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From Deline to Africa Teen returns from Northern Youth Abroad trip to Botswana
Kassina Ryder
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 16, 2013
DELINE/FORT FRANKLIN
If there's one thing Garred Taneton realized about being thousands of kilometres away from home, it's how similar people and places can be.
Garred Taneton rests at Tsodilo, Botswana, Africa. Taneton travelled to Africa as part of the Northern Youth Abroad program and visited places such as Tsodilo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, containing rock and cave paintings believed to be thousands of years old. - photo courtesy of Hannah Taneton |
Taneton, from Deline, was one of eight youths from Nunavut and the Northwest Territories who travelled to Ramotswa in Botswana, Africa as part of the Northern Youth Abroad (NYA) program in July.
Taneton said his favourite part of the trip was spending time with the San people, also known as Bushmen. The San are a hunting-and-gathering society.
"It was very interesting how they live, what they gather for food, how they made their weapons and their cultural clothing," Taneton said.
The San still live on the land and spend their days hunting animals and searching for water, Taneton said. The NYA group spent days camping with the San, learning about how they use local plants for medicine and how they gather water.
The impala, a relative of the antelope, provide the San with both food and clothing.
"When they kill an animal and skin the hide, they use that as their clothes," Taneton said, adding he was amazed how much the lifestyles of the San people mirrored aboriginal cultures in the North.
"I find them similar to the Northern ancestors, living on the land and finding food, following the animal tracks," he said.
"Our ancestors did the same."
While there were many similarities, Taneton also noticed the differences between the two.
"The land is really different than ours. Ours. you can see green grass and brown gravel and their gravel was red colour and their grass was yellow," he said.
"The trees were different, really different."
Taneton said he was interested in the language that the San spoke in - they communicate using the Khoisan language, also known as "click" language.
Taneton also said he was especially interested in the San's tools and culture.
He was given a small bow and arrow and a fire-starting device to take home with him. Taneton said that he has already started using the device, practicing his fire-starting skills.
"It took almost an hour to start it," he said.
"When we saw the San people, they started it in less than two minutes."
Taneton and the group shared their cultures with people in Botswana as well, demonstrating aboriginal games and musical stylings.
"I did some of our handgames," Taneton said.
"I showed them the drum that we have in the North. I played them a couple songs and they liked it."
Even though it was winter in Africa, Taneton said he and other Northern students found the weather warm.
"Most of the people were wearing thick jackets," he said. "We were fine."
According to World Weather Online, the average temperatures in Ramotswa in July is 23 C.
Taneton, who is in Grade 12 at Deline's Ehtseo Ayha School, said he plans to share what he learned with his classmates and the community. His sister, Hannah, also participated in the trip and the pair are going to give a presentation within the next few months.
Taneton said he is looking forward to sharing pictures and demonstrating the San tools he brought home.
"I was really into their culture," he said.
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