There are some days in Hollow Water that make me feel truly blessed and honoured to be working in this community. One of those days was on Friday, June 3^rd when I was invited by Laura Hardisty, an employee at the Health Centre and good friend, to attend the closing ceremony of Cultural Week. After making the perilous journey 5 kms over the rough gravel road with potholes the size of a children's swimming pool, we arrived at Wanipigow School.

In the gymnasium, elders were displaying old artifacts, photographs and family heirlooms to interested students. At the end of the line of tables Gladys Ferchuck, founder of the Health Centre garden site, was trying to fill the missing branches in a community ancestry chart. As I followed Laura outside the back doors of the gym I was met with the sound of more than three hundred students of the school, grades K to 12, shouting, screaming and laughing as they participated in activities. Walking past a row of kids playing tug of war, we migrated to the sacred fire, where Ed had been tending to it without sleep for the duration of the cultural week. I introduced myself and in a couple of minutes, he decided it was time for the closing ceremonies.