Alumni Corner: Jennifer Anaquod

Tanisi,

Jennifer Anaquod

Jennifer Anaquod

My name is Jennifer Anaquod and I am from Muscowpetung Saulteaux First Nation in Saskatchewan. I graduated from NITEP in May 2012. I have been putting my degree to use in many ways. I am currently the ECE methodology instructor at Native Education College. During this last year I have also been working towards applying to the MEd program in Administration and Curriculum Pedagogy and Leadership at UBC and have spent some time researching how personal story is a huge part of place-based education. The following is an excerpt for a paper I wrote for Dr. Marker’s EDST 508A class:

I was 9 years old and standing beside my Kookum in her tiny kitchen, I could just see out the window into the back garden. We were not allowed in the kitchen ever, so this was a very special day. “Listen carefully,” Kookum said quietly to me. I was listening even though it was hot and I wanted to fidget, I knew she was about to teach me how to make bannock. I had to remember the ingredients carefully, Kookum’s bannock was the very best and I was going to go home and make it for my mom and dad. I waited patiently for her to tell me the ingredients and instead she looked at me and said, “l am going to tell you the story of how I learned to make bannock.” I was disappointed I didn’t want to hear about how to make bannock, I wanted to make bannock. Kookum slowly started measuring out the ingredients and shared with me how when she was a little girl her mom taught her how to make bannock. That she was told it was never what you put in your bread but the stories that went along with it that were important. That Kookum Jane had told her one day she would share the same story with her children and grandchildren and she would share with them the same words. We worked all afternoon at making bannock, Kokum told me that my recipe would change over time as different people ate my bread and made suggestions. “Dela likes fluffy bread, so always make it fluffier when she is coming,” she told me. This was the best day I had ever spent with Kookum; she usually didn’t have time for us as children so every moment was exciting, even though she never did tell me the recipe. As we were cleaning up she looked at me and said, “Remember Jennie, one day you will teach your own children how to make bread and you will share this same story and teach them it’s not about the bread but about the stories it creates. The stories are always the most important part.”

Jennifer Anaquod
NITEP Alumna 2012