'It makes me feel like me again': Cooking eel stew with the Native Council of P.E.I.

The Native Council of P.E.I. invited members of the Indigenous community to experience traditional Mi'kmaqfood on Saturday in western P.E.I.

The event aimed to preserve and pass on Mi'kmaq culture. Smelts, halibut, eel stew and other fish traditionally eaten by the Mi'kmaq people were on the menu.

Eels have been an important food source for the Mi'kmaq people for thousands of years, saidNancy Peters-Doyle, a director with the council.

"But also for medicinal purposes. We've used them for various things like arthritis and sprains from my understanding," she said.

Katie Jordan is a field technician working with the Mi'kmaq Confederacy of P.E.I. she's researching eels and their significance to the Mi'kmaq culture, she said eels have a deeper meaning to them.

"It's a bit of, like a ceremonial creature as well. They're involved in legends and lots of storytelling. And you can see people's like eyes kind of twinkle with nostalgia when you start talking about eels," she said.

The eels have to be gutted, peeled and cleaned before they're ready for use in the stew. Once that's done, they're cut into pieces, about two inches thick, and added to a pot with water, salt, potatoes and onions.

'It makes me feel like me again'

Brian Clements, one of the attendees, said he thinks its been close to 25 years since he last peeled an eel.

He grew up watching his father prepare the fishand learned the skill from him. He said he's glad the community can come together to share in the tradition.

"It's nice for the kids to know where their ancestors come from and how they did things when they were younger. It's nice for them to learn, too," he said.

His son, Adam, also came out for the day and learned how to peel eels with his father.He said he came out for the event to get in touch with his roots.

"It's nice to have things like this to remind you where you came from and who you are," he said.

"It makes me feel like me again."

Important in preserving culture

"I think it's important to hold on to the cultures and traditions that we have as Mi'kmaq persons, like myself," said Sarah Bernard, the council's promotional co-ordinator.

"I'm Mi'kmaq and I'm still learning. So, it's really good to have days like this where you can come together as a community and share and learn about traditions and culture."

While it's important for adults to learn more about their culture, events like this have an impact on youth in the community, said Peters-Doyle.She brought her children to the event.

"It's also really important for the knowledge sharing for the younger generations to learn from the older generations and have everyone in between kind of partaking in the celebration that is a feast," said Peters-Doyle.

Peters-Doyle said events like this might help people discover more about their own culture.

She said some members are just discovering their culture.

"So they're figuring out, you know, this is what this group of people did and, 'I wonder how my people did it if they're not Mi'kmaq from here?'"

Peters-Doyle hopes it also reminded people of the importance of nature in traditions.

"Sometimes we are so busy in our regular lives that we forget about the animals or the trees ... and the importance that it plays, not only in reaching and connecting with our ancestors and traditions butalso that they're still present, like it's still an important thing that we should be knowing and learning."

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