paskkwâwmostosak pê taksinak kâwiy Greeting Card by Lisa Shepherd

paskkwâwmostosak pê taksinak kâwiy

Lisa Shepherd & Kristi Bridgeman

We are strongly connected to the land and all the plants and animals on it. When the land is not well, the people suffer. By the turn of the 19th century, the Bison in Canada were diminished to endangered numbers, limiting the ability for the people to sustain themselves in the way they always had. There is a parallel here- at the time when bison were disappearing, many cultures and groups of peoples were in danger of disappearing, and the residential school system was in full swing with the mandate “to take the Indian out of the child.”

In February of 2017, Parks Canada reintroduced 16 Bison to the Panther Valley, in Banff National Park. Four months later, ten Bison calves were born to the herd. The land and the people still have much healing to do, and this healing will come in the way of ceremony, strengthening of our culture and efforts such as the reintroduction of the Buffalo. In celebration of the reintroduction of the species.

“The bison have come back again”

6 x 6

Blank Inside

Endemic flowers: Sage, Buffalo Berry/Soopalalie