Step into the Dene way of being with Angela Code’s short film on culture and caribou

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Our elders say long time ago people our ancestor ers lived off the land like animals.

[00:00:35]For many like western kind of European people, they might think of that as like something derogatory.

[00:00:44]But for the den, it's like a huge reverence to compare our ancestors to the animals who live on the northern environment because anybody who's spent time out in the land knows that it's not it's not easy. Like it's uh it takes skill and knowledge and you know and my ancestors had that.

[00:01:08]Angela si tasuli.

[00:01:13]I'm from a small community called Tiduli Lake. It's the most northern community in Manitoba. I live here in White Horse, Yukon. I'm a hunter.

[00:01:24]I I'm a high tanner. I also own a business called Denatania Indigenous Cultural Contracting.

[00:01:34]Caribou provided everything for the people.

[00:01:37]you know, like nothing would go to waste. I really appreciate that about like my Denna ancestors and like that way of life because it's um I feel like it shows respect to the caribou.

[00:01:53]So, it's really great that there is like um a movement to to restore some pride in who we are because due to colonization systemically people were made to feel ashamed of being indigenous.

[00:02:09]Like even for my own mom, I remember in high school every year she would make me um some new mucklucks.

[00:02:17]>> And one time she told me, she's like, "I'm really happy that you like your mucklucks." When I was a kid, I was made to feel ashamed of having to wear things that were made traditionally and because her parents couldn't afford something else. You know, for her to say that it's there's a lot of people talk about intergenerational trauma, but not enough people talk about intergenerational healing and beauty and the the transference of of all the good things, you know, because there is still a lot of good things.

[00:02:52]Being a hunter and a high tanner and an artist, um it feels really great uh to be a part of something from the beginning to the end. Having that knowledge or like that skill set didn't happen overnight. It's been a process.

[00:03:09]Like I've been I've been hunting for a long time. I've been tanning hides for a long time. And you know, like learning how to sew or do bead work is still very much a work in progress.

[00:03:22]So, when I do finish um products like making a bone tool or or sewing um a pair of mits or uh making jewelry, like it makes me feel really proud.

[00:03:38]I think that there needs to be like a a change in in how we view u indigenous made goods.

[00:03:46]Culture is a verb. Like it's not an aesthetic thing. It's not just how something looks. Like you have to work at it. Like it's a a a consistency, a lifestyle, that relationship that you build when you're out on the land and you're hunting or um doing the work to produce a skin like to to do high tanning. And it is like laborious and timeconuming.

[00:04:13]It's like pushing back on on the capitalist kind of produce, produce, produce, make money, make money to like slowing down a little bit and being like more um conscientious of like the process.

[00:04:30]I hope I would want more people to adopt indigenous ways of knowing and being.

[00:04:37]That's a main reason why I started my business is to really push those philosophies.

[00:04:44]There's so much work to do and there's so much change that needs to happen, but think about what those future generations are going to experience and like what what their lives are going to be like and what their values and ethics are going to be. And for me, a big part of that is like being a good land steward and being a respectful, ethical hunter.

[00:05:10]I really love doing this work.