De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre Group
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De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre Group
The Debajehmujig Storytellers, also Debahehmyjig Theatre Group, or informally Debaj, is a First Nations theatre group and multi-arts organization based in the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario. Debaj is the longest running Indigenous theatre in North America. History ''Debajehmujig'' is from the Ojibwe (''debaajimoojig'') and Cree (''tepācimūcik''), both meaning "storytellers". Debajehmujig was founded by Shirley Cheechoo, Blake Debassige and colleagues in 1984 in M'Chigeeng First Nation (formerly known as West Bay) on Manitoulin Island. In 1989, the company moved to Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve (Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory). In addition to being located in Wiikwemkoong, the company operates the Debajehmujig Creation Centre in Manitowaning. The main stage is the open air stage in the ruins of the Holy Cross Mission in Wiikwemkoong. The company plays throughout Canada under its Outreach program. The company was established so that " ...
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First Nations In Canada
First Nations (french: Premières Nations) is a term used to identify those Indigenous Canadian peoples who are neither Inuit nor Métis. Traditionally, First Nations in Canada were peoples who lived south of the tree line, and mainly south of the Arctic Circle. There are 634 recognized First Nations governments or bands across Canada. Roughly half are located in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. Under Charter jurisprudence, First Nations are a "designated group," along with women, visible minorities, and people with physical or mental disabilities. First Nations are not defined as a visible minority by the criteria of Statistics Canada. North American indigenous peoples have cultures spanning thousands of years. Some of their oral traditions accurately describe historical events, such as the Cascadia earthquake of 1700 and the 18th-century Tseax Cone eruption. Written records began with the arrival of European explorers and colonists during the Age of Dis ...
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Wiikwemkoong First Nation
The Wiikwemkoong First Nation is a First Nations in Canada, First Nation on Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario. The Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory (nicknamed Wiky, previously named Wikwemikong) is the First Nations in Canada, First Nation Indian reserve, reserve in the northeast of Manitoulin Island in Manitoulin District, Ontario, Manitoulin District, Ontario, Canada. Wiikwemkoong is an unceded territory, unceded Indigenous reserve in Canada, which means that it has not "relinquished title to its land to the government by treaty or otherwise." The local Ojibwe placename is (Manitoulin dialect; notice the vowel dropping) with the locative ''-ong'' ('at') form of 'bay with a gently sloping bottom'. The spelling is from dialects spoken elsewhere (or in earlier times) that retain the ''i''. The initial element occurs in other forms as 'bay'; the final element ''-mik'' cannot be for 'beaver' (its local form is ''mik''), a folk etymology that violates the rules for Algonquian ...
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Manitoulin Island
Manitoulin Island is an island in Lake Huron, located within the borders of the Canadian province of Ontario, in the bioregion known as Laurentia. With an area of , it is the largest lake island in the world, large enough that it has over 100 inland lakes itself. In addition to the historic Anishinaabe and European settlement of the island, archaeological discoveries at Sheguiandah have demonstrated Paleo-Indian and Archaic cultures dating from 10,000 BC to 2,000 BC.Lee, Thomas E. (1954). "The First Sheguiandah Expedition, Manitoulin Island, Ontario"
''American Antiquity'' 20:2, p. 101, accessed 13 Apr 2010
The current name of the island is the English version, via French ...
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Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Province of the Canadian Shield, a vast rocky plateau located mainly north of Lake Huron (including Georgian Bay), the French River, Lake Nipissing, and the Mattawa River. The statistical region extends south of the Mattawa River to include all of the District of Nipissing. The southern section of this district lies on part of the Grenville Geological Province of the Shield which occupies the transitional area between Northern and Southern Ontario. The extended federal and provincial quasi-administrative regions of Northern Ontario have their own boundaries even further south in the transitional area that vary according to their respective government policies and requirements. Ontario government departments and agencies such as the Growth Pl ...
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Ojibwe Language
Ojibwe , also known as Ojibwa , Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian language family.Goddard, Ives, 1979.Bloomfield, Leonard, 1958. The language is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names and frequently local writing systems. There is no single dialect that is considered the most prestigious or most prominent, and no standard writing system that covers all dialects. Dialects of Ojibwemowin are spoken in Canada, from southwestern Quebec, through Ontario, Manitoba and parts of Saskatchewan, with outlying communities in Alberta;Nichols, John, 1980, pp. 1–2. and in the United States, from Michigan to Wisconsin and Minnesota, with a number of communities in North Dakota and Montana, as well as groups that removed to Kansas and Oklahoma during the Indian Removal period. While there is some var ...
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Cree Language
Cree (also known as Cree– Montagnais–Naskapi) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to Labrador. If considered one language, it is the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. The only region where Cree has any official status is in the Northwest Territories, alongside eight other aboriginal languages. There, Cree is spoken mainly in Fort Smith and Hay River. Names Endonyms are: * (Plains Cree) * (Woods Cree) * (Western Swampy Cree) * (Eastern Swampy Cree) * (Moose Cree) * (Southern East Cree) * (Northern East Cree) * (Atikamekw) * (Western Montagnais, Piyekwâkamî dialect) * (Western Montagnais, Betsiamites dialect) * (Eastern Montagnais) Origin and diffusion Cree is believed to have begun as a dialect of the Proto-Algonquian language spoken between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago in the original Algonquian homeland, an u ...
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Shirley Cheechoo
Shirley Cheechoo ( cr, ᔒᓕᒋᒍ born 1952) is a Canadian Cree actress, writer, producer, director, and visual artist, best known for her solo-voice or monodrama play '' Path With No Moccasins'', as well as her work with De-Ba-Jeh-Mu-Jig theatre group. Her first break came in 1985 when she was cast on the CBC's first nations TV series ''Spirit Bay'', and later, in 1997, she found a role on the CBC's TV series ''The Rez''. She was named chancellor of Brock University in July 2015, the institution's first female and first aboriginal chancellor. Biography Shirley Cheechoo was born in 1952 in Eastmain, Quebec, and grew up in Moose Factory and Hearst, Ontario. Shirley spent her early life on traplines with her parents and brothers, but at the age of nine was sent to a residential school, Shingwauk Residential School, now known as Algoma University College. At this school Cheechoo, like many other residential school survivors, experienced violence and abuse and was told that " ...
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M'Chigeeng First Nation
M'Chigeeng First Nation, also known as West Bay, is an Ojibwe First Nation band government in the Manitoulin District of Ontario, Canada. The total registered population as of December 2018, was 2623 people, of which their on-reserve population was 939. The First Nation have reserved for themselves the 3094.7 ha M'Chigeeng 22 Indian Reserve located on Manitoulin Island. Governance M'Chigeeng First Nation leadership are elected on a two-year term. Currently, the First Nation is governed by Chief Linda Debassige and 10 Councillors: Brian Bisson, Ray Corbiere, Thomas Hare, Andrea McGraw, Debbie Corbiere-Debassige, Beverly Roy-Carter, Henry Panamick Sr. Sam Debassige, Forry Hare and Debbie Ense. The First Nation is a member of the United Chiefs & Councils of Manitoulin Island, a regional tribal Chiefs' council. Media and events On February 11, 2010, Anong Migwans Beam, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated applied to the CRTC for a new English and aboriginal-language Ty ...
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Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve
The Wiikwemkoong First Nation is a First Nation on Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario. The Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory (nicknamed Wiky, previously named Wikwemikong) is the First Nation reserve in the northeast of Manitoulin Island in Manitoulin District, Ontario, Canada. Wiikwemkoong is an unceded Indigenous reserve in Canada, which means that it has not "relinquished title to its land to the government by treaty or otherwise." The local Ojibwe placename is (Manitoulin dialect; notice the vowel dropping) with the locative ''-ong'' ('at') form of 'bay with a gently sloping bottom'. The spelling is from dialects spoken elsewhere (or in earlier times) that retain the ''i''. The initial element occurs in other forms as 'bay'; the final element ''-mik'' cannot be for 'beaver' (its local form is ''mik''), a folk etymology that violates the rules for Algonquian stem formation. It can be identified as a variant of the medial element , which appears, for example, in Southwe ...
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Manitowaning
Assiginack () is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario, located on Manitoulin Island. An Ontario Historical Plaque was built on the grounds of the Assiginack Museum by the province to commemorate the Manitoulin Treaties' role in Ontario's heritage. Communities The principal community in the township is Manitowaning. Smaller communities in the township include Bass Creek, Bidwell, Clover Valley, Eagles Nest, Hilly Grove, The Slash, Squirrel Town and Vanzant's Point. Manitowaning Manitowaning is the administrative centre of Assiginack township. The town was founded in 1836 as a centre of the island's Aboriginal education. Manitowaning Bay is a natural harbour, and the community has a marina with good docking facilities. From its early history, Manitowaning was a regular port of call for schooners and steamboats from many points on the Great Lakes. Manitowaning was the first and last scheduled stop on Manitoulin Island for the ships of the Owen Sound Transportation Com ...
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Holy Cross Church, Wikwemikong
Holy Cross Church is a Roman Catholic Parish church in the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Reserve, north-eastern Manitoulin island. It was founded by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1844 and was their first mission in Northern Ontario since their suppression in 1767. The mission played a significant role in increasing literacy in Canada of the Ojibwe language.Alan Corbiere,Exploring Historical Literacy in Manitoulin Island Ojibwe, Papers of the 34th Algonquian Conference, ed. H.C. Wolfart (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, 2003), pp. 57-8, retrieved from Carleton University, 3 September 2018 The church building itself was constructed in 1852. It is situated to the north of Wiikwemkoong on Wikwemikong Way, next to the Giizhigaanang Community Centre. History Foundation The first known European person to go to Manitoulin Island was a Jesuit priest, Fr. Joseph Poncet. He arrived in 1648. No one followed to sustain a European presence on the island. After the War of 1812, the Odawa, Ojibwe a ...
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Tomson Highway
Tomson Highway (born 6 December 1951) is an Indigenous Canadian playwright, novelist, and children's author. He is best known for his plays ''The Rez Sisters'' and ''Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing'', both of which won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play and the Floyd S. Chalmers Award. Highway also published a novel, '' Kiss of the Fur Queen'' (1998), which is based on the events that led to his brother René Highway's death of AIDS. He wrote the libretto for the first Cree language opera, ''The Journey or Pimooteewin''. Biography Tomson Highway was born on 6 December 1951 in northwestern Manitoba to Balazee Highway and Joe Highway, a caribou hunter and champion dogsled racer. Cree is his first language and he was raised according to Cree tradition before being sent to residential school. He is related to actor/playwright Billy Merasty. When he was six, Tomson was taken from his family and sent to Guy Hill Indian Residential School. Until he was fifte ...
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