The Doig River First Nation

By Emika Uetake

We went to Doig River First Nation. There are a lot of students there. I have never seen and learned abouit Canadian First Nations, so it was very interesting fro me to see and learn about it. I heard some information about hide preparation before we went there, but I saw actually. It was different from my imagination.

Moose's skin smells liek a beast. That was a peculiar smell. Especially when someone slices off the skin or meat, the smell became strong. And the skin has a rough feel. I've touched animal fur many times, but I've never touched the skin under their fur, so the feeling was strange.

After the tour, we ate bannock. I don't know whether the bread was Canadian First Nations' traditional food or not, but it was delicious and interesting.

We listened to their traditional song. The instrument that they used looked like some animal skin. It was raining, so they had to heat that to prevent the instrument from becoming wet, I think. Their song's words weren't English. I thought their language is similar with English. Bit it was different to English. But I was a little interested in it. I want to understand what they said.

I saw their traditional dance, too. The step looked difficult. But a lot of students challenged the dance.

I wanted to learn about Canada, so the experience was very fun and interesting.