Our time with the Cree
(Reflections on Kroka’s Legends of Ouje Bougoumou trip, August 2005)
By Badger Johnson, student; edited by Misha Golfman

Cree Guide Anna Bosum
teaches students how to clean pike and walleye

A group of Kroka students with an interest in simple, happy, vigorous living came together last August. We responded to Kroka’s invitation to live with two Native American Cree Elders that knew and lived many of their own traditions. After having a marvelous time on a similar trip to Ecuador, I was pumped. We all had different ideas as to what we'd accomplish. In the same breath, I have to give props to us all for focusing on having no expectations or value judgements. This was a conscious effort to grow our awareness and not spoil the unpredictable adventure we'd have. The effort paid off.

I came to learn. We saw forests, cities, rivers and lakes and animals. We were privileged to live side by side with Anna and David Bosum, two people who feed themselves with what lives and dies in their land. They're a powerful, loving, knowledgeable and wise pair. We spent time in their village community and in the bush, traveling by canoe and supplementing our blueberry and bannock diet with fish, moose, caribou, bear, goose, partridge and beaver. We built a traditional lodge and learned skills from Anna and David. We saw many beautiful and many sad things. This trip further opened our hearts to the beauty of the world.

Living simply and close to nature (like our ancestors) isn't offered as a diversity requirement in my new school's "liberal arts education, I better continue learning on my own, if I am serious about changing the world.