Makwa gwating giiyaa
Aapidje saa wiiniba
Miidash mtigong giinegoodet
Gbepeboon saa giiniba

There once was a bear
Oh how he wanted to sleep
So he crawled under a tree
And slept all winter long

Mnookmik saa giishkwazi
Mnookmik saa giinishkaa
Namemtigong giinjibazagwii
Gbepeboon saa giiniba

In the spring he awoke
In the spring he got up
From underneath the tree he got up
Because he slept all winter long

Aapidje saa giipakade
Aapidje saa wiiwiisine
Kaawiin niinaa giiwiisinesii
Gbepeboon saa giiniba

Oh he was so hungry
Oh he wanted to eat
He did not eat at all
Because he slept all winter long

Giipaa’giigonhke
Giipaa’ademinke
Kina gwaji gaapaazhizhaat
Giipaa kchiwaawiisine

He went fishing
He went picking heart berries
Every where he went
All he did was eat, eat, eat.

How the song came to be...

One morning when I went to teach at a local school , the first chorus of a song came to me that I had heard about a year ago. So, as I was driving, I began to sing it. This inspired me to write some additional verses that came to me very naturally. When I got to school that day, I taught it to the children and they loved it. We sang it every day for about two weeks. One day when I was leaving the school, the bus drivers met me at the door and said, “Mr. Pheasant, could you please teach the children another song, because we want to hear a different one now”. I guess what the children were doing was singing this song on the bus on the way to school and on the way back, every single day.