By James Wastasecoot
More than 500 participants from across the continent attended the fourth annual Footprints land-based gathering Oct. 5–7, bringing Elders, knowledge holders and young people together to share teachings and strengthen connections to the land.
Held at 1029 Donald Road in the RM of West St. Paul, the gathering carried the theme “Our Land, Footprints of our Ancestors,” with a focus on passing ancestral knowledge to the next generation.[“The 4th annual land-based gathering Footprints was an extremely successful event with over 500 participants coming from all over the continent. “I’m very pleased that our event has grown so much and take comfort in the fact that our young people are so interested and they are taking up the knowledge that we have preserved from our ancestors,” said Mike Sutherland, director of Peguis Consultation and Special Projects.]
Sutherland said the gathering teaches young people about their ancestors’ travels across the land as hunters, gatherers, trappers and medicine people. Those teachings also carry a responsibility to care for the land and ensure its resources remain available for future generations.
“Our elders teach us that we’re not historical because we’re still here today,” he said.
Elders shared stories from their childhoods, connecting participants with knowledge rooted in lived experience. Sutherland described those stories as seeds for the future, helping young people understand their responsibilities to the land and one another.
The gathering’s program listed teaching camps on clan systems, the roles and responsibilities of young men and women, song and drum teachings, the spirit of the land, Ogichida teachings and star teachings.
Land-based activity camps covered fishing, goose harvesting, trapping and fur, big-game hunting, medicines, food processing, hide tanning and language. Buffalo harvest teachings were also part of the advertised program.
Joseph Sutherland said approximately 15 to 20 knowledge holders were involved, with youth, Elders and participants of different ages coming together to learn.
For Joseph, the gathering also reflected the lasting influence of Ways of Our People, a program through which he and other young community members learned land-based skills when they were children.
Those young learners are now taking on teaching responsibilities themselves — bringing youth onto the land, harvesting food for the community and sharing the knowledge they received.
“Now we’re hoping we could teach the young kids what we were taught and keep that tradition going,” Joseph said.
Elder Wayne Manningway emphasized the importance of unity among nations and helping young people reconnect with the land, ceremony and traditional knowledge. He said gatherings create opportunities to experience teachings that were not as openly available during his own childhood.
Mike Sutherland said young community members, including Joseph Sutherland, Keenan Stevenson and Tyler Woodhouse, are increasingly assuming responsibility for carrying the work forward.
“These are our future. These are our scientists. These are our scholars that are going to be teaching this as they get older,” he said.