Old Cree recordings inspire new podcast
CBC
A fire crackling. Rain hitting the roof of the hunt camp. The whoosh of a sandhill crane landing outside. Cree voices telling stories.
These are some of the sounds you hear on Lenny Carpenter’s podcast, Apisheesh.
Inspired by old recordings of his grandfather's stories in Swampy Cree, most of which Carpenter said he couldn’t understand, the podcast is meant to both evoke memories of fireside storytelling he grew up with and share his language learning journey.
Carpenter, a member of Attawapiskat First Nation, grew up in the James Bay community of Moosonee, Ont. His grandfather died in 2003, when Carpenter was 19.
"I had never got to have a conversation with him because I never grew up speaking Cree,” he said.
Carpenter said he hopes his podcast encourages others to learn the language and provides a space for hearing speakers and sounds from the community.
Apisheesh means "a little," a phrase the former journalist picked up on assignment in Attawapiskat so he could respond when anyone spoke to him in Cree.
A few years ago he discovered a book, Treaty No. 9 by John S. Long, where his grandfather's name was listed in the acknowledgements along with the Ojibway and Cree Cultural Centre in Timmins, Ont., which held the recordings. He requested and was sent his grandfather's recordings.
He said the first time hearing his mooshoom’s voice in years felt surreal even though the quality wasn’t great.
He sat on the recordings for a while before deciding they would make a great podcast and cultural resource.
Carpenter said he also wanted to recreate the sounds of his time at his family’s hunt camp in spring, which he uses as intros and outros, where his grandfather would tell stories.
“My dad said the candles would go out and sure enough, [mooshoom] would start talking — legends and stories about hunting and the old days, or even strange and weird stories,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter said he sometimes cringes at his own pronunciation while he practises phrases on the podcast, but it's all part of his journey.
"Maybe being vulnerable like that will make people relate, and inspire them to start their own journey,” he said.
The Canadian government has lost in court — again — to a First Nations grandmother fighting to fix extensive mould at her home on Oneida Nation of the Thames, near London, Ont.
Indigenous community members in British Columbia say they are celebrating after OneBC said it had removed MLA Dallas Brodie as its party leader.
Before NASA astronaut Sally Ride’s historic launch aboard the space shuttle in 1983 as the first American woman in space, she was asked a question: Would 100 tampons be the right number for her week-long mission?
Ashley Stevens has scars inside and out from her time in an Ontario jail.
Winnipeg resident John Ruhland first began taking medication for his depression in 2000 when a period of enormous stress — both at work and in his personal life — landed him in the hospital.
A group of young adults from Cumberland House Cree Nation travelled to British Columbia in November to take part in a program designed help them develop the skills needed to succeed should they decide to move away from their home northeast of Saskatoon.
In just a few short months, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will make history.
Chiefs from Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta are calling for a pause on the pipeline memorandum of understanding until they are consulted and sign off on the potential project. And they're threatening legal action if that doesn't happen.
When dolphins swam onto the scene during a study on northern resident orcas off the coast of B.C., at least one researcher admitted to being a little annoyed.
Researchers say there's been a dramatic rise in the number of people going on medications to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in Ontario, suggesting factors such as more time spent online and the rise of private assessments for the mental condition could be behind the increase.
Baby, it’s cold outside — but it’s worth putting on that heavy winter coat, scarf and boots and heading out for one of the best meteor showers of the year: the Geminids.
Health officials are reminding Canadians to maintain healthy habits during the holiday season, as influenza leads to more school absences and hospitalizations.
For 40 years, staff at Nova Scotia's Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens thought their ginkgo tree was male.