How 3 Indigenous families in Manitoba are reclaiming, preserving culture for their kids

When Métis and Cree couple Jordan Skipper and Diandre Thomas-Hart became parents, they decided to celebrate their cultures and bring traditions to their everyday life.

The Winnipeg couple knew they wanted to raise their child traditionally — an experience neither of them had.

Their journey began when they got pregnant. They found a doula, who helped them incorporate traditional practices into the pregnancy and birth.

Thomas-Hart had a traditional cedar bath — a ceremony that involves bathing in cedar water that has been prayed over by a doula — and they took the placenta home to bury it on Skipper’s grandparents’ land.

“They have a little acre of land … so [our daughter] can always be connected with her great-grandparents,” Thomas-Hart said this week.

She is one of the Winnipeg parents who talked with CBC during National Indigenous History Month about how they’re preserving Indigenous culture and traditions for their children.

For Thomas-Hart and Skipper, learning about their cultures and bringing traditions into their home with their 19-month-old daughter, whom they named Binesi Kîsik Hartskipper — an Ojibway/Cree name which means “thunderbird” — is an ongoing process.

Both Thomas-Hart and Skipper work in Indigenous-serving organizations, so their culture is always around them. Thomas-Hart also notes that her daughter has both parents in her life — something she didn’t get to experience herself.

“She’s definitely a daddy’s girl. That’s [a] big thing, having a two-parent partnership,” she said.

A connection with nature

Sarah Brazauskas says she and her three-year-old daughter, Albina, connect with their First Nations roots by spending as much time outdoors as they can.

“Something that I’m hugely appreciative of is the fact that I grew up so close to the land and in nature,” Brazauskas said. “I was not connected to my Indigenous roots growing up.”

Her father, a Sixties Scoop survivor from Pinaymootang First Nation in Manitoba’s Interlake, didn’t play a role in her upbringing. She was raised by her mother, who is of Lithuanian, Irish and Scottish descent.

It wasn’t until her adulthood that Brazauskas began to connect with her First Nations culture through art, taking inspiration from First Nations artists such as Norval Morrisseau and Alex Janvier.

Brazauskas now beads and makes mukluks and moccasins, and has started going to powwows. Through the Manitobah Mukluks Storyboot School, where she works, she also visited different First Nations to teach people how to make their own art.

Brazauskas says getting pregnant changed the way she approached reclaiming her culture, since it was no longer just for her — it was also for her daughter.

“I feel like I just have a newfound sense of purpose,” Brazauskas said. “I wasn’t really immersed in my culture. And that’s something that I really want for her.”

She takes Albina to Whiteshell Provincial Park as often as she can to share the place where she connected with nature as a child.

“The area that I grew up in was so beautiful. I was always outside. And I can see that in her as well,” Brazauskas said.

“I want her to be really proud of who she is.”

‘Am I Indigenous or not?’

Award-winning filmmaker Fawnda Neckoway’s life revolves around Indigenous culture and storytelling.

Earlier this year, her nine-year-old son, Tyrell, asked her if he is Indigenous.

“[My mom is] Indigenous,” said Tyrell “And I wanted to know — am I Indigenous or not?”

“I was like, ‘Yes my boy, you are Indigenous,” Neckoway said as she laughed.

One day, Tyrell came home with a folder he had drawn on that said “Indigenous Learning.” He was curious about residential schools.

“He came home and he was a little bit confused,” Neckoway said. “I didn’t really know how to respond to it.”

They talked about their family’s history and navigated through difficult conversations. But Neckoway said it was worth it, because they connected with each other, their community, and their family back home in Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, in northern Manitoba, through those conversations.

They were even inspired to create a film together, called Kita kiskihtihtakwaw: So They Will Know, which aims to help parents talk to children about residential schools.

“I was kind of shy, but I wanted to do it for my mom and I wanted to support her and show [everyone] the love that I have for her,” Tyrell said.

It seems storytelling is in his blood, too, because he’s helping his mom with her next film, Language Keepers.