Tikinakan

This is one of the rare Doodles in which I recognized the image instantly. Even the colors were printed in my head before I even touched a marker. The shape of the baby made me think of a “tikinakan” (a baby carrier for the Atikamekw, a first nation in central Quebec). Around the age of one, during the Ceremony of the First Steps, little girls receive their very first tikinakan to symbolize their ability to give life. But this is not only a symbolic object; Atikamekw mothers still use them today.