The Buckskin Babes Collective has been organizing moose hide tanning in urban spaces throughout Montreal.
Social Sharing We’re learning that knowledge so that we can pass it on to the future generations, says Brooke Rice
Posted: May 22, 2021 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: May 22
Autumn Godwin is nehithaw (Woodland Cree) from Montreal Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan and has been living in Montreal for over a decade.(Dave St-Amant/CBC)
For Autumn Godwin, a graduate student at Concordia University, there was a disconnect between living in Montreal and access to cultural teachings that comes along with being on her ancestral lands of northern Saskatchewan.
Although Indigenous people are prioritized in the national vaccine rollout, off-reserve and urban populations had been left out of Quebec s plan. It s why Philippe Meilleur, executive director of Native Montreal, has spent the last few months advocating and working to make the clinics a reality.
Philippe Meilleur is the executive director of Native Montreal. He received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in his home community of Kanesatake, Que., last month.(Submitted by Philippe Meilleur) I knew I was going to get the vaccine at some point through my community and I felt kind of ashamed, as a director and local leader, I wasn t able to convince the government at first to change those strict criteria, that if you re urban Indigenous, you re treated the same as the general population, said Meilleur.