Fish of Mosoniwi Sipi (Moose River) Poster

This past summer, Moose Cree First Nation resource protection department hired Arthur Koosees and I (Jhayden Echum) as summer students. Together we worked to design a poster with common fish caught within the Moose River.

The Fish of Mosoniwi Sipiy poster made by Arthur Koosees and Jhayden Echum

We believe the practice of our language is vital for connection to our culture and traditions. Our language is on edge of being extinct due to colonial practices against our very own culture and way of life. That is why we feel great passion in creating anything that can help revitalize our Cree language for people of all ages and levels of language.

Creating this poster was also a very fun way of researching names of fish and using our brains to sound out fish and truly take the time to learn. I suggest doing a small project like this if you are interest in learning Cree.

Fish of Mushkegowuk territory poster made by Jennifer Simard

This poster was a complete redesign from the original “Fish of Mushkegowuk Territory” poster, made by the Jennifer Simard in 2011. Jen was the inspiration behind this all, and without her efforts to encourage Cree learning with this poster, ours would not have come to life.

Together it’s in our hands to carry our language for connection, for our way of life, for our ancestors, and for future generations. We hope that our poster can be distributed across multiple platforms and be used to make learning Cree fun for everyone!

Some common questions:

What dialect is this poster in?

• The Cree language in this poster is in L-dialect

What are your sources?

• The third edition Moose Cree dictionary was our main source

• Some fish and their names were suggested by Geraldine Govender

Where can I get a copy?

• PDF copies can be distributed by Jhayden.echum@moosecree.com

• We are looking into distributing posters soon!