Six-month-old Annora Crowe became the first Cree child to participate in a traditional Walking Out ceremony on Parliament Hill on Wednesday.

The early morning ceremony was not only to celebrate Crowe, but showcase the present and future of Indigenous cultures.

“Our ceremonies matter. Our rites of passage are valid. They are living, breathing expressions of who we are — and they belong wherever we choose to carry them,” said Angela Ottereyes, Crowe’s grandmother, on Facebook.

“This is more than a ceremony…. It is a statement of presence, resilience, and continuation.”

A Walking Out is where a baby takes their first steps on the outside ground, usually at sunrise. Until then, a baby has only set foot on the ground inside the home or is carried by family.

Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty, a member of the Cree First Nation of Waswanipi in Eeyou Istchee, the Cree territory in northern Quebec, represents Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou. She was part of bringing Crowe’s ceremony to Ottawa.

“It’s important that we’re here today to gather and witness,” she said.

“Ceremonies like this are not from the past. They’re a living part of culture. They’re a living part of community.

“This is why we must ensure that we work together to show that reconciliation is not only about acknowledging the past, but building the future, the future that also includes pride of identity, of who we are and acknowledging our ceremonies.”

Gull-Masty said a Walking Out is specific to James Bay Cree, but other Cree nations also participate in the ceremony.

‘A part of who we are’ 

Gull-Masty made a callout in her constituency for families who wanted to participate in a Walking Out on Parliament Hill.

Crowe and her parents Kimisha-Ann Capissisit and Marcus Perusse-Crowe, along with Capissisit’s mother Angela Ottereyes are members of Waswanipi and the Cree Nation of Waskaganish.

Gull-Masty said the ceremony was meant to help MPs and federal government workers experience about how Indigenous cultures are in the present and future and not just the past, something she said is “part of the work that we have to do” at Indigenous Services Canada.

“I really wanted to show that this is something that is alive, that is growing, that is a part of who we are, a part of our responsibility,” Gull-Masty told reporters.

“And I really wanted to be sure that it is understood in our decision making, and the files that we have in Indigenous Services Canada, this is what we’re creating space for.”

Two of those files are negotiating First Nations child and family services reform and addressing a backlog of Jordan’s Principle requests.

Both of which involve Indigenous families’ roles in supporting children, which Gull-Masty said was reflected in Wednesday’s ceremony.

“When we’re doing long-term reform, we’re trying to capture the components of what ceremony means and what being an Indigenous person means as part of our decision making,” she said.

‘Indigenous cultures are living’

Crowe emerged from the teepee on Parliament Hill flanked by her mother and grandmother, all dressed in matching ribbon skirts.

She took her first steps to a small pine tree where, holding a toy axe, she “cut down” pine boughs with her mother and father, walked counterclockwise around the pine then returned to the teepee.

Gull-Masty said it is traditionally the role of women to “lay fresh pine boughs to keep families warm and comfortable,” which is reflected in this ceremony.

Inside the teepee she was joined by dignitaries including Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, friends and families.

Northern and Arctic Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand, who is Anishinaabe, Inninew, and Métis, was one of three drummers who performed a traditional “calling-in” song for Crowe and her family.

She said in a statement she was honoured to attend Crowe’s ceremony, noting that ceremonies like it were at one time prohibited by the Indian Act.

“Today, we witnessed one together on Parliament Hill, surrounded by friends, colleagues, and community, which made the moment all the more powerful,” Chartrand’s statement said.

“When Annora stepped out of the teepee, a gust of wind lifted around her and her first steps were almost like a dance. Her smile was beautiful.

“It was a moving reminder that Indigenous cultures are living, vibrant, and strong, and that our country still has much healing to draw from moments like this.”