Fort William First Nation elder fundraising for community teepee

An elder from Fort William First Nation is fundraising to buy a teepee to serve as a permanent structure for sacred fires, ceremonies and healing. 

Rita Fenton has hosted sacred fires and full-moon ceremonies at her home for nearly two decades. During the pandemic, she says she has witnessed an alarming rise of attendees, showing the need for a permanent space.

"We are trying to purchase a teepee to have a place for people who are going through grief, loss, intergenerational trauma — a place to come and sit and be in and talk about their experiences," she said. 

The teepee would be a place for grassroots community gatherings and would shelter sacred fires in any weather, Fenton said, adding that it would also be a safe space, open to all, including members of the LGBTQ community.

Fenton isn't the only one looking forward to the new structure and working to create the space.

Ashley Moreau, a Métis, queer activist is working alongside Fenton to make her dream become a reality. Two-spirit folks aren't always welcomed at ceremonial or cultural events, Moreau said, a residual effect of the colonial rule imposed on the original peoples of Turtle Island.

"There's been a lot of need for community gatherings and ceremonies and there hasn't been a space for that, not a real inclusive place where everyone really honestly feels welcomed," Moreau added.

"Being out of the closet for the majority of my life now, you are more often tolerated [but] not accepted. At Rita's place, I feel accepted, and there's a big difference between those two things." 

Fenton, Moreau and others have been working hard to raise money to buy the structure. So far, they've raised almost half of the $10,000 they need.

Fenton says her desire to help others came from her parents. 

"I watched my parents growing up as a young child, I watched how they helped people. We had hardly anything to eat, but … when people would come, my mom and dad would invite anybody over. 'Come on in, have some tea, have some bannock and jam,' [they would say]," added Fenton.

Her parents would share what they had, even when they didn't have much themselves; a value Fenton says was instilled in her from a young age. 

"Because I have gone back to school and earned my masters of social work. I'm a social worker, so I'm all about helping people and I guess as a social worker, the compassion and care and the love that I have for people is what keeps driving me," said Fenton.