Julie!!

It is always astounding to Michael and myself that a small, innocuous event can turn into something sweet and meaningful. That is what happened today.

You have met Derek and his Grandmother in previous posts. Well, Julie is his Great Grandmother….

When I asked her age, she shyly said 86, but with a caveat that she was one of 13 kids and her mother got confused with birth dates, so she could be older or younger!!

When she was a child, the government took she and her siblings away from their parents and sent them to a “Residential School”. These schools were mandated for all First-Nation children and were designed to basically “make them white”. As she wiped tears from her eyes, she told us that she was there for 5 years and when she returned home, she could no longer speak the family language.

She has gone on to work in many trades, from working in a canning plant to planting trees for the logging companies. In both jobs, she moved into leadership roles. She and her husband had 4 girls. One has passed away but the other three are functioning members of society and hold high positions in their areas of expertise.

In talking to her, you can tell that she is a strong woman and very proud of her heritage.

We were told that there was a Grizzly bear wandering around the village and she said that she went outside and yelled “Grizzly bear, go back to the mountains before someone shoots you”! She proudly told us that the bear hasn’t been seen since!!

But back to how we met Julie. She had set a fishing net the previous day and she needed someone to help her bring it in. Michael (our guide) and Michael (my husband) quickly agreed to help.

It was raining fairly heavily as we walked up to her boat, with Julie walking with a cane….

She spryly crawled into the boat and pointed to where the guys should row to. When they arrived at the net, she stood up and started pulling it in….

She was pleased when she pulled in two fish….. a Sucker Fish and a Char….

She said that it was still a little too early to catch many fish but that she would bring in a bunch in a month or so.

Back on land, she invited us into her house for a cup of tea…..we gratefully agreed!

As I sat down at her table, I noticed a pair of moccasins sitting there….

She had made them for Michael’s wife. They were made from Moose hide and had beaver fur trim.

I then looked around the table and realized that this was her sewing table, complete with various projects that she was working on…..

….including her reading glasses!! Those are VERY important for me!!

She told me that she is currently using mostly Moose hide that has been commercially tanned….

….but she used to stretch the Moose hide on stretcher bars and use a tool to clean the hide and then tan it herself!! She also told me that she often hunts Moose and carries the nickname of “One Shot Julie”!!

She was proud of her work on the moccasins, showing me how she lines the upper part with fabric so that the bead threads don’t wear out faster.

She was starting her next project and showed us how she transferred the design onto the leather…..

I loved seeing her workspace filled with beads, needles and bits of leather…..

I asked if she sells her work and she said no. She will give them to whoever needs them! She does the same thing with extra moose meat, Bear meat or fish. She keeps what she needs and passes the rest on to those around her.

I left her house knowing that I had been in the presence of a strong woman who has lived a long life and made creativity a part of her inner being!!

The visit was one of the highlights of the entire trip!!

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Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

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