A small smile forms at the corner of his mouth and you just know there's more to what he's saying than first appears. In a modest and self-effacing way, Cree Elder Robert Pasquach makes his point gently and with humour.

"You can never stay mad at someone who laughs at your jokes," he says. Adding, "Too often, many people have no time for humour, no time to relax and look around them. With too much emphasis only on business, people in our society seem determined to hurt themselves."

We laugh, but really at the same time, his message is not meant to be funny. It's true. It's a serious world where too often, attempts to use humour to relieve tension and ill will, stemming from a confrontational situation, are perceived as being trivial about the issue.

We're sitting at a small outdoor restaurant on busy Bloor Street West, next to a small sidewalk fruit stand, about four doors down from the COO offices. We're just around the corner from his new home, Wigwamin, on Spadina Road. It's a sunny, spring day and as we talk our eyes stray out to the street watching people stroll by. Young kids smile and wave at him. He seems to know a lot of people in the area. Everyone seems happy, everyone smiles. Winter's been banished for a few precious months. Heavy coats and galoshes have been discarded as people revel in the freedom given by the warm sun.

Ordering a pop and chocolate ice cream, Robert Pasquach talks softly about his 75 years on Mother Earth and the changes he's seen. A long-time resident of Moose Factory, Ontario, Robert Pasquach has some keen observations and acute insights into the workings of the modern world. But he is mainly concerned with how the traditions of his people, the Cree, can be maintained - how they can be passed onto children.

Throughout the conversation tidbits of history emerge. Like one time when he was asked by a CBC reporter how the Moose Factory Cree were affected by the Depression. "We weren't," he replied. "We never had any money to begin with."

There's that twinkle again.

He continues, "We didn't have much need for money anyway. Anything we needed in the way of food we got from the land and the waters around us. We even made our own jam from berries we could pick."

"There was always food, it seemed. And that's not necessarily the case now. While there may be lots of goods on the shelves, it's not always nutritious. And, with everyone depending on wages to buy what they need, unless you have good paying job, you can't afford nutritious food."

He says that at one time everyone hunted and trapped. That's how you put food on the table. If you didn't hunt, unless you were sick or hurt, you would starve. Not many people live off the land now. The animals have moved far away. Supplies to go on the hunt are expensive. It takes a long time to reach the game and some people even take helicopters out to the land, and that's really costly. It's just not as common these days to rely solely on the land for survival as it once was.

But, there are jobs available in government, schools, small businesses or, in his home community, at the hospital, to help fill the gap.

He worked there himself for a while. He also worked in lumber camps and for a time, on the railroad. He spent three years oversees with the First Division, Canada, West Nova Scotia Regiment.

Elder Pasquach had to adapt to survive. "Like the people today," he adds. So, while some of the old ways are eroded by modern life, the Cree can still survive.

"Language is important. At one time, our kids would be laughed at when they went away to high school, if they spoke their language. So, many children just stopped speaking Cree.

"Then, they would just stop going to school. After one year away from home, lots of children would simply not return the next year. Many wouldn't even make it through the first year.

"There's other problems in large cities for Cree kids-but then, there are problems for many young people cast adrift in large cities where parents are so busy working-drugs, alcohol and boredom."

He believes it would be a good idea to allow Cree children to complete their high school education at home, preferably in their own communities but if not, in a nearby Cree community.

He sees the young people trying hard to better themselves. Often, it's as simple as admitting they have a problem and doing something about it-going to AA, talking to Elders and re-learning the language.

The language especially is central to the spiritual and cultural survival of the Cree and he likes seeing the children keep the language alive. He marvels at how, despite years attempting to eliminate Indian culture and heritage, it has survived.

"Spirituality is important too," he adds. "And it is linked closely to the land. Respect for the land is needed. If we love the land, we'll have to get it clean again."

Then the smile, as he says he once saw a muskrat walking across the Moose River.

We giggle but it is a bittersweet moment. "I remember the rivers and creeks around my hometown in Northern Ontario 40 years ago-now polluted and useless from mine tailings. No fish, no frogs, no plants, no animals coming to slake their thirst. Dead streams; sewers, really."

He's made his point.

He brings me back, "We must love nature. All life is intimately tied to it.

"Look around," he suggests. "What do you see? Cars, houses, buildings of brick, steel and glass, telephone poles and wires. Where does it all come from? A factory?

I nod, and he continues. "Only at one stage, the final one. Actually it comes from the land. All of it.

"What if mother nature took it all back? What if it was gone? Then we'd have nothing. That's what's at stake here. If we don't do something to control our abuses of nature, we'll have nothing.

"We must try to take control of our own attitudes and behaviours towards the land. If we do nothing something ad will happen. It already has. Rivers re dead, trees are gone, lands are poisoned, air is polluted.

"But," he adds, "It's not too late to take control and to stop the destruction."

While warmed by his optimism, I remember a story years ago about a river in a rust belt American city that actually caught fire. Burning water. Strange stuff, indeed.

"Modern communication systems have done a lot to undermine Indian life too. Southern television programs, magazines, radio stations, advertising are all beamed into our homes via satellite. It all impacts the way our young people see the world. They have the same wants and needs as others and they see that life is different in the north. Many leave as a result of this.

"There's not much that can be done to stop it. But perhaps as more First Nations people get involved in the arts on the national scene-music, acting, entertainment, journalism and art maybe we can at least control it a bit and not just accept its power over us."If we can control it, it can serve to support us and strengthen our sense of culture, heritage and spirituality as well. That seems to be happening now.

"Spirituality is important. It's a great source of strength. It involves all aspects of Cree life. Love for others, respect for the Elders. Respect for each other, ourselves and especially the Mother Earth. Spirituality is what has enabled us to survive. We can never let it go. It must be held close. If we stop, we lose it and then we disappear. It's been damaged by many years of government and other intervention, but it hasn't been destroyed. It's still there and it can be rebuilt."

In fact, he adds that he is encouraged to see so many young people embracing it again. "But you know, we've got to share these beliefs, this knowledge, with each other.

"In Toronto, we used to have meetings and decisions would be made. Afterwards, people would disagree and whatever had been decided would not be done. People, it seems, had become afraid to speak their minds, to speak out, to express themselves when face to face with each other.

"But that's how we used to share knowledge. We were never afraid to speak our minds, to express an opinion. How this came about is unclear. It might have been insecurity-always being told you were wrong in residential school. I don't know. But if we keep our culture strong, if we remember our past and live in harmony with our spirituality, we will be able to speak out strongly and with a unified voice. "if we remember those things, we will keep our sense of who we are. And we will be able to face any danger, any challenge, any problem.

"We will be able to survive. We will be able to prosper."

I ask if I can take his picture. He agrees.

"Hmmm," he says, "that was short. A lifetime of experience and all the knowledge that serves to give my people their strength and beauty can't be squeezed into a brief conversation."

I could only agree, and promise we'd do it again.