Spring Weekend Workshop: A Beautiful Learning Opportunity for the Community

The workshops held on May 25 and 26 was another outstanding success!
We hope everyone enjoyed the opportunity to learn about the sacred medicines, birch bark etching, and hiding tanning in a multicultural, intergenerational and supportive environment.

At the workshop, we had the chance to meet and learn from Larry McDermott, from Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation, and Chuck Commanda, from Kitigan Zibi First Nation about the Algonquin crafts involving birch bark, about the four sacred medicines, Sweetgrass, Sage, Tobacco, and Cedar, and their ceremonial uses. 
We had fun etching the canoe with Jessie-Anne Sarazin who is also a First Nation's languages speaker and artist!
We were also very fortunate to learn from Jessie-Anne's husband, Barry Sarazin, from Pikwakanagan First Nation, how to tan hides! Barry taught, demonstrated, and instructed the participants on how to tan a deer hide. Barry also shared the concepts of hide tanning, scared medicines, and birch bark canoe making in the Algonquin language.

We would like to thank our guests for your for participation, involvement, and the spirit everyone brought which added precious value to the workshop! We would also like to thank everyone who shared this event with other community members and your interest in our workshops.

Stay tuned for the last workshop of the "Ginawaydaganuk: Strengthening Our Connections" series at the end of June!

• We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. • Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.