Richard Kistabish’s Testimony

Even during winter, our parents, my dad, he needed to move around. He walks around the yard, he goes to see the traps, he hunts, he fishes: that was a rough way of living, but it was also rewarding… also a lot of peace, and it would give us lots of family time. From time to time he would leave for days, but he’d always come back with tons of food, so in terms of security, well, we were « safe » for sure! We had not… we would not be insecure or stressed from this because it was always like that. And we would move with every new season. When spring would come and the ice broke… It’s so scary when ice breaks! Ice jams! It is fun to hear because it sounds like thunder! At that point we know we’ll be moving within the next couple of days; as soon as the river stops « being mad », that is what our parents told us : « we’ll wait until the river calms down because at the moment it is « mad » for being bottled up under the ice, it needs to rumble, it needs to weep, it needs to let it all out » !

When we left for holidays, we were 10 days in a canoe. 10 days in a canoe with dogs, all of our stuff, with an 18 feet or 17 feet canoe, everything fits in there! The man, the woman, the little ones, the dogs, and food… and the tent! Then we’d leave for long, long rides. It was so much fun. You leave first thing in the morning, the sun, the wind and the waves, and we would row. We took our time, there was no hurry! And we would get off every day and set up camp, we would do everything and start over the following morning.

Richard Kistabish is the president of the Minwashin organization. He has been working in the social and health sectors for many years. In this video, he is talking about his youth and life in nature at the time, he has fond memories of it.