In the Country – CBC

May 28, 2023

Six kids sit on spruce boughs inside a white canvas tent, held up by wooden stakes. The fire in the wood stove by the tent door keeps the cool April air out.

“It’s breathtaking,” Ray Sillitt said, sitting on one of the sleeping bags. “This is one of the spots where our people used to live.

“The Nutshimit to me is just very beautiful.”

Twenty preteens have been sleeping here, at Gabriel Lake in central Labrador, for the past 10 nights, spread between five of these tents. Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation runs the camp, 223 kilometres away from the First Nation reserve and well into Labrador’s wild interior.

The kids sleep on layers of spruce boughs, a rug, a small mattress and heavy sleeping bags. Temperatures dip below zero at night and climb to 14C during the day.

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