WEBVTT 00:00:11.386 --> 00:00:15.056 Before canvas material was used for making tents, 00:00:15.056 --> 00:00:24.816 my dad would set up the fall camp by cutting down the trees horizontally in half to use for the walls. 00:00:24.816 --> 00:00:29.988 The smaller trees would be used for the roof. 00:00:29.988 --> 00:00:38.413 He peeled off the tree bark and used it as a roof insulator. 00:00:38.413 --> 00:00:43.710 We were given a burlap bag and told to collect moss with it. 00:00:43.710 --> 00:00:53.303 The tree bark peelings would then be covered with moss. 00:00:53.303 --> 00:01:03.688 That was used as an insulator when I was young. 00:01:03.688 --> 00:01:09.778 I remember when we didn’t have candles either. 00:01:09.778 --> 00:01:16.367 My dad would use the wood scraps from his carvings 00:01:16.367 --> 00:01:24.250 and he would place them around and light them up. 00:01:24.250 --> 00:01:32.133 I remember this used to be our lighting while I was raised. 00:01:32.425 --> 00:01:41.559 When we moved to another campsite, before canvas tents were around, 00:01:41.559 --> 00:01:50.151 we would live in a shelter that had a pole in the centre. 00:01:50.151 --> 00:01:55.865 I think it would be insulated as well. 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:02.288 I remember when the canvas material wasn’t around to make canvas tents. 00:02:02.288 --> 00:02:09.212 But once canvas material was available, 00:02:09.212 --> 00:02:16.302 people easily moved around and made different types of tents from it. 00:02:16.302 --> 00:02:31.401 That’s the time when the long teepee was made and also the dome shaped dwelling. 00:02:31.401 --> 00:02:39.409 Moss would be used for insulation so that water wouldn’t drip. 00:02:39.409 --> 00:02:49.752 My dad still used tree bark peelings on top to cover it with moss. 00:02:49.752 --> 00:02:58.386 Boughs would also be placed on top of the dry moss so it would blow away. 00:02:58.386 --> 00:03:01.639 That’s how roofing was done. 00:03:01.639 --> 00:03:10.356 Once we moved to another campsite, we lived in a round shaped dwelling. 00:03:10.356 --> 00:03:19.324 The dwelling would be made under the tree branches so that the water droplets wouldn’t fall directly on it. 00:03:19.324 --> 00:03:28.583 A blanket would be placed on top and used as an insulator. 00:03:28.583 --> 00:03:32.629 A gill net was sometimes placed on top. 00:03:32.629 --> 00:03:36.799 The gill net would be used for catching fish which fed us. 00:03:36.799 --> 00:03:40.595 In the past people didn’t get paid to live out in the land, 00:03:40.595 --> 00:03:47.894 but they had to make a living by hunting and trapping. 00:03:47.894 --> 00:03:52.690 That’s what my dad did, he used the gill net wherever we moved. 00:03:53.524 --> 00:03:55.860 The gill net was used all the time. 00:03:55.860 --> 00:04:02.825 We lived off from the fish that was caught including everything that was hunted 00:04:02.825 --> 00:04:06.829 because there weren’t any stores around to buy food. 00:04:06.829 --> 00:04:13.836 I remember the Hudson Bay store first sold canvas material. 00:04:13.836 --> 00:04:18.925 People were happy to buy it so they could make their own tents. 00:04:18.925 --> 00:04:22.220 When my parents first bought it, they’d spread it out 00:04:22.220 --> 00:04:29.310 because they didn’t know how to make canvas tents yet. 00:04:30.061 --> 00:04:34.065 My dad still bought the material and eventually my mother made a canvas tent. 00:04:34.065 --> 00:04:43.074 That’s when she started making them, she would always be asked to make them. 00:04:43.074 --> 00:04:52.208 She would also replace a new canvas around the chimney pipe so that it didn’t ruin the canvas. 00:04:52.208 --> 00:05:01.009 They did this because they wanted to keep using it for a long time. 00:05:02.051 --> 00:05:06.264 That’s what they did once canvas material was around. 00:05:06.264 --> 00:05:12.895 The canvas material they had was well kept. 00:05:13.646 --> 00:05:21.988 Once Waswanipi was settled, once there was a Waswanipi post, everyone lived in them. 00:05:21.988 --> 00:05:28.411 Eventually everyone in Waswanipi lived in them, 00:05:28.411 --> 00:05:39.422 tree boughs would still be used for flooring and everyone’s home was like that. 00:05:39.422 --> 00:05:51.601 This was when the plywood wasn’t around, but once it was available everyone used it for flooring. 00:05:51.601 --> 00:06:02.320 People would cut down trees and cut them horizontally to make their floors. 00:06:02.945 --> 00:06:08.368 Soon after everyone would make their tent frames and their homes became better. 00:06:09.327 --> 00:06:18.169 During that time, I don’t think many people used canvas when they were out in the bush. 00:06:18.169 --> 00:06:26.636 Canvas was available once the Hudson Bay store was around. 00:06:26.636 --> 00:06:36.020 This is where my late father bought his first canvas but he didn’t know how to make the tent. 00:06:36.020 --> 00:06:41.275 I was still young back then, but eventually he knew how to make it. 00:06:41.567 --> 00:06:45.405 At the same time, people found out different ways to make canvas tents. 00:06:45.405 --> 00:06:54.622 Once people knew how to make it properly everyone made them the same style. 00:06:54.622 --> 00:07:01.671 When I reached the age where I could make a canvas tent, I could help my mother in making one. 00:07:01.671 --> 00:07:04.715 I learned how to make one from her. 00:07:04.715 --> 00:07:09.178 I knew how to make different styles of canvas tents. 00:07:09.178 --> 00:07:16.352 You can see the one we made along the river, it’s quite big. 00:07:16.727 --> 00:07:20.690 Before I was married, I learned how to do my work inside. 00:07:20.690 --> 00:07:29.282 My mother taught me everything I needed to do inside the home, how I should take care of the food. 00:07:29.282 --> 00:07:35.830 She also taught me once everyone woke up to always tidy up the beds and fold the blankets. 00:07:35.830 --> 00:07:43.129 We also fixed the flooring by using the boughs we collected. 00:07:43.129 --> 00:07:49.510 I always remembered what my mother taught me and that’s what I’d do too. 00:07:49.510 --> 00:07:57.101 I remember when she told me, “you have to always clean up the home, 00:07:57.101 --> 00:08:04.901 chop down trees to collect firewood 00:08:04.901 --> 00:08:12.074 and properly place your firewood inside the home,” and I would do that. 00:08:12.575 --> 00:08:20.374 Once I knew how to make a canvas tent I really enjoyed making them, I never got tired of it. 00:08:20.374 --> 00:08:29.509 Nowadays I feel tired whenever I make them because I’m getting older. 00:08:29.509 --> 00:08:37.141 I’ve made a lot of canvas tents and always said yes whenever I was asked to make them. 00:08:37.141 --> 00:08:42.522 I’ve been taught to make all different types of canvas tents. 00:08:42.813 --> 00:08:52.907 There was also a dome shaped dwelling, in the past we’d live in this dwelling throughout winter. 00:08:52.907 --> 00:08:55.952 At that time canvas material was around 00:08:55.952 --> 00:09:02.792 and with a minimal use of canvas and the size of the dwelling, we were all able to fit in it. 00:09:02.792 --> 00:09:09.215 There would be my late mother, my older brothers and my younger brother who still haven’t married yet. 00:09:09.215 --> 00:09:13.219 I lived comfortably even when we didn’t live in canvas tents. 00:09:13.219 --> 00:09:20.393 The dwellings made were very good and people lived comfortably in them. 00:09:20.393 --> 00:09:28.150 Once there were canvas tents, we felt that the home would be as warm as the other. 00:09:28.150 --> 00:09:34.782 Moss would also be used once it got hot. 00:09:34.782 --> 00:09:43.916 Before winter came, people would help each other in making their home where they would live together. 00:09:43.916 --> 00:09:51.215 People would gather together during Christmas. 00:09:52.383 --> 00:09:57.430 There would be many of us who would be inside 00:09:57.430 --> 00:10:06.105 but the canvas tent would have to be made quite large because there would be many of us in it. 00:10:06.105 --> 00:10:14.614 The only thing that would take a lot of time would be collecting the boughs for a big canvas tent.