N’swo N’swo N’shiimenhig Endaayt | The Three Sisters House

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Author: Hayley Green

Posted: November 13, 2017

Have you heard of the Three Sisters House in Toronto? Patrick Nadjiwon and Aurora Felix run the N’swo N’swo N’shiimenhig Endaayt also known as The Three Sister’s House. The below information on mission and objectives were taken directly from the website.

Their Mission and Objectives?

To educate communities about how we can restore Mother Earth by offering practical solutions learned from our Aboriginal ancestors.

To empower people by bringing awareness and wisdom learned from Indigenous ancestors
To teach from our own experiences and create solutions on restoring Mother Earth
To develop a system of mutual aid and support in the struggle for the preservation of our environment and for the maintenance of life
To encourage self-sufficiency by explaining how to cook, prepare, and preserve healthy, delicious food at a low cost

Who is Patrick Nadjiwon?

Patrick is the Community Innovator & Director at Nswo Nshiimenhig Endaayaat, The Three Sisters’ House
Bodewaatomie, Ojibwae, Odawa Nations. Descendant of Ogimaa Chief James Nawash, last hereditary Chief before the government imposed electoral system of today
Education: Educated at Chippewas of Nawash – Public School. Secondary Education, Wiarton and Owen Sound. Post Secondary, Laurentian University, Trent University n Native Studies, and York University in Education.
Career: Involved in politics, Education, Economic Development, First Nations Fisheries, Cultural and Social Issues and is co owner of N’Swo N’Shiimenhig Endaayaat with wife Aurora Felix since 2012

Who is Aurora Felix?

Community Innovator & Director of Nswo Nshiimenhig Endaayaat, The Three Sisters’ House
Co owner of N’Swo N’Shiimenhig Endaayaat with husband Patrick Nadjiwon since 2012; who have been in the food industry for more than thirty years.
Graduated from Humber College in the Culinary Apprenticeship Program; earned a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Aurora has worked for different up-scale restaurants in Toronto.
She eventually decided to change her career and pushed through Human Services working with people with developmental disabilities to this day.
As part of her daily routine working at N’swo N’shiimenhig Endaayaat /The Three Sisters’ House, she does food demonstrations in different communities, colleges and universities

Patrick and Aurora are a two-person team that speak at panels, run workshops, lead discussions and give demonstrations about Aboriginal issues and food security. Their main goal is to share wisdom, traditions, and history of First Nations in addition to empowering their audience to make healthy food choices. They also cater some events and are often asked to lead opening and closing ceremonies.

This year at Bring Food Home Patrick and Aurora both came and were involved in numerous activities! They arrived on Thursday, October 26^th in time to rise and shine for our opening ceremony of Bring Food Home on October 27^th. Aurora led a Pemmican demonstration in the afternoon where she showed attendees the making of pemmican, a first-nations preserving and canning tradition. One of Sustain’s staff was able to sneak away from the registration desk to have a quick peek in the room during the workshop. They were also able to taste Auora’s delicious jerky, dried pineapple, dried apple and the pemmican. Let’s just say that all were delicious and this particular staff member came back to the registration desk glowing with their taste buds satisfied.

Patrick was part of an information session, Engaging with Our Communities on Saturday, October 28th. He was one of three speakers who spoke about how we build strong and resilient communities. Patrick and Aurora performed the closing ceremonies at Bring Food Home on Sunday, October 29th.

The Three Sisters House also recently taught a traditional First Nations Soup workshop at the Taibu Community Health Centre back In September. IN 2015 they partnered with the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council to lead a discussion and workshop on Indigenous Food ways and traditional preservation. Patrick was also involved in the “Spicing up the Conversation: Talking Race in Toronto’s Food Movement” panel. You can see their website and upcoming event page here for more details about what they have done in the past and what they will be doing in the future.

Here are some photos from Bring Food Home of the Three Sister’s House