My grandfather passed away ~10 mos before the TRC began its work so he never had a chance to add his story. Since I’m going through my grandfather’s writing, I thought I’d share a bit while I take a break from prepping for a research talk at U of T next week.

/1 My grandpa, Thomas Couchie-ban, was the oldest of eleven children born to my Doodoo (pronounced doh-doh) and Dada whose home my great grandpa built, still stands on the Duchesnay side of the rez, where most of the Couchies still live. I’m fortunate to have a plethora of notes /2

Every week when I attend class, I learn something new about the language that blows my mind. Tonight, I learned Nbisiing dialect doesn’t have a word for “sorry” - and now I’m wondering why I spend so much of my life apologizing for things outside of my control. t.co/PmdNOm1aOh Tonight I learned waasiinh means catfish. When I was young, my grandfather used to bring me fishing at Wasi Lake and now I know why we pulled so many catfish out of those waters.