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Kaaren Dannenmann
June 16th, 2010By Erika Blackie
“Aboriginal, boreal and caribou are one together,” states Kaaren Dannenmann, a local Anishinaape trapper from Namekosipiink, Trout Lake, Ontario. Kaaren grew up in the heart of the boreal forest. Her Mother is a member of the Trout Lake Caribou Clan, and her father was originally from Norway. Kaaren left Trout Lake as a teenager, going to school and returning to her homeland after she had children. She learned from her relations how to live in an environment which promoted a spiritual relationship to the land and, in particular, the caribou. “Caribou have always been really important to us, there is a spiritual connection. When they migrate back in the spring time it is really uplifting to see them and be amongst them,” she says. She was taught the Teachings and ceremonies of Atik, the caribou, to honour and respect this clan animal. As a hunter and trapper, Kaaren knows the lay of the land even in the depths of the boreal forest, and for the past twenty years she has developed life-skills-on-the-land programs to ensure that her grandchildren’s generation will too.
Since 1990, Kaaren has also been developing and delivering Aboriginal focused trapping courses for youth and young adults. As the head trapper instructor for Treaty 3, she is helping to reestablish the sacred relationship between Aboriginal people and the boreal forest. The establishment of the registered trapline system in the 1940’s greatly affected Aboriginal peoples’ relationship to the land. “[The government] knew of Aboriginal’s relationship to the land yet wanted Native people to look at the land as a commodity, instead of being a part of them,” expresses Karen. Assigning specific sections of land was an attempt for trapping to become privatized and commodified in order to begin the shift of trapping from being first and foremost, a spiritual activity, to an economic activity, which would create a disconnection from the land. Though Kaaren says, “It never quite happened that way.”
Aboriginal people still see themselves as caretakers of the land, born into that responsibility, much as the land takes care of them. Their relationship to the land is a sacred, spiritual and cultural connection which sadly has been jeopardized from external regulation. “Provincial trapping programs teach youth that the land is a resource to make money off of,” a contradiction to traditional Aboriginal culture which views the land as part of their community of relations. Therefore, Kaaren strongly asserts that, “It is important to train young people ourselves, to help promote a spiritual activity and to keep them connected to the land.” Kaaren has done just that.
Kaaren uses spiritual and cultural traditions from the land to teach youth traditional trapping skills. When learning trapping skills, it is important for youth to be familiar with safety, conservation and humaneness. “We deal with those when we talk about the medicine wheel Teachings and the circle of relationships. Those requirements are met by talking about and understanding what respect means to us – respecting the plants, respecting the animals, and respecting all of our relations on the land.”
Perhaps the most important message that Kaaren teaches the youth is that it is not about managing the “resources” but about self-management. “It is us and our behaviour that has to be managed,” she says. This message is largely passed onto the youth through the language and practice of traditional ceremonies. Kaaren explains that all items taken from the land receive a ceremony. Traditional ceremonies are not only a time to show appreciation for all of the gifts from the land and the Creator but also helps keep one conscious of their actions. “Everything you take from the land, you first have to ask permission, from the fish, the moose, the beaver. Also you must have a ceremony.” Tobacco offerings, coins, blood and songs help keep one conscious of their actions to the land and its creatures. “Our relationship to the land is to treat it like you would treat your Mother. You just don’t go breaking branches and taking things willy-nilly.”
Through the Anishinaape teachings handed down from one generation to the next, the youth are inspired to practice and utilize traditional trapping skills and as a result, the cultural and spiritual connections between Trout Lake residents and the boreal forest are further strengthened.
