Ahcahk Term Analysis

A Cree word meaning “soul” or “spirit”. When Niska’s mother dies, Niska wraps her mother’s body and places her high in a tree “so her ahcahk is free.” By placing her mother in the tree, Niska’s mother’s spirit can move on to the afterlife with little resistance. The ahcahk is central to Indigenous spirituality and identity and is considered sacred by the Anishnabe people. Like most aspects of Indigenous culture and identity, however, the ahcahk is not safe from erasure and assimilation at the hands of the wemistikowshiw. After Niska and the wemistikowshiw trapper have sex in the church in Moose Factory, he turns on her, becoming abusive. “I fucked the heathen Indian out of you in this church,” he says. “I took your ahcahk. Do you understand? I fucked your ahcahk, your spirit. Do you understand that?” The trapper’s racist rant at once degrades Niska and strips her of her native identity.