b'OFNYPCNiizh Manidook Hide CampCreating a safe space for Indigenous youth,women and Two-Spirit community membersN iizh Manidook Hide CampThe fall is an especially busy timefor a couple months so insects clean is a traditional hide tanningas we are cleaning up and storingexcess meat off them for us. Then we revitalization initiative formany hides that are donated andturn the leg bones into hide tools and Indigenous youth and Two- brought to us through our networkstoe bones into awls and needles. Spirit community, based in the Southernand connections with hunters. WeWe believe that the more people Georgian Bay (Manidoo Gaming) regionstore hides during the fall for theskilled and knowledgeable in hide and the Lake Huron, Lake Ontario andfollowing springs hide-tanning season.tanning, the more we will be able Lake Erie watershed.We harvested natural dyes like blackto return the honour of tanning the Preserving and restoring the trad- walnut and hemlock bark to dyehide and using all possible parts of itional art form of hide tanning in oursome rawhides this winter. In thisthe animal provided to us with when homelands while creating safer spacesway, we are always connecting withthey give up their lives. Over time, for Two-Spirit/LGBTQ+ communitythe seasonal cycles through our hidewith more knowledge sharing and members and Indigenous youth, womenwork. This fall weve received deer and(re-)building, we will be able to save and girls to access hide tanning culturemoose hides from the Georgian Bay,hundreds, if not thousands of deer and camps and learning opportunities, withLake Couchiching, Lake St. Clair,moose hides in our homelands, many programming that uplifts Two-Spirit,Walpole Island and Mattawa regions.of which are discarded during the hunt non-binary, trans people and women inIts been so incredible to see theevery year. leadership and teaching roles.deep transformation that a hide under-goes from start to finishthat a hideWere currently working on an During the COVID-19 pandemic,can come directly off a deer or mooseeducational booklet on one method we have been connecting to land, water,in the fall and start out covered in hair,for brain tanning deer hide. Niizh animals and harvesting through our hide- flesh and blood, but through hard workManidook Hide Camp is collaborating tanning practices. This year started withthey can become beautiful rawhide orwith a hide tanner Nehiyaw Elder and our youth hide-tanning apprenticeshipsmoked buckskin that can be madean Anishinaabekwe youth artist from program, where two Anishinaabek youthinto countless handmade items. AlongSerpent River First Nation to create an had learning and mentorship opportun- with the animals brain that we storeillustrated educational hide-tanning ities in deer hide tanning. We transformedto use in the brain-tanning process,booklet. The booklet will also include a few deer hides into beautiful smokedwe also save and process the deer andAnishinaabemwin words and phrases hides and have been making a few deermoose legs. We clean up the legs andto use while hide tanning. The booklet rawhides, as well. toe bones and bury them undergroundwill be available in printed and e-book 20l I ssue2 2020/21C hIefs ofo ntarIoA dvocAte magazIne'