{"id":562938,"date":"2026-03-26T21:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/562938\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T21:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:55:09","slug":"origins-of-the-beavertail-jamboree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/562938\/","title":{"rendered":"Origins of the Beavertail Jamboree"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hello and welcome to Medicine stories. I\u2019m your host, Cassandra Blondin Burt and I am in the Dehcho for Beavertail Jamboree 2026. For the 50th anniversary of Beavertail Jamboree, on today\u2019s show, we\u2019re joined by Gerald Antoine, who\u2019s speaking to us about how Beavertail Jamboree started and what it\u2019s all about. So mahsi cho for joining us and for tuning in here on Medicine Stories, at CKLB Radio, the Voice of Denendeh.\n<\/p>\n

Gerald Antoine:\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in a very special era around that time, our Elders, they talk about the relationship that they have with the land, relationship with ourselves and others. And their leaders were talking about themselves. And at that time, they created a statement of rights, and they say, Yeah, and it was passed unanimously. So as young people in that era, you know, it really inspired us to look at ways of contributing. And then the conversations over tea and Vanek there were talk about saying that, let\u2019s do something in the springtime. And around that time, the municipal administration did an event called frozen products, and like to thank those visitors that came with that idea and doing things however, we felt that it needs to be coming from the community, and so we engage in some really good conversations and looking at ways of contributing. And so that\u2019s how things started to evolve. Since then, amazing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Cassandra Blondin Burt:\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then 50 years later, was it Beavertail Jamboree that first time too? Where did the name come from?\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Gerald Antoine:\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the name came from our way of life, and the family functions that that arrived from that and the functions that our family were involved with was a very special way of life that\u2019s related to the land. And because of that, we said, well, what? What do our people do this time of the year? A lot of them were living out on the land, and they were putting food on the table. And one of the special diet that people have is with beaver. And the beaver Mead to this time of the year is really sort of like a Marvel Mead, you know, fat meat, bad meat. I got, that\u2019s how over, you know, since the fall time. That\u2019s how it it kind of, you know, goes that way. And so, when you roast it over the fire, and it because of the smoke and because of the fire like that, it gives it a special flavor. You know, it\u2019s a very special cuisine that we have this time of the year. The thing that really people really like is cooking the beaver tail, so delicious. And so around that time, there were different other communities that were also undertaking various events, way in the East, in the Yellowknife area, they called it the Caribou Carnival, and further down river and the community of Inuvik, they started talking about a Muskrat Jamboree.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, because of the kind of evolution going on around us, we said, \u2018Okay, let\u2019s look at maybe having an event named after an animal.\u2019 And the beaver and the beaver tail was associated, and so that\u2019s how, how they created that name. And then they looked down to our relative down river, and they took that jamboree and put it together. And that\u2019s how Beavertail Jamboree evolved. It\u2019s really, you know, come to this time when people realize that, hey, it\u2019s a special spring gathering. You know, it\u2019s all the seat, all the what do you call it? The universe is all lined up in that way. And so we\u2019re also acknowledging that today. Thank you. And the other thing is that the beaver fur is at its prime. It\u2019s harvest from underneath the ice, and so that fur is used in a lot of our so. It, and it\u2019s sewn beautifully on our moccasins. And also, after you have a feast, I get and these bones there, one of them is the from the hip, and it\u2019s used as sort of like a wishbone. And people created the game out of it. And then also the leg bone. There, it\u2019s another part of the bone that use it to see how you could break it with your fingers. Yeah. And so, if you look at some of the hand games, you\u2019ll notice that in some of the information on it, the beaver bones are used in part of the game that goes on.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, when families this time of the year get together, they put food on the table and also shared that that food, and that\u2019s why there\u2019s a feast associated with beaver tail jamboree. There are also the outdoor activities are all associated with the family functions, way of life. And so, this is what\u2019s happening right now. You hear people cheering and participating like that. And then there\u2019s also the indoor activities where you come together and you share stories, and also you make presentations acknowledging people\u2019s achievement, like this, and you have a feast. And then these different dinner games that come out, and we\u2019re challenging each other and also having fun with each other along the way. So that\u2019s how these things, these ideas, evolve. Today, I see some good things ahead, and I think if we could be able to look at maybe the seasons, this is what I like to encourage people in the community look at the seasons.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are actually four seasons that we all associated with, and designate four events based on our way of life, and also the family functions. And so, I think one of the things that I noticed, and I\u2019ve observed, and I\u2019m sure people have, is that we need to align our activities along the basis of the family conference. And so, one of the parts of our way of life is to do things on a seasonal basis. So, if you look at the Four Seasons, you\u2019re looking at three months per season, sort of, so to speak. And so I think if all the organizations in the age of the community align themselves together to like be caught, you know, in a kind of a common way of doing things to really strengthen the develop, development of communities is to have these seasonal activities for three months at a time, and align all the resources and also the volunteerism that goes on to these things, and have the organizations like the school and friendship center that got kind of really coming together and collaborating together, and you\u2019re going to see that it\u2019s going to really strengthen the family in us, not only that, but it\u2019s going to really also inspire and really restoring.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd rebuilding the family functions that really required for us to be able to move forward in a way. And what you\u2019re doing is you\u2019re really working to be able to build a path, a guide for those younger people that are following us. You know, you look at 50 years ago, all those Elders, of those of those days, they\u2019re not here with us, and they also talked with us and saying that one of these days is going to be like that. So, today is like that. However, that means that us, we have to step up to that, to fill in that void. And so, we need to also continue guiding the ones that are following us.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Hello and welcome to Medicine stories. I\u2019m your host, Cassandra Blondin Burt and I am in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-562938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}