OTTAWA — Six-month old Annora Crowe held her parents hands as she emerged from a teepee under the shadow of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on Wednesday and took her first steps.
Annora and her parents walked around a small tree placed on top of pine and cedar boughs as elder Sarah Ottereyes performed a welcoming song.
The tiny infant, wearing a ribbon skirt and carrying a replica axe, was at the centre of a historic event marking the first Cree walking out ceremony ever to be held on Parliament Hill.
The ceremony is held to mark when a Cree child takes their first steps on the land after being held by their relatives for every moment of their life since birth.
“Ceremonies like this are not from the past — they’re a living part of culture, they’re a living part of community,” said Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty, who helped to organize the historic event.
“It is alive within community, it is alive within our children, and it will continue to bring families together forward in the future.”
Annora seemed eager to get her feet on the ground, bouncing in excitement as she exited the teepee’s eastern door as the sun rose, with a handful of cabinet ministers, Indigenous leaders and dozens of community members there to witness it.
Guided by her mother Kimisha-Ann Capisisit, father Marcus Perusse-Crowe and grandmother Angela Ottereyes, Annora gathered pine boughs to lay on the teepee’s floor, as women traditionally do to keep their families warm.
When she returned to the teepee, community members were welcomed in to visit with her, and Annora shared food with them.
Algonquin elder Jane Chartrand told The Canadian Press it was an honour for the entire Algonquin nation to host the family on their territory.
“We are standing on where our village used to be,” Chartrand said.
“She was used to the drum because she was dancing, and for me, as an old woman, it made my heart soar because it’s just so beautiful and so traditional.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 15, 2026.
Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press
