Educational basket Wikwemot
The Anicinabe word “wikwemot” means “bark basket”. It has been used since immemorial times by the Anicinabek to carry food, water and other essential items across the territory, its lakes, forests and rivers.
The WIKWEMOT educational basket is a tool for collecting, preserving and transmitting Anicinabe culture, by transposing educational activities to be carried out in the classroom or at home, into a digital universe accessible to all.
A Grace Ratt original idea
For the Anicinabek, moose are much more than just game, and hunting is more than just a subsistence activity. It’s not for nothing that it’s known as the King of the Boreal Forest.
Initiated by Grace Ratt, the WIKWEMOT project highlights a whole range of traditional knowledge (anatomical, artisanal, medicinal) associated with this animal. In the form of a video game designed primarily for young people, Grace passes on her knowledge about the moose’s leg, and everything you can do with it. Nails, bones, tendons: nothing is thrown away, because everything has a purpose. All you have to do is learn, and that’s what this game, accessible via all mobile devices, is all about.
We hope that the WIKWEMOT educational kit and video game can help raise awareness of the importance of this animal on a national scale, and create new advocates for the survival and enhancement of this iconic animal.
Video game
WIKWEMOT AR
WIKWEMOT – AR is an augmented reality (AR) video game about the ancestral knowledge of the Anicinabek (Algonquin) communities surrounding the moose’s leg. With the help and guidance of Grace Ratt, cultural carrier for the community of Kitiganik (Barriere Lake), you’ll learn how to go from a whole moose leg to several practical handicrafts: rattle, nabwan, sinew threads for sewing, tools for tanning the hide, a bag made from the hide, and more.
To see Grace Ratt in action
Educational activities
Here are various educational activities for teachers to do with their classes, to learn a little more about moose and gain a better appreciation of this animal. From video games to how to make a moose call out of bark, to learning the anatomy of each part of the moose’s body in Anicinabe, there’s something for every level and taste. The activities were developed by teachers, educators and cultural ambassadors from 4 different communities. In each activity, we have respected the dialect of the community: the way of writing certain words in Anicinabe can therefore be different from one exercise to another.
Meegwetch to our partners!
