The Tshikapisk Foundation and the Arctic Studies Center: the architecture of a community anthropology partnership. (Stephen Loring and Anthony Jenkinson [Tshikapisk Foundation])
Since 1999 Stephen Loring has worked closely with Tshikapisk staff in making archaeology and training in cultural heritage management an important component of the Tshikapisk agenda. The Tshikapisk Foundation is an Innu experiential education program based in Sheshatshiu, Labrador; named after a legendary culture-hero/trickster/shaman Tshikapisk is dedicated to preserving and celebrating Innu culture, knowledge and language by providing opportunities for Innu youth and families to pursue traditional country-based life-ways, subsistence activities and language. Founded in response to the crisis in Innu society brought about by resettlement in coastal communities where problems of poor health, subsistence abuse, violence and village poverty have reached epidemic proportions (see Canada’s Tibet: the killing of the Innu, published by Survival International www.survival.org.uk) Tshikapisk strives to create opportunities for Innu youth to gain country-based experiences in the company of Innu educators and families. Tshikapisk is all about celebrating traditional Innu values and about respect: respect for the land, for the animals, and ultimately, respect for Innu accomplishments and heritage.
The Tshikapisk initiative evolved from a highly successful country-based training program developed by Anthony Jenkinson and Jean-Piere Ashini (Napes) which was called Nutshimiu Atusseun. Sponsored by Innu Nation the program, held in the country west of the Mealy Mountains, created opportunities for Innu young people to gain skills ---as well as emotional and physical strength--- by drawing from a reservoir of Innu traditions. The success of this program was the inspiration that led to the creation of the not-for-profit Tshikapisk Foundation in 1997.
Since 1997 Tshikapisk has developed a series of programs and projects centred at Kamestastin (Lake Mistastin on most maps, in the barrenlands west of Voisey’s Bay, near the border with Quebec) --a flooded meteorite impact crater-- where it is constructing a cultural resource centre and experiential education facility. Over the last six years an extraordinary consortium of interests including government agencies, the private sector, NGO’s, European and American researchers, the Mennonite Church and the German Air Force (which flew in tonnes of building materials and equipment which they deployed on the ice without landing as part low-level flying training exercises) have allied themselves with Innu community agencies and the Innu Nation to build the Kamestastin facility. The dream of an Innu Cultural Center situated in the heart of Nitassinan (the Innu word for their homeland) centers on construction of Shakutum Utshistun (the Gyrfalcon’s Nest). While the main lodge is still in need of funds to finish the interior, a suite of four out-buildings have been constructed and the plans and equipment for a solar-powered facility are well underway. Tshikapisk plans to use the Kamestastin facility to provide a country setting for educational, health and language programs for the Innu. It is hoped that these programs would generate revenues that would augment funds from eco-tourism and experiential education initiatives that are under development with schools and universities in Canada, the United States and England.
Stephen was drawn to work with Tshikapisk by the opportunity to travel with and learn from older Innu men and women who were born in the country and were knowledgeable about country matters, subsistence strategies, and stories: a unique and priceless corpus of knowledge and inspiration that represent one of the last intact libraries of direct experiences relating to humanities common hunting and gathering subsistence heritage. The Innu are forever linked, in their own minds, as well as in the minds of visitors and anthropologists, with caribou. Caribou and reindeer figure significantly in the story of human evolution from the origins of art and language in the Ice Age caves of Europe, to the subsistence strategy of choice for the colonizing paleoindian populations entering the New World, and as the means of survival for circumpolar peoples from the Pleistocene to the present. Working with Tshikapisk provides an extraordinary opportunity to learn from a remarkable group of Innu seniors about the practical aspects of caribou hunting and the spiritual realms and social responsibilities that hunting entails.
The practice of archaeology as incorporated into a Tshikapisk agenda has proved a remarkably close fit: as a bridge between the world of science and the interests of Innu leaders and educators and as a bridge for the Innu themselves, providing a common ground for discussion between country-born elders, Innu educators, and Innu youth, and visiting archaeologists
This past September (2006) was Stephen Loring’s sixth trip to Kamestastin. Stephen and the Tshikapisk team were able to spend a couple of weeks conducting archaeological excavation and survey prior to the arrival of a portion of the George River caribou herd, more than 10,000 animals, who effectively curbed our enthusiasm for revealing past caribou hunting and feasting camps for contemporary ones. The ASC involvement with Tshikapisk has been a tremendously rewarding experience for both the Innu educators and students and for the anthropologist they have befriended. We expect that the cooperative foundation that has been built thus far will continue to flourish in the years to come, that the future of the past, as it pertains to the Innu, will be as exciting and inspirational as the heritage it seeks to celebrate.
Since 1999 Stephen Loring has worked closely with Tshikapisk staff in making archaeology and training in cultural heritage management an important component of the Tshikapisk agenda. The Tshikapisk Foundation is an Innu experiential education program based in Sheshatshiu, Labrador; named after a legendary culture-hero/trickster/shaman Tshikapisk is dedicated to preserving and celebrating Innu culture, knowledge and language by providing opportunities for Innu youth and families to pursue traditional country-based life-ways, subsistence activities and language. Founded in response to the crisis in Innu society brought about by resettlement in coastal communities where problems of poor health, subsistence abuse, violence and village poverty have reached epidemic proportions (see Canada’s Tibet: the killing of the Innu, published by Survival International www.survival.org.uk) Tshikapisk strives to create opportunities for Innu youth to gain country-based experiences in the company of Innu educators and families. Tshikapisk is all about celebrating traditional Innu values and about respect: respect for the land, for the animals, and ultimately, respect for Innu accomplishments and heritage.
The Tshikapisk initiative evolved from a highly successful country-based training program developed by Anthony Jenkinson and Jean-Piere Ashini (Napes) which was called Nutshimiu Atusseun. Sponsored by Innu Nation the program, held in the country west of the Mealy Mountains, created opportunities for Innu young people to gain skills ---as well as emotional and physical strength--- by drawing from a reservoir of Innu traditions. The success of this program was the inspiration that led to the creation of the not-for-profit Tshikapisk Foundation in 1997.
Since 1997 Tshikapisk has developed a series of programs and projects centred at Kamestastin (Lake Mistastin on most maps, in the barrenlands west of Voisey’s Bay, near the border with Quebec) --a flooded meteorite impact crater-- where it is constructing a cultural resource centre and experiential education facility. Over the last six years an extraordinary consortium of interests including government agencies, the private sector, NGO’s, European and American researchers, the Mennonite Church and the German Air Force (which flew in tonnes of building materials and equipment which they deployed on the ice without landing as part low-level flying training exercises) have allied themselves with Innu community agencies and the Innu Nation to build the Kamestastin facility. The dream of an Innu Cultural Center situated in the heart of Nitassinan (the Innu word for their homeland) centers on construction of Shakutum Utshistun (the Gyrfalcon’s Nest). While the main lodge is still in need of funds to finish the interior, a suite of four out-buildings have been constructed and the plans and equipment for a solar-powered facility are well underway. Tshikapisk plans to use the Kamestastin facility to provide a country setting for educational, health and language programs for the Innu. It is hoped that these programs would generate revenues that would augment funds from eco-tourism and experiential education initiatives that are under development with schools and universities in Canada, the United States and England.
Stephen was drawn to work with Tshikapisk by the opportunity to travel with and learn from older Innu men and women who were born in the country and were knowledgeable about country matters, subsistence strategies, and stories: a unique and priceless corpus of knowledge and inspiration that represent one of the last intact libraries of direct experiences relating to humanities common hunting and gathering subsistence heritage. The Innu are forever linked, in their own minds, as well as in the minds of visitors and anthropologists, with caribou. Caribou and reindeer figure significantly in the story of human evolution from the origins of art and language in the Ice Age caves of Europe, to the subsistence strategy of choice for the colonizing paleoindian populations entering the New World, and as the means of survival for circumpolar peoples from the Pleistocene to the present. Working with Tshikapisk provides an extraordinary opportunity to learn from a remarkable group of Innu seniors about the practical aspects of caribou hunting and the spiritual realms and social responsibilities that hunting entails.
The practice of archaeology as incorporated into a Tshikapisk agenda has proved a remarkably close fit: as a bridge between the world of science and the interests of Innu leaders and educators and as a bridge for the Innu themselves, providing a common ground for discussion between country-born elders, Innu educators, and Innu youth, and visiting archaeologists
This past September (2006) was Stephen Loring’s sixth trip to Kamestastin. Stephen and the Tshikapisk team were able to spend a couple of weeks conducting archaeological excavation and survey prior to the arrival of a portion of the George River caribou herd, more than 10,000 animals, who effectively curbed our enthusiasm for revealing past caribou hunting and feasting camps for contemporary ones. The ASC involvement with Tshikapisk has been a tremendously rewarding experience for both the Innu educators and students and for the anthropologist they have befriended. We expect that the cooperative foundation that has been built thus far will continue to flourish in the years to come, that the future of the past, as it pertains to the Innu, will be as exciting and inspirational as the heritage it seeks to celebrate.
