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Necessity is the mother of invention: Nîkihk store opens in Saskatoon’s Midtown Plaza The effects of Covid-19 on Saskatchewan communities are still being felt in regions throughout the province. And while we’re being threatened with yet another wave, the province’s First Nations communities say they are doing their best to continue to move forward. Neil Sasakamoose is the Executive Director of the Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs (BATC). He says there was a glimmer of hope in the late summer that things were calming down. Sasakamoose recalls how just the thought of having a break in the pandemic raised the hopes of so many. “We had this hockey tournament booked for August 13, 14, 15, thinking it was all safe,” Sasakamoose tells Indigenous Times. But what Sasakamoose did not know was the fourth wave of the pandemic was about to begin. The Chief Thunderstick Hockey Tournament was to take place August, 2021 in honour of his father Fred who died from Covid in November, 2020. But it became the site of an outbreak. Sasakamoose says they were taken by surprise by the swiftness of this fourth wave. “In the beginning of August, a spike developed. And, in Saskatchewan, there was a sharp increase in COVID cases. And it was hard, knowing my father died from Covid,” Sasakamoose said. “So, we began to work really hard. There was extra work, extra planning, extra precautions, just extra everything. And we couldn’t cancel the event. And on the 13th, 14th, 15th of August, that’s when the outbreak was just starting to happen though. The Saskatoon exhibition was the week before I believe. And they said
Nikihk Staff; Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs Inc. there was 200,000 people that walked through the gates during that week.” Sasakamoose recalls spending quite a bit of time to commemorate his father, hockey legend Fred Sasakamoose. “We thought we were going to get a break. People started taking holidays in July and started booking time off in August time off. We actually had set September 7th as our reopening,” Sasakamoose remembers. “We started getting back into our gatherings in August and all those infections in Western Canada on reserve started 15 days later. So now we’re back into COVID planning and we’re nearly into winter.” Sasakamoose said. Sasakamoose says his community has basically written off Christmas. He says just based on the number of cases, which seem to crawl higher, they have no choice but to continue to tighten things down. “We shop in the cities, so a lot of our infections come from the cities or major gatherings,” Sasakamoose says. “We just estimate that things are going to be
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shut down until the new year.” Sasakamoose says he has spent much of the past six months pushing the vaccine. In meetings, in people’s home, even out in public, he has tried to keep communities safe from the virus that took his father. “Our vaccination rates pre-August were actually really good,” Sasakamoose said. “Now today, the uptake for vaccine is much higher now that you have to be vaccinated to get into certain facilities and show your vaccine cards.” But it’s the opening of a new store in Saskatoon’s Midtown Plaza that has offered Sasakamoose and the First Nations of Battleford Agency Tribal Chiefs’ hope. It’s called Nikihk, which means “My Home” in Plains Cree. Sasakamoose says the BATC began creating essential cleaning products for their communities soon after the pandemic began. Out of necessity, they created cleaning products like hand soap, hand sanitizers, laundry detergent and bathroom and kitchen cleaners to be made available to First Nations communities. Nikihk was created by BATC’s Investment Branch
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in co-operation with local manufacturers and the federal government. Nikihk cleaning products are being manufactured at the Corman Park Industrial Area where some of its employees attended the Atoskiwin Training and Employment Program. Nîkihk’s hand sanitizer is Health Canada approved and is made from pharmaceutical grade ethanol that’s from locally grown Saskatchewan wheat. Last July, BATC made Nikihk products available to a bigger market in co-operation with Sobeys Preston Crossing. And now they have the Midtown Plaza location. “The location is in a place where we have 27,000 First Nations members that live in Saskatoon. A lot of our artists, right now, don’t have a central place where they can get their goods to a quality location,” said Sasakamoose. “Midtown is where a lot of our First Nations and Indigenous artists, Métis as well, will come and you can’t ask for a better location in terms of body traffic and people coming in to purchase goods and services here. We’re hoping that even non-First Nations will come and look at the products that are being produced locally and will support us.” The location is near the Midtown mall entrance on First Avenue just across from Starbucks. “We get to promote reconciliation and where non-First Nations and Indigenous Peoples will go through a partnership,” said Sasakamoose. “You come in here and you will get to learn more about our culture through our arts and crafts. We’re here to support our Indigenous entrepreneurs.”
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