Hide tanning camp for 2-spirit youth teaches culture and creates new traditions

Two-spirit Indigenous youth gathered at a park near Barrie, Ont., last week to learn traditional hide tanning techniques.

Niizh Manidook Hide Camp ranAug.7-15 and was hosted bySpringwater Provincial Park, which the First Nation operates.Niizh manidook means two-spirit in the Anishinaabe language.

Sheri Osden Nault, who is Mtis with family roots in the Red River area, was one of40 participants at the camp.Naultuses they/them pronouns.

Last spring,Nault was contacted by a friend who offered them a deer hide.They thought about trying to learn how to tan hide on their own but then came across a post about the camp.

"Working with my hands is really intuitive for me," Nault said.

"I've been finding the processes are the way I'm good at learning because it's very hands-on."

The hide still had some flesh and fat on it that needed to be scraped off aprocesscalled fleshing.

Then the hide is soaked in a lye solution, which is a mixture of wood ash and water. This helpsthe hair to come out easily.

Nault said thenext step was scraping more hair off and also graining the hide to remove any remaining skin. The hide then goes through a softening and smoking stagewhich involves rubbing it with deer brain mixed with water to break down the membranes and oils. This is repeated a few times before the hide is complete.

"It's just super nice to have a whole bunch of other queer Indigenous folks around me," they said.

"At no point in my life, unless someone knows me well, does anyone get my pronouns right.And here most people use they/them pronouns. It's really nice just to feel seen immediately."

The camp wasfunded through the Ontario Trillium Foundation Youth Opportunity Fund. There were five instructorsfrom different nations, an onsite community care worker and an elder.

Hunter Cassag, who is Georgian Bay Mtis and Beze Gray from Aamjiwnaang First Nation near Sarnia, Ont. were the coordinators of the camp.

Cassagattendeda hide tanning camp withLutselk'e Dene Nation, NWT.and wanted to host a hide campfor the two-spirit community in Southern Ontario.

"It's really important for our youth to have welcoming spaces to find themselves and explore Indigenous roots and traditional arts,"said Cassag.

"It's life affirming."

Cassag hopes thepeople they teach keep practising and bring the tradition back into their communities.

MaryAnnMaiangowi-Manatch, who is fromWikwemikongUncededTerritory but has family from Rapid Lake First Nation,saidshe hasworked withmoose and deer hidein her art and wanted toknow how it was prepared.

"I almost felt as if it was wrong for me to be spending so much time working on it and spending so much time selling it when I didn't have the full knowledge going into it of how this leather was prepared and all the teachings that are so special to it," she said.

"Now I'm feeling my own hide and it feels so special to me and I feel like it has so much life . . . . It has so much spirit and it's a spirit I want to nurture."

Ter Roy, who is Anishinaabe is from Beausoleil First Nation and Nipissing First Nation,is in her third season of hide tanning and met Cassag through a two-spirit powwow at Springwater in 2018.

She said the experience has been magical.

"We're actually revitalizing culture and not only revitalizing it, but creating new traditions for us to carry on as Indigiqueer people."

She said it'snice to seeinterest around traditional activities in the two-spirit Indigenous community.

"The snowball is starting to roll and it's changing things," said Roy.

"We don't really see it right now, but we believe in the future we will have actual little youth hide camps throughout all our reserves and it will be something to be proud of."