As late as the 1950s, the Innu people of Labrador still followed an ageless tradition of moving twice each year in pursuit of their primary sources of food. Every winter, families packed up and moved to the interior of Labrador to follow the caribou herds and hunt and trap. In summer, they moved back to the coast to live off fish, seals and sea birds. Summers were also the time to visit the trading posts. Black tea, valued by both the elders and the hunters as a source of energy, was always high on an Innu shopping list.

For the Innu, who had to carry everything (including their tents) on snowshoes and toboggans in the winter and by birch bark canoes in the summer, space was especially limited. Everyone had to take a share of the load, including the children. During the summers, mothers made dolls of caribou hide for the children and stuffed them with a pound or two of tea leaves. The child's new toy was also a small contribution to the family's critical need for space. When the larger tea supply ran out, the adults would "borrow" the doll and cut it open to retrieve the extra cache of tea leaves. The doll would then be re-stuffed with grass, leaves or moss and returned to the child. This custom of the tea dolls also taught the children an important lesson in Innu culture - to share with elders and hunters.

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