Marissa

Marissa is an 11-year-old Ojibwe girl from Curve Lake, Ontario. She goes out in a canoe to harvest wild rice by hand. It's a seed that's a traditional food for her people. Her best friend is April and together they take a bike ride then work together to roast and winnow the wild rice. Back at Marissa's home, they make a delicious wild rice pudding. Marissa introduces us to her Grandmother, who is the Chief of Curve Lake and Marissa's role model. We meet Marissa's dog ,Blue, and her bird ,Birdie, and check out her favourite things: her hockey medals, a special staff made by her uncle, which is decorated in the colours of the medicine wheel, as well as the feathers she wears in her hair at pow-wows. Marissa's special word is ,minomen, which means ,wild rice, in Ojibwe.