From time beyond memory, our homeland has provided us not only basic life and livelihood, but also lessons that continue to inform our core values, lessons that find echo in other traditions and underline our common humanity.

Šawelihcikewin can be translated as “receiving with gratitude and a desire to give back,” reciprocity, gratitude, and hospitality. 
Wahkohtowin refers to kinship, the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, and the ideal of living in right relation to an interdependent human and other-than-human world.
Milo Pimatisiwin, literally translated, means “good life.” It refers to both the way of living in right relation and the result of living this way. 

In 1905, our elders and leaders entered into Treaty 9 negotations on the basis of these core values, and an expectation that they would be reciprocated. They envisioned “an agreement to share the land” and mutual assistance in time of difficulty. Their vision and expectations were based on more than two centuries of trade, intercultural exchange and intermarriage with peoples from across the Atlantic, especially Orkney and Scotland.

 

Chief Frederick Mark, for example – Moose Cree First Nation’s first elected chief, later ordained an Anglican minister – was Cree but also had Orcadian ancestors.

 

Unfortunately, many new arrivals to our region (governments and individuals) did not share or respect the spirit and letter of the treaty, and the decades following this treaty saw some of the worst injustices for Indigenous peoples across Canada and in our homeland as well. 

 

In 1973, another generation of our leaders, including Second World War veterans, co-led Moose Factory's 300th anniversary celebrations. Along with other organizers, they felt it was very important to insist that "in this land, no achievement by any people is real unless it respects those who are its First People.

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We have never lost our connection to our language, families, culture and land, but for many of us these connections need recovery, healing and renewal. We want to strengthen and renew this rich heritage so we can share it with our next generations, and with others as well, in a spirit of Šawelihcikewin.

 

Šawelihcikewin is the motto of our More than 350 Initiative, , which includes the commemoration of Moose Factory's more than 350 years in the making, and the leverage of this anniversary for long-term holistic community and economic development. The legacy project of our anniversary year is the restoration of Old St. Thomas Church.

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Your support of Old St. Thomas will help us restore and expand a multi-use gathering place with programming focused on strengthening and celebrating our families, language, history, culture, and our tradition and ethic of Šawelihcikewin.  Give Now!

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This phase of the Šawelihcikewin Campaign is focused on the restoration and renewal of Old St. Thomas, but you can also donate to the MRHHA's larger initiative.