Facts & History

Facts & History

Facts about Chisasibi

The population of Chisasibi is roughly 5000 and the student population here at John Abbott College is nearly double that at approximately 8500 to 9000 students according to google.

The primary language spoken in Chisasibi is Cree and kids don’t start learning English or French until the first grade. Pre-K and kindergarten were taught to us in Cree making the kids learn how to read and write in Cree. On top of the general English, French, Math, etc. classes we took Cree classes up until graduation.

Brief History

Chisasibi is a fairly new town founded in the early 80’s. The people of Chiasibi lived on a nearby island called Fort George before Chisasibi was founded.

The people of Fort George had to find a new place to live after the government started the James Bay Project. The project was to build hydroelectric dams on the nearby rivers which made Fort George Island dangerous to live in permanently.

But every year, we have a festival on the island called Maamouweedaau which translates to let’s get together. The festival has music, games, food and everything you’d expect from a small-town festival, a lot of people from different Cree communities in Quebec come to the Maamouweedaau.

Haunted?

Since we were kids, we’ve heard ghost stories about the island at night and how a lot of people have experienced strange things like the sounds of children laughing, foghorns and even trees falling in the middle of the night.

After hearing those stories, my friends and I wanted to go explore this abandoned ship in the forest that we’ve only heard stories about.