Two women in search of their unknown culture

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Imagine what it would be like to wake up one day and suddenly discover that you have Native blood flowing through your veins.

For two women - both were adopted by non-Native families when they were infants - that's exactly what happened.

On most weekday evenings, Kristy Snell can be found co-anchoring CBC Television News in Saskatchewan.

The Snell family from Moose Jaw adopted Kristy when she was just a toddler. About five years ago Kristy's efforts to contact her biological mother paid off.

Snell says she keeps in touch with her biological mother but it's more of a friendship than a mother-daughter relationship. Part of that friendship involves meeting other siblings and members of her extended family from the Standing Buffalo First Nation, 70 km northeast of Regina.

The family got together for a feast one day, said Snell.

"It was all outside set up on blankets and everybody brought food," she said, recalling her first experience with a gathering of this kind. "What struck me as very interesting was there was none of the usual, 'What do you do?' That's something we often ask ourselves. Nobody cared what anybody did."

Part of Snell's journey into First Nation culture is through reading about other Aboriginal people who are in search of their identity.

"I've been reading a lot of Aboriginal literature, contemporary Canadian writers," she said. "A lot of that is about search for identity and reconciliation between Native and non-Native cultures."

Another lady searching for answers about her identity is Tracy Murphy, a registered nurse at the Regina General Hospital. She said she found out she had Aboriginal ancestry when she was in Grade 5.

"I found out one day at lunch time," she said. "My mom told me I was one-eighth Metis, which was what she was told by the social worker."

But Murphy would find out later she had more that one-eighth Metis blood.

This news would launch her journey to find out more about her ancestry. She says while she was training to be a nurse her class took part in some Aboriginal cross-cultural workshops.

"We did some prayers and we smudged things like that," said the 27-year-old. "But I never really got an opportunity to ask all the questions I wanted to ask."

She got some answers to her questions when she met her biological mother about two years ago. Her mother presented her with gifts upon their first meeting.

"She gave me a smudge pot and sage for myself," she said. "The smudge pot, when I opened it up, I didn't have a clue what it was."

They spent some time together and her mother told her what it was and explained how to use it, she said. She now regularly uses the smudge pot but realizes there's a lot more to learn.

And learning more about the culture and tradition is something both ladies intend on doing.

Through her journey, Snell said, she's come to realize the sacrifices her birth family has made to maintain the Sioux traditions.

"I love the songs and the dancing," she said. "It's so spiritual."

Through her reading she's discovered that a lot of people have gone through the process of finding their culture.

And she says it does take time.

"This is a good thing," said Snell. "It's good that it's taking a long time because it means that it means something."

Murphy agrees that being patient during the learning process will lead to a long term goal - helping other Aboriginal people find their culture.