First Nation Fasting

This is video description about our project board

We did this project because we do not see anybody doing this in Science or talking about First Nations Traditional knowledge about fasting; to other people or talking in person to others about fasting. For instance, this National Forum for Canada's Youth is hosted on, Traditional Treaty 6 Territory of Plains Cree. Our topic to share our Traditional Cultural knowledge is parallel with the current national movement of,reconciliation on our inherent land. We also did this project because we want to share with other nationalities about Plains Cree Traditional knowledge about First Nations fasting. There are other reasons why other nationalities fast; some fast to lose weight, others fast to connect with their culture, or too fast to prove their health, that's why some people fast. The reason why people fast is not always about the culture part of it, some people do it for the benefits of their body or fast for one of their family members who are sick or if they are dealing with addictions. In education and as fellow occupants of this planet, we need to share cultures to promote understanding and unbiased thinking. Ideally, we can all appreciate other ethnic backgrounds and cultures.

Most of our information we got from our elders, the only thing we got off the internet would've been the medicines used when fasting. When we searched it up on google it just told us what medicines to use so we did not have to go to any websites. We knew we could trust it because we asked our elders about it and they said it all looks correct. When we were making our board we wanted the design to be like a cultural design but we did not have enough resources, so we had to make do with what we had. When we were designing it we took pictures of traditional things from our culture so we could put it on our board. The materials we used were the medicines we got, the cloth our elders gave to us, and the pictures we took. we got our data from https://mushkiki.com/programs-services/the-four-sacred-medicines/. The rest of our data we got from our elders, and our own personal knowledge. The people we presented to are P. Moyah, N. Brown, K. Checkosis, F. Frank, P. T-I, D, Kasokeo, The 2 judges from our school and the 4 judges from the science fair. Controlling your variables would be to make sure your 100% fasting not taking any sips of water, you would not be out and about you would be in one spot where you pray as long as you can. You have to make sure you are not going around any food while you are fasting.

The result of First Nation fasting is to see how it affects you, it affects you mentally and physically. One of the main reasons why a native person fasts is because they're praying for someone who may be ill, or praying for someone who is struggling in life.They can pray for themselves and their family members. The prototype would be the actual process of fasting, right when you wake up you start fasting, you can fast for 4 days or just for 24 hours, the one for 4 days would start right when you wake, you can be in a shelter in a tree or a high place or in the bush but every time you go and give thanks you have to give thanks to the land and creator, you have to put tobacco down by a tree or a rock where you are staying,then you start praying, your prayers would come to you in your sleep or the spirit would come and give you some prayers then, you say what that spirit gave you to pray for. The one for the 24 hours you would fast right when you get up, you don't drink water or eat food,you won't be able to eat or drink because it's mandatory, even when your on your 4 day fast, when your 24 hours are done that's when you can eat even when your fasting for 4 days, don't go by food or water because it would make you weak.

What happens when you fast. When you go fast, your body will feel lighter and your spirit will be cleansed. You will also notice that if you were having bad thoughts they will all be gone after your done fasting. If you or someone in your family are sick you can go fast and there sickness will go away, even if someone in your family had bad mental health you can fast for them and there bad thoughts will go away and they will get healthier. We learned lots of various things while making this board. We learned about the medicines they take and use to pray while fasting, our elders also taught us that when you are praying you are always in one spot and not out walking around everywhere. While you are fasting you can have visions and see different things from our culture. When you are fasting our elders told us you cant eat or drink nothing but rain water because its natural and it comes from the sky.

We could have added more about holistic knowledge and compared the two, another optional addition could have been adding more traditional knowledge and medicines on what to use. We could have added more designs, and make our board less bland. It would have been possible to share our own personal stories but we did not think of that when making our board. The next steps for our board would be asking an elder for more knowledge on how to fast, or where to go fast.

There are lots of people that helped us when we needed help, when we needed questions answered about fasting we had our elders, L. Star and M. Tootoosis to help us. When we asked for materials and equipment we had teachers, C. Tootoosis, G. Albert, P. Tootoosi-Iron, D. Kasokeo, L. Pewap, L. Star, and M.Tootoosis. We showed our board to a couple of our teachers D. Kasokeo and P. Tootoosis, when they saw it they were proud that we chose something First Nations related and they wanted us to present it to them. It took a couple days to get it down without really messing anything up but practice makes perfect. words cannot describe how much we would like to thank L. Star, M. Tootoosis, P. Tootoosis, C. Tootoosis, G. Albert, D. Kasokeo, and L. Pewap.

Wagamese, R. (1995). Keeper 'N Me. Doubleday Canada and Anchor Canada.

G. Albert, personal communication, April 2026.

L. Starr, personal communication, March 2026.

M. Pete, personal communication, April 2021.