Nishiyuu Walkers arriving in Ottawa on Monday, March 25 after two month walk
Journey of Nishiyuu walkers' names now "etched" into "history of this country"
26. MAR, 2013 BY APTN NATIONAL NEWS
By Jorge Barrera, APTN National News
OTTAWA-A January walk that began in Quebec's northernmost Cree community with a snow machine breaking trail ended 1,600 kilometres later with a crowd of people forming a path on Parliament Hill to make way for a group of Cree youth who had captured the attention of a nation.
When the Journey of Nishiyuu walkers climbed the steps below the Peace Tower and turned, they saw a crowd of thousands gathered below them. RCMP and OPP crowd estimates ranged between 4,000 and 5,000 people.
The walkers, Jordon Masty, David Kawapit Jr., Stanley George Jr., Travis George, Johnny Abraham, Raymond Kawapit and Gordie Rupert had "etched" their names "into the history of this country," said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo.
The seven walkers, aged between 17 and 22, also met with Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt on Monday evening for about 20 minutes on Parliament Hill.
Masty, 22, spoke for the group during the meeting and told Valcourt that First Nations people needed to be treated with equality.
"We just want to be equal, we just want Algonquin and Cree, all the reserves...to be known and to be treated equally," said Masty. He responded to me in a positive way, so I respected that."
Grand Council of Crees Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come was also in the meeting and said the walkers also spoke about the "deplorable living conditions" they saw in some of the communities that welcomed them with open arms along the way.
Valcourt's office said the minister had accepted to visit Whapmagoostui First Nation, the journey's beginning, this summer.
"The minister acknowledged their determination and commitment and he expressed a desire to engage youth in the key issues facing communities across the country," according to an emailed statement from Valcourt's office sent following the meeting.
The walk began on Jan. 17 in Whapmagoostui First Nation, a fly-in community of about 800 Cree people that sits just above the 55th parallel along the Hudson Bay coast in Quebec. By the time it ended, the seven walkers had been joined by over 200 people and the group marched 18 km from Chelsea, Que., to Parliament Hill on Monday.
The idea for the journey was spawned by a vision walker David Kawapit experienced during the protest fast by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence who pitched a teepee on an island in the Ottawa River to demanding a meeting between First Nations leaders, the prime minister and the governor general.
Kawapit, 18, said part of the vision involved a wolf and a bear. He said the wolf symbolized First Nations people in Canada and the bear symbolized the government.
"A wolf alone can be easily killed by it, but with its brothers and sisters everywhere, it can call upon them and it can take down the bear with ease," said Kawapit. "That is what became the unity part of this. We all need to stand together."
With the Mohawk and Mi'kmaq flags flying in the breeze and the marchers joined by youth from other First Nations, part of that vision appears to be coming true.
Kathleen Jacko, 23, from the Algonquin First Nation of Kitigan Zibi, said she took the day off from work to walk with the Cree Monday.
"It's once in a lifetime," said Jacko, who joined the marchers on Sunday. "I thought, I have to do this."
Spence said she was "overwhelmed" to have inspired the Cree youth.
Before marching onto Parliament Hill, the group stopped on Victoria Island, where Spence held her fast. The island sits in the shadow of Parliament Hill and the Supreme Court. There, the crowd grew to about 3,000, according to the RCMP.
Then, with the pounding of the drum reverberating off concrete and pavement, the crowd spilled out and across the Portage Bridge before flowing onto Wellington Street, engulfing it from curb to curb.
Chanting "Harper, Harper" and "Nishiyuu, Nishiyuu," they reached Parliament Hill where they were met by a sea of people that parted before them, forming a narrow path up to the steps of the Peace Tower.
Many in the crowd gestured skyward after spotting what appeared to be an eagle soaring through the clouds.
The walk was also a healing journey for the walkers.
One of them, Raymond Kawapit, 20, lost his 17 year-old brother to suicide. A photo of his brother in a hockey uniform was pinned to his pull-over coat.
"I went to see my grandmother," said an emotional Kawapit. His words translated from Cree into English by an interpreter. "(She said) when a person makes this journey, when they take that journey, that is where they find healing and that is why, for myself, I took this journey."
Kawapit said he discovered along the journey that others also shared a similar grief.
"I thought I was alone in my grief when I first started out," he said. "I found that they were grieving for their own family, for the brother that they lost."
There was also Abby Masty, 11, who joined with the original walkers in honour of murdered and missing Indigenous women after she had a dream about walking down a trail on a sunny day out on the land.
"My mom asked me why I wanted to walk. I said, 'I want to help people because of all the women that are suffering and elders," according to Masty, whose speech was read to the crowd by a woman standing beside her. "Women need to heal and as a nation we can heal together."
While the journey began in -55 C temperatures that froze their food and turned their toques into helmets of ice, it ended with the sun burning through an overcast sky and temperatures hovering above 0C.
After the final speaker left the microphone, the drum again burst to life and a massive round dance, now synonymous with the Idle No More movement, encircled the lawn of Parliament Hill from edge to edge.
For the walkers, the end of this journey is now the beginning of another. And, they say, their lives have been forever changed.
"When we reached every town, I cried every time in my room," said Gordie Rupert, 21. "What would happen if we didn't start this journey? We have to keep our land, we have to. It is the only way we can live."
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Nishiyuu Walkers reach Chelsea, their ranks swollen from seven to several hundred
BY MATTHEW PEARSON, OTTAWA CITIZEN MARCH 25, 2013 
David Kawapit smiles as he greets a fellow Nishiyuu Walker as more than 200 First Nations youth and companions arrived in Chelsea, Que., on Sunday, March 24, 2013, as the grouped near the end of their trek to Parliament Hill.
Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington , Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA - Every step David Kawapit took on Sunday brought him closer to Parliament Hill, the final stop on an extraordinary journey that has galvanized aboriginal youth and captured the broader public's attention.
The 18-year-old and six others, including a guide, are the Nishiyuu Walkers.
They left Whapmagoostui, their small Quebec community on the coast of Hudson Bay, in the middle of January, travelling by foot along traditional Cree and Algonquin trading routes to bring a message of unity to other First Nations and Canadians alike.
They want the world to know the Cree people are the true keepers of their language, culture, traditions, and that the Cree Nation continues to respect the sacred laws of its ancestors.
With more than 1,500 kilometres now behind them - and their ranks swollen to more than 200 people, the journey ends Monday with a final 18.3-km trek from Chelsea to the nation's capital.
View The Journey of Nishiyuu in a larger map
On-to-Ottawa, version 2.0.
The walkers begin each day as one group, but eventually thin out. Some walk in small clusters or in couples, hand in hand, while others clutch walking sticks and march alone.
The sound of their footsteps on the cracked, rutted pavement is like a steady drum beat.
Asked if a reporter could tag along with him, Kawapit replied with a grin, "If you can keep up."
His voice is soft, but assured and his easygoing nature is evident, high-fiving fellow walkers as he passes them by and calling all of them by name.
"I'm really happy there are a lot of people walking with us."
He has worn the same pair of black Nike runners, size 10 ½, since Chisasibi, another small Cree village about 1,300 kilometres north of here, where nine additional walkers joined the march.
The fluorescent green laces make him stand out in the crowd. No hat, gloves or coat, he wears a black hoodie with the words "Ride Free" across the chest and a bottle of water safely stowed in the kangaroo pouch.
As his destination draws nearer, Kawapit says he's filled with a mix of excitement, happiness and sadness.
"I'm going to miss all these guys," he says of the half-dozen walkers with whom began the journey and the hundreds more who've joined since.
"The memories we shared - I won't forget them."
Everyone walks for a different reason, he says. He's walking for the "future generations" in hopes of protecting their lands and ensuring that they will be able to learn the traditional ways of hunting and trapping.
Kawapit's parents, whom he hasn't seen since he left on Jan. 16, will be waiting for him in Ottawa.
It will be an emotional reunion, he says, unable to find the words to properly capture just how proud of him they will be.
The walkers are never alone.
In addition to a police escort and a number of other support vehicles, strangers also go out of their way to make them feel welcome.
Drivers slow down and honk their horns as they pass; homeowners come out to the end of their driveways to clap and cheer.
One family circulated through a rest stop Sunday outside Chelsea with giant bowls of sliced apples.
"This is such an important message," said Kim Ford, who was standing along Highway 105 with her husband, Bill Hipwell, and their two children, Leon and Kaya.
The walkers have shown incredible courage and determination, Hipwell said, adding he thinks it's time for the federal government to engage in meaningful dialogue with Canada's Aboriginal Peoples.
"I hope our government can show as much courage as they are showing."
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Nishiyuu Walkers on final stretches of 1,300-km trek to Ottawa
BY TERESA SMITH, OTTAWA CITIZEN MARCH 21, 2013
Seven young people from a James Bay Cree community in Quebec have been walking for the past two months along traditional Cree/Algonquin trading routes. Their numbers have swelled to about 200 as many people have joined the walk as they stopped in communities along the way. They're hoping to arrive in Ottawa on Sunday. Residents and well wishers lined the route to shake hands and wish good luck to the walkers.
Photograph by: Pat McGrath , Ottawa Citizen
MANIWAKI, Que. - David Kawapit, 18, wanted Canadians to hear his voice. So, on Jan. 16, 2013, he set out with six of his friends from their home in Whapmagoostui, Que., to walk 1,300 kilometres to Ottawa.
The Nishiyuu Walkers, as they are called, are travelling along traditional Cree and Algonquin trading routes, bringing a message of unity to other First Nations and Canadians, alike.
Armed with walking sticks, snowshoes and smartphones, word of their journey spread through social media and word of mouth and, as they passed through each northern community, more First Nations youth - both Cree and Algonquin - joined the walk.
By Monday's arrival on Parliament Hill, organizers expect at least 250 walkers and many more supporters to swell the ranks.
"Every person is walking for their own reasons," Kawapit said Wednesday afternoon in Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, near Maniwaki, where the group had stopped to rest for the day.
"Some people have lost a loved one; others are walking for their own survival. Others want to be drug free," he said.
View The Journey of Nishiyuu in a larger map
For Kawapit, his reason is simple: "The Cree nation used to go on journeys that lasted years to reunite the people. That's what I want. That's what we need."
Max Poucachiche, 24, joined the "sacred march" in Lac Simon, an Algonquin community a few days' walk from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg.
He is walking with his three sisters and his brother "for future generations."
"It depends on us," said Poucachiche, looking up at the eagle feathers attached to his painted walking stick. "It's our job to defend our territory."
On Tuesday night, 100 walkers slept on the floor of the Maniwaki arena. Perhaps not such cosy accommodations, but a far cry from the first leg of the trip when the original six walkers left their Hudson Bay community to trek through the bush in -41 C temperatures.
"The first part of the walk was the hardest," said Geordie Rupert, 21, who started the walk with Kawapit. "It was so cold. We'd leave with the sun and wouldn't stop walking until sundown. Our tears froze to our faces."
Rupert spent a lot of time at the beginning of the journey in tears. Only seven months earlier, he had lost his 10-month-old son, Rolan.
But while he used to cry when he thought of his young boy, he said he has come to accept the death through the healing steps of his journey.
"Now I feel like he's walking with me," said Rupert. "I see him running around at my feet and, as I start my day, I say, 'Let's go, my son.'"
Matthew Natachequan, 79, a Cree elder from Whapmagoostui, has been meeting the walkers at each of their stops, offering emotional support and advice to the many young people who are dealing with heavy burdens.
Christopher Iserhoff, 19, from the Cree community of Mistissini, Que., joined the walkers in Rapid Lake only one week ago. But already, he said, he has learned a lot about how to confront his issues with drugs and alcohol.
He says the secret is in sovereignty for his people and a renewal of their traditional relationships with other indigenous nations.
Marilyn Jerome, 41, says the walk is just the beginning of that renewal and she sees the friendships on every face.
Jerome is one of the many helpers who drive alongside the walkers, carrying packs, food and supplies and making sure the young people are safe.
Every community is responsible for its own walkers, but Jerome said the crews work closely together and have become "like a big family."
"We say good morning to each other, even if we don't know who they are. It's helping to restore our historical allies and friendships. This is what it's about."
The friendships have spread into the online realm, with the Journey of the Nishiyuu Facebook page garnering nearly 32,000 members and daily mentions on Twitter.
The walk has spurred both native and non-native supporters to wade into discussions about indigenous rights, the relationship between Canada and aboriginal peoples, and how to build upon the momentum of the Idle No More movement.
For Lyric Moses, 15, who goes back and forth between her home in the Cree community of Waswanipi and Ottawa, where she attends Grade 9 at Darcy McGee High School, the theme of unity and the need to respect one another is at the top of her mind.
"There are people on both sides who push each other away," she said. "We need to learn how to live together."
The walkers are expected to arrive in Ottawa on Sunday night and will walk to Parliament Hill for a celebration on Monday.
Photos and stories from their journey are available on their website .
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Journey of the people unites aboriginals
BY SUSAN SCHWARTZ, THE GAZETTE MARCH 25, 2013
Martin Gunn, 30, right, an Algonquin from the Kitcisakik community in northern Quebec, whose bone cancer is in remission, joined nearly 300 walkers from the First Nations who set out Jan. 16 from Whapmagoostui on Hudson Bay to walk more than 1,500 kilometres to Ottawa in support of unity among First Nations. Bastienne Duncan Châtelain, 13, left, was part of a group of 15 young people from Wakefield who joined the First Nations group, walking with them from Farrellton to Wakefield.
The Quebec village of Wakefield welcomed close to 300 young people from First Nations communities on Saturday with Bannock buns and speeches, followed by a potluck dinner of chili and quinoa salad prepared by volunteers, and a warm place to bed down in the local community centre.
Resident Scott Duncan spearheaded the initiative to reach out to the group, which was on the final leg of a walking expedition that had begun two months earlier on a frigid day in Hudson Bay - a journey that has captured the imaginations of thousands.
On Jan. 16, six young men and a guide and trailmaker set out from the community of Whapmagoostui on the shores of Hudson Bay - Quebec's northernmost Cree village - to walk 1,500 kilometres to Ottawa in support of unity among the different First Nations. The group snowballed in size along the way, as they passed through native areas and young people from as many as 20 First Nations communities joined the journey.
The walk culminates on Monday on Parliament Hill, where Romeo Saganash, the NDP member of Parliament for Abitibi-James Bay-Nunavik-Eeyou, is to meet with the original seven.
Meanwhile, Wakefield, 30 km north of Ottawa, welcomed the walkers. "It felt like home to us," said Jordan Masty, who joined the seven walkers in early February. "Wakefield was awesome - a big party."
Then on Sunday, in Chelsea, a municipality only 10 km north of Ottawa, the town hosted the walkers with a meal prepared by restaurant Les Fougères: beef and barley soup, tourtière and salad and, for dessert, brownies and carrot cake.
Twenty-year-old Masty spoke to The Gazette as the group approached Chelsea. "My body is getting tired," he said. "The people who joined the First Nations people; that's the thing that keeps me going - knowing we are not alone," he said.
"We have achieved a lot since the walk started: brothers and sisters from the north, east, south and west coming together to speak out as one. We are the First Nations people. Our ancestors were here before non-aboriginals were here. I think that is my message."Masty, a volunteer firefighter, had been on journeys back home, his first when he was only 7, but nothing like this. When another walker asked him to join, he waited two weeks to respond. "I asked my father, my mother and my grandparents. I knew it wouldn't be an easy journey."
He said his father told him not to dress too warmly for fear that, if he were too hot and slowed down, he would get cold right away.
At the start of the journey, the walkers wore moccasins and snowshoes as they walked on trails and ice. They kept a pace of about eight kilometres an hour and covered 30 to 40 km each day, sometimes in brutal conditions: blizzards and snowstorms, and temperatures that dropped below minus-50 Celsius.
"At the beginning, it was very tough on them, just facing the elements and being outdoors. When they started, a lot of people had doubts. It was minus-54 with the wind chill and that is the harshest time of the year back home," Whapmagoostui Chief Stanley George said.
As the weather grew warmer and the ice became too thin for them to walk on it, the walkers had to replace their snowshoes with regular boots and walk on roads. "It was much harder on our feet," Masty said. "That's when everyone started to have their knee problems and blisters."
In what is known as the Journey of Nishiyuu, Cree for journey of the people, the walkers travelled along what had been traditional Cree and Algonquin trading routes. For the first month, they walked primarily through Cree settlements and villages: the Cree territory of northern Quebec is about the size of France, Duncan explained. Then they entered the territory of the Algonquin First Nation near Val d'Or, walked through La Vérendrye Provincial Park and exited at Maniwaki, on the Gatineau River.
"Their story really captured people's imaginations - the tremendous adventure of crossing the north in the winter," Duncan said.
For Wakefield, organizing the welcome was "a kind of acknowledgment that, all of a sudden, they were so visible to us ... a way to say: 'Hey, we think what you are doing is terrific.' "
Meetings were held with local police and municipal councillors and the Wakefield-La Pêche Community Centre, and financial and logistical support was organized; about 100 volunteers agreed to get involved, doing everything from making meals to pitching tents. Myriad municipal responsibilities included organizing parking for vans transporting the walkers' belongings and ensuring access for emergency vehicles. There were donations from local businesses, including food and more than 250 pairs of socks. An on-site medical clinic was set up.
"The cooperation and organization was something to see," said Jacqueline Lambert-Madore, a councillor for Ward 5 of the municipality of La Pêche, which includes Wakefield. "It was very impressive."
Observed Duncan: "We saw this at first as 'Let's feed them a big meal and give them shelter,' but, ultimately it became a meeting with our village. People were talking and partying.
"A man came up to me this morning, a Cree fellow," he said on Sunday, "and said: 'This is what Canada should be like, with different native and non-native communities coming together.' And I think for me, that's what it is. All these people who have this unbelievable history, these traditions and connections with the land on which I live: I wish I knew more about them. I wish everybody knew more. I think that's what motivated me. We can help these people be more visible and we can be with them and connect with them. Maybe the word I would use is reconciliation - for me, very personally, with the people in our country."
Of the walkers, George said: "Every one had his own reasons for walking. One guy just recently lost a four-month old baby to a mystery illness; he was grieving."
Some said the walk was about helping them to heal and feel better about themselves, Duncan said. There are native communities plagued by such problems as domestic violence and underemployment, a high suicide rate and substance abuse. One walker, a young woman, said to him during the Wakefield gathering: "Every kilometre I walked through the bush, I could feel my sadness, my suffering, just leave me."
Politically, the journey was ignited in part by the Idle No More movement. Said George: "The young people in my community asked me, 'What are we doing to show our support to other First Nations?'
"Let's throw in our support and let's embark on this journey and call for unity to all First Nations, to all Quebecers and other Canadians who feel we have to stand up and ensure the earth is well protected for generations to come."
For more information, go to nishiyuujourney.ca.
The Journey of Nishiyuu Facebook page has more than 32,840 members