The Kinistin Saulteaux Nation on Treaty 4 territory are getting their first Tikinagan Family Resource Centre.
On June 30th, Treaty 4 and the Saskatoon Tribal Council signed to start the construction.
The Tikinagan Centre will house the First Nation’s family services administrative offices and staff. As well as provide dedicated spaces for their programs, such as parenting classes, along with a large boardroom and private counselling rooms. It will also feature a kitchen space and a large cultural room to allow for the programming of cooking classes, elders’ gatherings and community events.
The word ‘tikinagan’ translates to ‘cradleboard’ in Cree. They chose this name because of what cradleboard meant for first nations.
“We put babies when their still in a mosque bag, we wrap them up in there, and we would put the cradleboard on the ground, so that when the baby is growing up, they could be part of whatever we were doing as First Nations people, like hunting or fishing” said Chief Felix Thomas, Kinistin Saulteaux Nation Tribal Chief.
Chief Thomas says this space will create many opportunities for children and more jobs for adults.
“What’s inside the Tikinagan Center will be workers that help support the families and help support the children. As well as the elders that provide guidance to them, and meeting space,” said Chief Thomas.
The 8,571 square foot building has begun construction and will be finished in August, ready for use in September, 2022.
“The importance of having this is to carry on tradition in teaching our youth culture and traditions, because that’s slowly going away, especially the language,” said Simone Coté, Kinistin Saulteaux Nation communications coordinator.
“Residential schools took away a lot of our language, took away a lot of our pride, and took away a lot of the skills needed to support children moving and growing up, and hopefully this centere will contribute to a healthy child, a healthy adult, and a healthy society,” said Chief Thomas.