the way it is packed...

Naomi: Umhmm...

Emily: Some of the food, dried food...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: ...meats, because you put them in a dried… in a caribou skin that has not been smoked…

Naomi: Umhmm...

Emily: ...but still raw, and you pack up the food and you let that the caribou skin dry sealing in the meat…

Naomi: Oh, Okay...

Emily: And the bimii.. so they knew what those were…

Naomi: Wow...

Emily: So, they were very happy because my grandfather for sure was going to have a big feast (Laughing)

Emily: With his caribou bimii...

Naomi: ummhmm...

Emily: And meat... and ah... ah yeah, because we were coming from Richmond Gulf, right?

Naomi: Umhmm...

Emily: Still, and that...that was in probably ‘57, ‘58... ‘59.

Naomi: Umhmm...

Emily: My last year with… because I turned 9 ... 10, no 10 that year... year Robert ... I mean, like l said, Ronnie was born ...

Naomi: Yeah ...

Emily: I turned 10, I guess, in November... ah, November ‘58 ...

Naomi: Umhmm ...

Emily: I turned ten then, so when we came that year down to the posts, to Richmond Gulf ...

Naomi: Mmhmm ...

Emily: Of course, there were no posts but we came there, along the way we… along the way before that big portage but down to the bay, down to the Richmond Gulf ...

Naomi: Umhmm

Emily: We met up with people, you know, who many people were going that way too sometimes...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And they had, they had... they had lived with this young boy that year and took them inland with them and that year he… was when I saw him… when we came up on their dwelling along the way ah he was so skinny like he was being starved literally you know...

Naomi: Hmmm …

Emily: Literally starved and my parents would give them… give them food when the other family wasn't looking...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And I was so shocked by that ... I had to go out of the tent and I was walking around and I don't know what l was doing, I don't know, I think I was praying for I don't know what, you know?

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: And I couldn't look at him, I couldn't be in the tent but I think my… everybody was shocked but for me that's how... that's how it... how I reacted, you know...

Naomi: Yeah...

Emily: Because in those days everybody ah, we were, everybody prayed in the evening and in the morning.

Naomi: Umm ...

Emily: You know the prayer book, right?

Naomi: Yeah

Emily: Before you start your day, before you go to sleep, you said your prayers, you know, from the prayer book.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Follow the prayer book, so I knew who God was and I knew who Jesus was... I mean heard, I didn't know them, you know what l mean?

Naomi: Yeah, yeah ...

Emily: I heard of that… l'd heard of them, and you prayed and stuff like that and... and I was praying and I... I don't know what I prayed about and... maybe I was praying to help the child...

Naomi: Umhmm ...

Emily: And l felt so helpless anyway and I don't know if I asked why or what, or I think I was praying, I didn't know he was being starved, l thought he was sick that's why I was praying for him...

Naomi: Okay...

Emily: He was so skinny but he couldn't get up; like it always reminds me when I see these commercials you know, those starving kids?

Naomi: Yeah ....

Emily: And that's, ah, recently I remembered that I think within the last three months this year, this spring, l remembered that and it hit me so hard, as it hit me then ...

Naomi: Wow...

Emily: Because like I said... when I stopped working I had more time to think, you know (laughing)

Naomi: Hmmm...

Emily: Maybe, remember and he came to mind and I hadn't resolved it I guess because it, I was crying and I was eating at that time when that happened and I don't ...

Naomi: Hey just a sec I have to um... I have to I think I have to download and I've gotto take the disc and ah ....

Emily: Okay...

Naomi: just a second... figure all this stuff out... just give me one second here and I'm just going to turn off the tape for a second as well...

Interview #6

Naomi: Okay, we’re recording again now.

Emily: Okay.

(Mumbling in the background)

Naomi: Okay, so do you want to continue with that story of the boy who was starving? Or ...

Emily: Ah, yeah, I was at the end... I was at the end of it...

Naomi: Okay…

Emily: Well kind of yeah. Okay…

Naomi: So, do you want to continue with more stories about before the family moved here permanently.

Emily: Uh, yes...

Naomi: Okay... you've talked a lot, I mean you said before you were wondering why certain things are more significant than others ...

Emily: Mmhmm ...

Naomi: Maybe that's part of what memories do, you know...

Emily: Yeah ...

Naomi: Our memories, but you also said that it’s been stimulating other memories as well for you...

Emily: Umhmm ...

Naomi: Sort of thinking back…

Emily: Yeah…

Naomi: And, thinking about it…

Emily: Yeah, uh, okay. Okay. Okay.

Naomi: Are there specific memories of, you've talked a lot about the way, the way that, um, life is almost divided by who is born and what responsibilities…

Emily: Yeah, uh-huh.

Naomi: ...you had, and the foods that were available, and the places that the family moved to and...

Emily: Okay

Naomi: Who you were living with…

Emily: Yeah...

Naomi: What about um... if you want like, sort of a specific, more of a specific memory ...

Emily: Umhmm ...

Naomi: Okay, we're gonna pause.

Naomi: Okay so do you want to continue with the stories?

Emily: Yes.

Naomi: Okay.

Emily: Yes, yes, I will continue...

Naomi: Okay...

Emily: And so, I had told you about the little boy...

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: And my reaction to it.

Naomi: Yes.

Emily: And ah so we all started travelling back to Whapmagoostui…

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And, um, l think Mariah was born I don't know when or was it David – Jane’s, one of Jane's siblings...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily:… had been born that year...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I don't know when but when we came travelling back to Whapmagoostui from Richmond Gulf, we all came together, many, usually what they would do is, I think, we waited for my aunt and my aunt Edith and my Uncle Sam and those other people were travelling with us. We all met, they all arrived, we all arrived in Richmond Gulf, and we started travelling together back to Whapmagoostui.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And by then, you know, I don't know why, I don't… I may have to go back to talk about the base being built.

Naomi: Yes.

Emily: But this was when we traveled that year, ’59, back to Whapmagoostui from Richmond Gulf; Jane and I were both – I travelled with Jane's family because her mother couldn't ‘baddle’? How do you say?…

Naomi: Paddle, paddle.

Emily: Paddle, so me and Jane were on, on the front, in front.

Naomi: Yep.

Emily: And we were both ah, paddling. All the way from Richmond Gulf! (laughing)

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: And her father was steering.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: You know, ten-year-old kids, I was so tired like we had to paddle all the way and whenever I stopped paddling and my uncle George called him Getchiyok.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ...would start, would say, would start, you know, prodding me…

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily:...to go and I noticed it was only me he was prodding! (laughing)

Emily: Because I was so tired, you know. But I, we did it the whole day, the whole way.

Naomi: Oh.

Emily: And we just stopped in the evenings, l don't know if we, I think we did stop for like mid-afternoon, for tea along the way and continued until the evening, and this is like in late like June, late June because, you know, the days were long.

Naomi: Long, yeah.

Emily: And we had only enough daylight to set up camp and get up early in the morning again so I think my legs were, I mean, not my arms were so tired...

Naomi: Unbelievable.

Emily: Do l hear somebody laughing?

Naomi: They're outside, yeah.

Emily: Oh okay.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But, anyway, so that was, I can claim I paddled all the way from Richmond Gulf, a hundred miles.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: As a ten-year-old kid, but that was, you know, that was expected then for ten-year-old kids.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I mean, you were, you learned early to do stuff like that. And we came here and I think that's when I didn't go back by then, there was a summer school. This would be… why didn't we go back? We settled here then.

Naomi: Was it to go to school or…?

Emily: Yeah it was to go to school.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: It was to go to school. I don't know if we ever went back. I don't remember and I don't know um ... I forgot some parts where... yeah… Sarah's here and there’s Brenda.

(Emily having a conversation in the background with another person in Cree.)

Um... yeah, the reason we went… there was a summer school.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I think I know, in fifty...fifty-eight. There was one in fifty-seven, we would go to school.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: In ‘58 and I think in 1960 it was... then it was a whole day-school all year round.

Naomi: All year.

Emily: Yeah, I think it went a while for the Inuit children because they were here and we were still going in the bush and so we stayed here then and I never went back after that, back in the bush.

Naomi: Umm.

Emily: Like the whole year.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But we would go fishing in the summers at Madawow.

Naomi: Oh.

Emily: When after we settled here.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I forgot to tell about the, that time when I said George went into the fishing hole.

Naomi: Yes.

Emily: ...in the ice. My mother had caught a very big fish, she couldn't carry it home.

Naomi: Umm.

Emily: Ah, normally, sometimes she would put your [her] snow shovel between the gills.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And ah and carry it home like this…

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Like.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ...on your [her] shoulder. But she couldn't do that either because it was such a big huge trout that she had to bring it to… I think she had already taken a sleigh with her.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: And she brought it and again my father was again amazed at her, how she was catching huge fish, I think she did that twice on that lake, whatever it was.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And he, l used to…he would get a huge head fish head, right? And I would sit beside him because were not allowed to bother him when he's hunting...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I mean, when he's eating. (laughing)

Naomi: Yeah, when he's eating?

Emily: Yeah when he's eating like you do that for all hunter men. You don't... you’re not allowed to bother them, or ask... or ask for food from them...

Naomi: Oh.

Emily: ...while they were eating.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Part of respect, eh.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: For the provider. But, he would know, I would inch up to him and not say anything because I wanted the fish eye.

Naomi: Yes.

Emily: You know?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: They were fatty and not the ball but behind the eye.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: So, he knew what I was doing. He would feed me some pieces.

(laughing)

Emily: And when my mother would say that, he would tell me, she would tell me to get away, say “don't bother your dad.”

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: “You’ve already eaten,” you know?

(laughing)

Emily: But I wanted that fish... the eyes... the fish eyes. So that's, that was what I remember. Like my dad being, ah, being grateful for his meal.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Coming home, and because we would, she would cook while he was away and we, she would feed us, and he would have his meal whenever he would return from hunting and tending to his traplines or...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ...setting trap lines and all that. And sometimes when he would go hunting he wouldn't be home for a long time because he was chasing after otter or, you know?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Or waiting for them to come out from the open water or from their holes.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah, where there's fast running water.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah, he knew where they were at because of the tracks and the fish they would they would sometimes sleep on the ice.

Naomi: Hmm.

Emily: While eating. So, again remembering that time, yeah, otter was also another favourite food of mine because fish was always a staple, right?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And ptarmigan and sometimes rabbits. But the porcupine and otter were, you know, were special foods because you didn't get that everyday, right?

Naomi: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Emily: And at certain times of the year too, when they’re more fatty, they’re tastier.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah, so those were the bigger game, I could say.

Naomi: Umhm, yeah.

Emily: Before caribou and for some reason my father never caught a bear in his life.

Naomi: Really?

Emily: Yeah. I know my uncle did. And where we are now, where Joseph is camping, there.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: We use to travel by there to go further inland and you see he gets a bear every summer.

Naomi: Really?

Emily: Yeah or every fall or spring, he always gets one, but somebody said that some sometimes that's what happens when people... um... there is one certain game they can't get.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: So much.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And I don't think he ever did and or I haven't seen that many bears in my life...

Naomi: Umm.

Emily: ...when we were in the bush.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And so... um... I don't know why that was and somebody said maybe because you were you were their clan, you are their clan or…

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I don't know what that would be, you know, you don't kill your cousin!

(laughing)

Emily: I don't know, be a protector or whatever.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: I don't know but it just happened that way for him, and ah that's what I remember... my childhood before settling in the community, also that I don't really remember all the [armed forces base] construction, all l know is that one, one summer there were ships there and those Hercules planes.

Naomi: The aircraft.

Emily: Yeah, the aircraft, very loud thing, I was scared of them. It was very loud planes and then we would go and lot, lots of loud machinery, you know, it's the first time I... because they were building.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And then and then in the summer too, the blasting.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: To build the base. And ah... one time we, I came back in the summer and that hangar was there already. l had never seen such a huge building ever. (laughing)

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: ...ever ...you know it was the first thing that l saw. It’s still there, if it’s still, yeah.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: It's still there.

Naomi: It's still there.

Emily: Yeah, they were going to dismantle that sometime ago they talk about it, dismantling it maybe it’s because it’s getting too old.

Naomi: Umm...

Emily: Ah, never knowing, never knowing at one point, why did we...? I forget... umm... I don't know, never knowing that once in the early 90s when I was a principal...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: We had to be there because there was ah, extension or renovations, extension to that school.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Badabin Eeyou School. And we had too, go and um somewhere else to do the schooling.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And we went and in the back of the hangar, there were some offices and they built the hallway and classrooms in there.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: So that, l would be in there as a principal (laughing).

Naomi: Amazing, eh?

Emily: Yeah. Never knowing. But people had that choice if they want to, I, I know that the twins didn't come to school then because they had asthma and you had the smell of the fuel.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: When the planes would come in. But, other than that they didn't use it to put planes in there. You know, on the other side of us.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But it was just, ah, you know warehouse and to drop off the cargo but when its opened you could still smell that, the fuel.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: When they are when they were, um, call it... refueling ...

Naomi: Refueling.

Emily: The planes, yeah.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And ah and the smell of the planes as they go, taxi down again, so that was that and luckily, so very luckily, that year there was hardly any snow until we left just before Christmas, you know, for the Christmas holidays.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: We left that, that building for… there was hardly any snow that year. So luckily, I don't know what I mean by that, so there wasn't any s... but also there was no snowplows coming around too, you know?

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Mmhmm. One time, there was, there's a fence, there was a fence ah on the side where we were.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And ah, the metal fence and I remember this one kid, he would always try to run away from the school.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And then I couldn't get him off the fence because he would put both hands in...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ...in the mesh and you try to pry one hand and he would get the other because he needed two hands!

(Laughing)

Emily: And I had John come help me! My brother was the bus driver so we both went after his little hands and put him inside. Yeah.

Naomi: So, can you go back to, you know, the construction, you should, that they... that when it was all originally constructed when you came to live here.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: Can you go back, I mean what was, just to think about what life was like sort of day to day life. Do you have any memories of day to day life, here?

Emily: Here?

Naomi: For yourself?

Emily: Oh.

Naomi: You became, you were here, so from ten, from age ten on...

Emily: Yeah, yeah...

Naomi: Because I know I've seen your pictures.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: Like you know those teenage pictures.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: That, ah, Honigmann’s...

Emily: Oh, yeah.

Naomi: Do you remember?

Emily: I was a teenager. I was... (laughing)

Naomi: I saw, I can’t believe, I found when I was in Washington, DC.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: And found uh in the archives there.

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: All the pictures of everybody from here.

Emily: Ummhmm ...

Naomi: John Honigmann was up here in the ‘50's.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: And doing studies, differ… different kind of anthropologies, not the kind of anthropology we do today.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: Umm, looking at the difference, because there were Inuit and Cree here already.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: And looking at the difference in how people were adapting because of all of the...

Emily: Okay...

Naomi: Umm... non-native presence.

Emily: Okay. Yeah.

Naomi: But, yeah but the whole premise of that kind of research its premised on what I consider to be a false idea about, you know, adapting, why, like you know what's the premise and the premise is that everybody will eventually become more alike, rather than seeing, you know, how we think today; it's, you know, that's a presumption that people made back then about culture change…

Emily: Mmhmm...

Naomi: ...and transformation and didn't take into consideration questions of independence, identity issues.

Emily: Oh...

Naomi: ...and who people are and the value of being either Cree or Inuit; they were just asking questions about who’s going to adapt to this new way of life.

Emily: Oh...

Naomi: So, they were doing comparative studies between Cree and Inuit here.

Emily: Oh.

Naomi: And sent up a lot of graduate students then.

Emily: Ah.

Naomi: And Honigmann came up as well.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: And they took a lot of pictures and they were pictures I brought them back, I don't know, it's been a long time, I took, I got access to those pictures about 15 years ago and I was able to get... they can’t give me originals, but they gave me photocopies of all the pictures.

Emily: Okay, yeah.

Naomi: And I brought them back and Robbie, Robbie Dick said that he, uh, he had seen them before.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: But I deposited them somewhere, they’re here somewhere.

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: And there were, I'm sure, I'm sure I must have given you copies as well.

Emily: I don’t know.

Naomi: Because I don't have, I don't have those anymore.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: Because I gave them all, I brought them all up here.

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: And there was one of you standing. I think it was maybe you can remember it was standing up by the... not by the barracks, but by the hangar somewhere near the hangar.

Emily: Okay.

Naomi: You and someone…maybe it was you and Elizabeth and somebody else.

Emily: Oh. I don't, I don't remember. Okay... ummm.

Naomi: Was it...

Female voice: Okay Emily, who was your first boyfriend? (laughing)

Naomi: (Laughing) Hey, I wasn't going to go there.

Emily: (laughing) Not telling. Not telling. That's my secret. Yeah, that day to day life, we lived here, we lived in tent frames, but I think during the winter time, I remember that we would live across the river and we would come to school there in the ‘60s.

Naomi: Come to school...?

Emily: From the ‘cross the river.

Naomi: Yeah?

Emily: Yeah, because then it was easier to get firewood and we could make our winter dwelling the wiishkichaanichiwaahp.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Which is you know, was um, was warmer.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And uh easier, easier to get wood because you had to do everything by foot and, yup, outside.

Outsider: Hi.

Emily: Hello (She is talking to someone who came in). Oh.

Outsider: You look so familiar.

Emily: Okay. Where is it?

Outsider: (Mumbling). Here's the key (laughing).

Naomi: Here's the key.

Emily: Okay.

Outsider: Wow I like this (laughing).

Emily: What is that?

Outsider: Mumbling.

Naomi: Yeah, her coat, see she closes it when you come (laughing).

Emily: (laughing)

Outsider: (Laughing) my, my water jug.

Emily: Oh, Okay.

Outsider: The one you make me run around all...

Emily: All summer…

Outsider: To look for... (then says something in Cree) (laughing).

Emily: (laughing).

Outsider: I thought it was this but that wasn't the one, I bought the right ones.

Emily: Oh, okay.

Outsider: Mumbling.

Emily: Okay. Alright and it was the same, getting wood, you know, there was no electricity and we had to get wood from across the river and sometimes we lived there for a month to gather wood to bring to our tent frame in town.

Naomi: Wow.

Emily: And, and then, by then we had welfare because nobody was working at the family house, but my father supplemented our diet still, going hunting.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And there were times when I remember he, at one point, he did have a job, a janitorial job…

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: And he would go...

Naomi: In the army?

Emily: Ah no, that no during the…no, after the ah, after the army left and the Québec government set in.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah, yeah but before that, I real... yeah, they did go back in the in the fall but my Unc... my Uncle Sam did have a job, so one time, me and George stayed with them and while my mother and father took the rest because we were going to school here.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Just before Christmas… during they would came back before Christmas, or after Christmas. Yeah.

Naomi: Who would come back, who would come back?

Emily: My parents.

Naomi: But they would leave, they would leave you here?

Emily: Yeah

Naomi: For school.

Emily: Just one year, I remember.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Just that one year before they also settled ah for good.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Because then my father had a job. What I don't know when the take-over was. [From federal to provincial]

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: But after, before the army, they used to, they used to have Christmas parties for the whole village. At Christmas, and they would have some entertainers from the south.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah you know singers and sometimes there was an acrobats and jokers but we didn't understand comedian, jokers (laughing).

Naomi: Comedian jokers (laughing)

Emily: But we didn't get it but the English-speaking people were laughing, so we didn't know what they were laughing at, but anyway, so that was good – I don't know when that when was it, the, the banana boat song came in, it was the first time I heard it there. Remember that?

Naomi: Yeah, what’s his name?

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: Uh ...

Emily: But anyway ...

Naomi: Wait, what's his name? I can picture his face.

Emily: I don't know. But, anyway, they were singing that song and they would take people's names and name you know…

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: ...and incorporate it into there and then shout out the name. But anyway, only the non-native people did that. (laughing)

Naomi: What? Shout out the name? (laughing)

Emily: Yeah, yeah. (laughing) Because people...

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: They know each other. So, we all had a great big party. There was usually stew, candy, ice cream, and the first time that they did that they said some people... there was this one old lady she said, "Oh, the ice cream, this food is too cold!" So, she tried to heat it up but... (laughing)

Naomi: No!

Emily: ...it turned, turned to liquid of course.

Naomi: Yeah.

Emily: It was funny. After they went home ah... I don't, I don't remember. I mean, that was the day to day, you know, you...

Naomi: You pretty much went to school, you’re saying?

Emily: Yeah, Yeah. You're, I pretty much...

Naomi: What was school, so what was school like for, do you have any, what was it like to be in school, was it happy… was, was it a happy time?

Emily: Ah l think it was.

Naomi: Was it strict or…

Emily: Ah... when I was going it wasn't that strict, I remember because I was probably a very good student.

Outsider: Hello, Hi.

Emily: Yeah.

Naomi: Hi.

Outsider: Bonjour.

Emily: K.

Naomi: Bonjour.

Emily: Who is that?

Outsider: Bonjour, comment ça va?

Outsider 2: My driver.

Emily: Oh, okay. I think we will stop.

Emily: Until tomorrow.

Outsider: Oh Sorry.

Emily: That's okay.

Outsider: We didn't know.

Emily: We were late too, doing this so we'll stop now.

Outsider: (Speaking in Cree).

Emily: Yeah and we have bingo later (laughing).

Outsider: (laughing). It's good to see you...

Naomi: You, too …

Outsider: Hello.