Cecilia Fiddler

Air Date: April 7, 2022

Summary

In this first podcast segment, Cecilia Fiddler, speaks about traditional Cree values and the importance of the Cree language. She touches on the topics of treaties, traditional medicines, traditional healing, and cultural protocol.

• English Translation

  C.F.: Cree-Just like this, as you are all sitting around here in a circle. This is the only way we need to keep persevering, to help one another. My Cree name is Kā-maskowisītēwiskwēw, [Cree spiritual name Walking Bear Claw Woman]. I had heard that, maybe it was yesterday, that someone said that your Cree spiritual name will help you. Our non-Indigenous names will not be able to help us. We are not Caucasian. Your Cree name is what you’re supposed to use. I am grateful to hear what you have to talk about. Just like what Martin said. That he is worried about his children, his grandchildren, his great grandchildren. That is our only life ahead of us.
  
  I was also told by that same person from before that it is going to be difficult in the future. There will be suffering. There will be hunger. I see that our lands are being all clear cut. It is not going to be very long in the future that it will become, maybe around 2 years time, he said, that it will happen. There is going to be a meeting in Island Lake to talk about how the Treaty promises and our way of life was supported/protected by the Treaties. It is going to happen on March 20th, Island Lake. He/she gave me a phone number. It would be nice if our leadership would send us and the elderly people in the two busses that the band has. They would take all of us there so that we can listen and speak on how our lives can improve. Because there are a lot of things happening. Just like how I heard how the non-Indigenous people are trying to have control over us. Just like my son Lynal who lives in North Battleford. He told me that he was told by housing authority that he was not allowed to (English-smudging) inside his rental home or… (English-He’s going to get charged.) and evicted from there and “(English- I’m going to take them to court,)” he said. Not very long ago I asked him about “what is happening with what they told you?”
  
  “Nothing.” (English-nothing) “I went and gave them heck. I told them that they shouldn’t be doing that because that’s the only thing that helps me and my family,” he told me.
  
  Everyday, it is up to the Creator. “Non-Indigenous people are trying to control us is different ways.” Lynal told me. “But we shouldn’t listen to them,” He told me. (English-“We have a mind of our own.”)
  
  “We don’t have to answer to them as to how we live our lives.” “(English-We have that right,)” he said to me.
  
  It is true we must be strong. That is the way to be strong as to help one another to preserve, to visit one another and to get to know one another very well. That right there is kindness. We are not using our feelings/emotions enough. That is how I witnessed our relatives… Cree people of long ago when they used to meet, they used to hug and kiss one another. They were happy to see one another. That is what I am starting to see now. That way is starting up again in our lives. We tend to speak English to our young people. Just like myself for example, everyday I always speak to my children and grandchildren in the English language. I don’t even think about it until after I have talked. I think to myself afterward. This is how I should have said to them using the Cree language. I was asking my grandson Franky using the Cree language, “how did you sleep last night?” I asked him.
  
  (English-“Good,”) he said. (English-I asked him. “Do you understand what I asked you?”) I said to him.
  
  (English-“Yeah, you asked me how I slept,” he said.)
  
  The children are smart. It won’t take them long to learn how to speak their own Cree language. He already is starting to learn how he can speak Cree. He doesn’t really know how to speak Cree but he is getting better. That is what is good. To be able to use our Cree language. That is what was given to us Cree people to use. Why is it that we do not use it? It is also useful to be able to communicate in English so that we can talk with and understand one another with non-Indigenous people. It is very important as Cree people to try to understand and talk with each other using our Cree language. I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to bring us Elders together here today. That is the only way as Elders to persevere, to listen to one another. Not just one or two people, but all of us to be heard by these people. Those that are sitting here right now.
  
  (English-You are patient or you care.)
  
  You are having emotions as you are here. There is one thing that I want say to you. Here before we had gone to Meadow Lake for that meeting, I was very ill. My kidneys were bothering me. I was only taking pills and insulin for my illness. It was like I had (English-no time) to make traditional herbal medicine to doctor myself. I asked my mother about the traditional herbal medicine that my son was coming to get from her. I told her that I also was having pain in my kidneys as I walk. My mom told me that she would make me some medicine also. I went and offered (English-tobacco) protocol for the medicine that she made for me. I then began drinking the medicine. (English-Today is the fourth day.) Already I am walking better. I do not feel the pain that I had when I walked. I was not even able to help myself to get on the (English-bus). But today that medicine has helped me. Our Traditional Herbal medicines are strong. They are the ones we need to use when we are ill. To doctor our children with them when they are ill. That is all I wanted to say.
  
  (English-Thank You.) I’m grateful to all of you.

• Keywords

  circle (kawaskapihk)
  
  persevering (ta kamwemikawahk)
  
  to help one another (ta wacihktowak)
  
  Cree name (nehiyawihkowin)
  
  I had heard (e-peyitaman)
  
  yesterday (otakosihk)
  
  Cree spiritual name (ki-nehiyawihowinaw)
  
  grateful (na naskomin)
  
  his/her children (o-cawaseemsowa)
  
  his/her grandchildren (o-seemsiwa)
  
  great grandchildren (o-chapanwa)
  
  life (pimatisowinowa)
  
  
  
  he said (kiyitwet)
  
  my son (nikosis)
  
  lives in (kawihkit)
  
  it is true (tapwe)
  
  Cree language (ka nehiyawiwan)
  
  I was asking (e-kiwechamahk)
  
  it won’t be long (moya kinwees)
  
  Elders (iteyayak)
  
  medicine (muskekee)
  
  walking (ki-pimohteeyan)
  
  ill (kakseepaycihk)
  
  thank you (ta ta miyo winawaw. Hiy hiy!)

SERIES

Sîkîp Sâkahikanihk Keyteyayak Âcimowina

HOST & PRODUCER
Christine Fiddler
Bee Bird

Episode Guest

Cecilia Fiddler lives at the Waterhen Lake First Nation in Treaty 6 territory. Her Cree name is Walking Bear Claw Woman. Cecilia was born in 1950 in Loon Lake, SK, and was raised in Waterhen Lake by her parents Bruno and Emma Ernest.She married Armand J. Fiddler and together they raised eleven children. She is a residential school survivor and Cree Elder who believes strongly in the traditional knowledge and teachings taught to her by her own mother and grandmother. She enjoys the opportunities to share these with others as part of her community school's Elders program and through presentations on Indigenous insights as an elder facilitator for healing workshops.

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