One of Canada’s longest running culture camps continues to light fires

Since beginning 25 years ago, kâniyâsihk culture camps have expanded into a diverse set of offerings while maintaining their focus on being deeply connected with the land. Their camps, guided by Elders and knowledge keepers, all whom are fluent in Cree, feature programs like wilderness first-aid, food preservation, hide-tanning, and paddle and hiking certification, as well as education on responsible land stewardship.

They have also started a Cree immersion land-based school, kâ-nêyâsihk mîkiwâhpa Cree Academy of Excellence.

“We love sharing this because it’s our identity,” said Lewis.

“There’s a reason our relatives lived into their nineties. With this land based movement, we’ve been trying to figure out it it has to do with our movement, our diet, our interacting with each other in a good, supportive way. Is laughter and ceremony a part of living a long, healthy life?”

Lewis said that contemporary society is fraught with obstacles that lead to people to become disconnected from their culture, the land, and their history. Their goal, at kâniyâsihk, is to re-ignite those fires.

“Not everyone knows how to pull out a fish and eat it, or cook a meal over a fire. That gap has gotten bigger. These experiences used to be a right of passage,” he said.

“When you come here, we want you to put your cellphone away. When that happens, people become human again. The richness of us being human around the campfire, in a canoe, filleting a fish. That’s the magic of us being human and hanging out in the bush, in safe place – gathering memories and learning skills.”

The camps, naturally, are family-centred, with Lewis co-leading the organization alongside his sister, Darla Campbell, and their mother, Matilda Lewis.

Lewis said the camps therefore are designed to feel less like an instructor-student hierarchy, and more like a family learning together in the woods.

“That kinship is so foundational in our governance, in our home fires, in understanding healing – both mental and physical,” said Lewis.

“We’re always adopting people as well. I don’t have any biological brothers, but I’m always adopting people as my brothers.”

An approach like this has yielded countless returnees and longterm friendships built through the camp, said Lewis. He said he believes kâniyâsihk culture camps might be the longest running Indigenous culture camp in all of Canada.

“Our biggest thing, for anyone who attends our camps, is to have conservation as their takeaway,” said Lewis.

“To look after our home fires, but also the conservation of being us. To be safe being Anishinaabe, Dene, Michif, Cree, to be us. Having our own stories, our own jokes, our own humour. There’s not many places around that are like that.”