A former Battleford resident with fond memories of the community is coming home this Easter weekend and will be sharing her skills as a psychic consultant.
Yvonne Wuttunee, over the last 35 years of her life, has been doing her own television shows in Canada and in Houston, Texas, and is looking forward to helping residents of the community where she grew up.
Yvonne says, “Growing up in Battleford, Saskatchewan, was a childhood full of fun. My father was the town’s waterman, which means he delivered the water to the homes of the citizens of Battleford in a time when there was no running water.”
Her father’s name was Gilbert Wuttunee. Her family name means “eagle tailfeather,” says Yvonne, and it is a large and close-knit family. While her family is from Red Pheasant Cree Nation, her father and his family lived in Battleford. He attended residential school, says Wuttunee, and wanted to become a minister after leaving school, but that didn’t work out with fields to tend and a wife and children.
Unfortunately, his wife died in childbirth and her family moved his children away.
That was his first family, Yvonne explains. (It wasn’t until years later that, almost by accident, the members of the family were able to reconnect.) Gilbert remarried and had five children with Lillian, who allowed no drinking around her family. She was very protective of her children, says Yvonne.
Her father, she says, was the kindest man, and happy as well. Everyone knew him because he was the waterman.
“My father got the water from the icehouse where there was a tap of running water. The icehouse had a long hose that would run down to the top of the water wagon.
Dad would drive the horses up to the hose, turn on the water and fill up the water wagon then go on with his deliveries. He hand-delivered the water in two buckets that he carried into the home and emptied the water into a water barrel. The wagon had a tap at the back, where he would place the bucket under the tap and get the water. This he did everyday summer and winter. Summer was great, but in winter he came home every night in ice-covered overalls.”
Theirs was a loving family, says Yvonne, but her parents brooked no shenanigans.
“My parents knew everyone and everyone knew our parents, so as children if we did anything wrong, our parents would find out right away. Then we would have to answer for our deeds.”
Wuttunee enjoyed her childhood friends.
“When I was young, we played games like Run-Sheep-Run. This game was played by two teams. The one team had to draw a map of where they went to hide outside. The other team had to figure out the map the hiding team had drawn, with the directions to the hidden sights we were at and find us. Then we had to race to home base. The one that got to home base first was the winner.”
She enjoyed school.
“When I went to Battleford Public School we had every Friday afternoon off. As sports activities, we would go to the skating rink and skate all afternoon or we could go curling at the curling rink. During the summer and winter months, we were never home. We went outside playing morning, noon and night with weather allowing. In the summer we would play baseball, go swimming and have picnics. School was fun for everyone.”
In a few years, Yvonne would find herself in new surroundings.
“When I was thirteen we moved from Battleford to Sardis, British Columbia. Traveling through the mountains was a pure pleasure, so we knew we would have a wonderful time in our new town. We had to walk a long distance to school every day and the new teachers were kind and helpful to us. The only hard part about walking every day was the Hop Plant. This is the place where they made beer and the smell was from the hops. They stank to high heaven and to this day I don’t like the smell of beer or alcohol.”
There were more moves in store.
“From Sardis Junior High we eventually moved to Chilliwack, B.C. to the senior high school. Then from there, we moved to London, Ontario, to continue my senior high. We lived in London for 16 years.”
It was in London that Yvonne met her husband to be.
“He was a Norwegian Air Force pilot training in Canada with the Geneva Convention sponsoring air force pilots from other countries. We were engaged for a year and married in London, then we moved because he was transferred to Chatham, New Brunswick.”
The next move would take her overseas.
“From Chatham, he finished his training in Canada and we moved to Norway. I was a new bride in Europe and lived there for five years. I learned the Norwegian language fast as my husband was sent up north, flying every two weeks of every month. His duty was to keep the Russian ships from entering the Free waters and had orders to send them back to the Russian waters.”
Her family was begun in Norway.
“My oldest son was born in Stavanger, Norway, and my youngest son was born in Trondheim, Norway. The nurses in the hospitals, where they were born, used to fight each other to have a chance to look after a little Canadian Indian baby.”
They grew up with Norwegian traditions.
“My sons had to be on skis when they first learned to walk. I had strict orders that they went skiing every day for a half hour. Every Norwegian child does this when they learn to walk.”
But when the time came for Yvonne to move back to Canada, she was a single mother.
“I became a Native Law student at the University of Western Ontario. Being a student was very hard on my sons as they had left a life they loved and would hide under their desks and speak only Norwegian to the teachers. Being gone from them until late evening every day did not work for my little family. I gave up law school and became a full-time mother until the children were comfortable being in Canada.”
Yvonne’s interests began to lean toward the metaphysical.
“Growing up in a native milieu in Canada, having known our native teachings and the Protocols of Ceremony, these teachings have taught me there is more to life than we are aware of.”
Yvonne became a practicing psychic consultant.
“We know that there is a life in the spiritual realm, with our prayers and protection, we can tap into that realm. Therefore over the last 35 years of my life, I have been doing my own television shows in Canada and in Houston, Texas.”
Yvonne says she’s also been a guest on many different radio shows across Canada.
“On these shows,” she explains, “I always have a telephone line connection where the audience is welcome to phone into the show and receive a mini tarot card reading.”
The metaphysical aspect of her life has ties to her upbringing.
“My bedside stories from my mother and grandmother were always about The Little People living by the rivers, lakes and oceans. For other natives in Canada, their stories would be totally different. We all have been to powwows. When we gather, we dance, sing and pray. We are very gentle dancing in moccasins so we dance softly on Mother Earth's breast. We sing to our ancestors in a good way to honour them with our chanting. We use our sweetgrass to get rid of negativity in our homes in combination with our prayers. Also smudge over our bodies to be cleansed, much like incense, so we are ready to meet our Saviour at all times in a good way.”
Yvonne describes a connection to the earth.
“Our medicines are from Mother Earth. Our elders used everything from Mother Earth. They knew the properties and what were the best medicines to use for specific illnesses. They picked these medicines at the right time for the best use of the plant. They pounded them into a powder after they were left to dry, so it would be easier to give to the patient with water. Or they used grease to make a poultice to be applied to the body for the heat to go into the muscles. Today the pharmaceutical companies use the Red Willow bark ground up as ‘aspirin.’ Our old people knew the properties of the medicine from Mother Earth for hundreds of years.”
Yvonne explains being a psychic consultant has furthered her journey into the spiritual realm and the knowledge she garnered from those teachings has helped her impart the messages they give her back to the client through tarot card readings.
“I have learned, through the years, to give the messages directly as they are told to me. Not to try and second guess everything and that comes with years of experience. I have done thousands of tarot readings with many repeats after doing my television and radio shows and clients calling in for readings.”
She lets the spirits guide her.
“If a Spirit tells me to do a healing, I do it with the hands-on approach. This is working with the energies of the body and allowing new fresh energies to enter the body replacing the old, tired ones. This allows me to give a healing touch to the client, not ever having to touch the body, but working directly with the aura, which can extend from the body for six feet.
“This,” says Yvonne, “is the pleasure of my tarot card readings done with prayers, healings and protection from the lower spiritual realms.”
Yvonne Wuttunee will be consulting tarot cards for individuals at the North Battleford Library Thursday, March 29, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. You may call her at 250-826-1027 to book an appointment. Readings will be done by appointments only.
