@book{simpson2011dancing,
title={Dancing on Our Turtle's Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-creation, Resurgence and a New Emergence},
author={Simpson, L.B.},
isbn={9781894037501},
lccn={2011514874},
url={https://books.google.co.cr/books?id=C38RKQEACAAJ},
year={2011},
publisher={Arbeiter Ring Pub.}
}
In openlibrary.
My highlights:
We are still here. We transformed National Aboriginal Day into something about resurgence for our community, instead of a shallow multi-cultural education day for Canadians to feel less guilty about their continued occupation of our lands.
Our culture brings our hearts great joy, it is beautiful and loving, nurtures our hearts and minds, enables us to not just cope, but to live.
e-yaa’oyaanh: who I am, the way I am living or becoming, my identity. We have to live in ways that illuminate that identity, towards mino bimaadiziwin, the good life.
Shame rooted in the humiliation that colonialism has heaped on our peoples for hundreds of years is now carried within our bodies, minds, and hearts. It is a shame that we were tricked into surrendering our life, land and sustenance during the Williams Treaty process. A tremendous burden to carry, but it also felt displaced. We are not shameful people. We have done nothing wrong. Shame can only take hold when we are disconnected from the stories of resistance. An insidious and infections part of the cognitive imperialism that was aimed at convincing us that we were a weak and defeated people, and that there was no point in resisting or resurging.
Our oral tradition tells of a beautiful territory covered with mature stands of white pine with trunks spanning seven feet and towering 200 feet overhead. The land was easy to travel through, with pine needles and a sparse understory as a result of a white pine canopy. There was a tall grass prairie where Peterborough stands today, maintained with controlled burns.
By 1763, the British Crown no longer needed us as allies;, soon loyalists streamed into our territory and began occupying Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg lands. Over the next fifty yeas, our people survived pandemics, violence and assault, unjust treaty negotiations, occupation of our lands, and a forced relocation. Eventually our system of governance was replaced by a colonial administration, planned assimilation.
My ancestors resisted by simply surviving and being alive. Holding onto their stories. Taking the seeds of our culture and political systems and packing them away, so that one day another generation of Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg might be able to plant them. I am evidence. After surviving an attempted political and cultural genocide, it is the responsibility of my generation to plant and nurture those seeds and to make our Ancestors proud.
When resistance is defined solely as large-scale political mobilization, we miss much of what has kept our languages, cultures, and systems of governance alive.
At their core, Indigenous political movements contest the very foundation of the Canadian state in its current expression, while most theories of group politics and social movement take the state for granted.
Refocus our work from trying to transform the colonial outside into a flourishment of the Indigenous inside. Rebuild u culturally inherent philosophical contexts for governance, education, healthcare, and economy. Articulate in a clear manner our visions for the future. According to our traditions, the process of engagement highly influence the outcome of the engagement itself. Do this on our own terms. Not just figure out who we are; we need to re-establish the processes by which we live who we are within the current context. We do not need funding. We do not need a friendly colonial political climate. We do not need opportunity. We need our Elders, our languages, and our lands, along with vision, intent, commitment, community and ultimately, action. Ground our peoples in their own cultures and teachings that provide the ultimate antidote to colonialism. Reclaim the very best practices of our traditional cultures, knowledge systems and life-ways in the dynamic fluid, compassionate, respectful context within which they were originally generated.
Interpreted within our cultural web of non-authoritarian leadership, non-hierarchical ways of being, non-interference and non-essentialism ,the stories explain the resistance of my Ancestors and the seeds of resurgence they so carefully saved and planted.
It seems rater futile to be engaged in scholarly and political processes. My approach to this work is not rooted solely in the intellectual; it is rooted in my spiritual and emotional life, as well as my body; and it is explored through my Nishnaabeg name, my clan, my Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg roots and my own individual being.
Elders fluent language speakers rejected rigidity and fundamentalism as colonial thinking. They “protected” their interpretations by embodying them and by living them. They “resisted” colonialism by living within Nishnaabeg contexts. I was taught that individual Nishnaabe had the responsibility of interpreting the teachings for themselves within a broader shared collective set of values that placed great importance on self-actualization, the suspension of judgement, fluidity, emergence, careful deliberation and an embodied respect for diversity. Continuous rebirth at every turn: in the face of political unrest, “natural disasters” and even genocide.
Indigenous Peoples attempted to reconcile our differences in countless treaty negotiations, which categorically have not produced the kinds of relationships Indigenous Peoples intended. Canada must engage in a decolonization project and a re-education project that would enable its government and its citizens to engage with Indigenous Peoples in a just and honourable way in the future.
Nishnaabeg legal systems are, at their core, restorative. Rely upon the abuser taking full responsibility for their actions in a collective setting, amongst the person they violated, and amongst the people both the perpetrator and the survivor hold responsibilities to, extended family, clan or community. The survivors would have agency, decision making power, and the power to decide restorative measures. Everyone participating in the circle has a chance to speak or to share their thoughts, feelings and perspectives. The survivor has the choice to share whatever he or she feels most appropriate. The abusers must face the full impact of their actions. Reconciliation the becomes a process embodied by both the survivor and the perpetrator. The community maintains the authority to make that individual accountable for future wrongs. The authority to hold the state accountable then rests with Indigenous nations, not the liberal state. The purpose is rehabilitation of all ot those individuals back into mino bimaadiziwin.
My hope is that readers will take the concepts and ideas presented in this book, return to their own communities, teachings, languages and Elders or Knowledge Holders, and to engage in a process where they figure out what “resurgence” means to them, and to their collective communities.
I believe we need intellectuals who can think within the conceptual meanings of the language, intrinsically connected to place and territory, who exist in the world as an embodiment of contemporary expressions of our ancient stories and traditions, that illuminate mino bimaadiziwin in all aspects of their lives.
Western theories of liberation have for the most part failed to resonate with the vast majority of Indigenous Peoples, scholars or artists. We’ve all been bathed in a vat of cognitive imperialism, perpetuating the idea that Indigenous Peoples were not, and are not, thinking peoples. Canada promotes colonizing education to our children and youth as the solution to dispossession, poverty, violence and a lack of self-determination over our lives. It is our own tools, strategies, values, processes and intellect that we are going to build our new house.
This discussion begins with our Creation Stories to set the “theoretical framework”, or give us ontological context from within which we can interpret other stories, teachings and experiences. They know how all of life moves. All of life is a creative process that began in this original way and continues in the same way in all aspects of our life.
Our Elders tell us that everything we need to know is encoded in the structure, content and context of these stories and the relationships, ethics and responsibilities required to be our own Creation Story.
This requires a remembering of language. Storytellers have a responsibility to the future to imagine a social space that is just and where […] narratives will flourish. Storytelling is at its core decolonizing, because it is a process of remembering, visioning and creating a just reality. Envision our ways out of cognitive imperialism, create models and mirrors where none existed, experience the spaces of freedom and justice.
Oral storytelling creates free cognitive spaces, the physical act of gathering in our territories reinforces the web of relationships that stitch our communities together. Emergence and flux. Decide what to tell and how to tell it to gain both individual meaning and collective resonance.
Dreams and visions propel resurgence. Knowledge from the spiritual world and processes for realizing those visions. Glimpses of decolonized spaces and transformed realities that we have collectively yet to imagine.
It is important that we as Grandmothers, Mothers, and Aunties come together as women to help and support these young women. This is particularly important now as our Mother the Earth is going through her own cleansing. We reflect this cleansing when we renew ourselves with these teachings, ceremonies, fasting and our rites of passage. Understand the Earth as Mother, understand the Earth as themselves. She takes care of herself. She is beautiful, sacred and that she was created first.
Gzhwe Mnidoo created a circle in the darkness, and made a fire at the center, the heart beat of the Creator. The very first woman created was a woman with a heart, with emotion, and it was a woman with a heart that would give birth to all of Creation. We are joined together as one. We have the same Mother. You are the Creator now, you will create life and renew it. Original Man was the last to be created, from the first woman they took four parts of her body, soil air, water and fire, and molded a being, a vessel. Gave them their own thoughts, so vast that they spilled out of their head into their entire body. Causing their heart to beat in harmony with the rhythm of the universe and with Gzhwe Mnidoo.
Our personal creation stories, our lives, mirror and reflect the Seven Fires of Creation. The responsibility for finding meaning within lies in the individual. It is critical that these stories are interpreted in a culturally inherent way, because they serve to build meaning into the other stories. Our Elders teach us that this most beautiful, perfect, lovely being was not just any “First Person”, but that it was me, or you. We were created out of love. The love of Dzhwe Mnidoo is unconditional, complete, and they love us the way we are, without judgement. Our greatest influence is on ourselves, because living in a good way is an incredible disruption of the colonial meta-narrative.
We wear our teachings. In order to access knowledge from a Nishnaabeg perspective, we have to engage our entire bodies: our physical beings, emotional self, our spiritual energy and our intellect. This gives rise to our “research methodologies”, our ways of knowing, our processes for living in the world.
My Creation Story tells me that collectively we have the intellect and creative power to regenerate our cultures, language and nations. Another world is possible and I have the tools to vision it and bring it into reality. We can access this vast body of knowledge through our cultures by singing, dancing, fasting, dreaming, visioning, participating in ceremony, apprenticing with Elders, practicing our lifeways and living our knowledge, by watching, listening and reflecting in a good way. We access this knowledge through the quality of our relationships and the personalized contexts we collectively create. Creation as presence. Our collective truths as a nation and as a culture are continuously generated from those individual truths we carry around inside ourselves. Our collective truths exist in a nest of individual diversity.
For every question, Gzhwe Mnidoo has created a story with the answers. It is her responsibility to discover those stories and seek the answers.
Learning through the language.
Biskaabiiyang: to look back. Returning to ourselves. To pick up the thing we were forced to leave behind, whether they are songs, dances, values, or philosophies, and bring them into existence in the future. Not just research, how we live our lives as Nishnaabeg people. We are still enmeshed in the insidious nature of colonialism. I need to keep biskaabiiyang present in my mind when I am making my way through the world.
anishnaabe-inaadiwiwin: anishnaabe psychology and way of being.
ghaa-izhi-zhawendaagoziyang: that which was giving to us in a loving way by the spirits.
aadizookaan: traditional legends, ceremonies.
dibaajimowin: teachings, ordinary stories, personal stories, histories.
anishnaabe izhitwaawin: anishnaabe culture, teachings, customs, history.
We need to support each other in this process and work together to stitch our cultures and lifeways back together. Biskaabiiyang is both individual and collective, to continually replicate. Re-creating the cultural and political flourishing of the past to support the well-being of our contemporary citizens. Reclaiming the fluidity around our traditions. Encouraging the self-determination of individuals within our national and community-based contexts, re-creating an artistic and intellectual renaissance within a larger political and cultural resurgence. New emergence.
Unless concepts have local meaning it is difficult for them to have local resonance. I could only really learn to understand this concept from within the web of relationships of my existence. We must act to create those spaces–be they cognitive or spatial, temporal or spiritual–even if those spaces only exist for fragments of time.
Zhaaganashiiyaadizi: living as a colonized or assimilated person. One may adopt the ways of the non-Natives only to the extend that it does not negatively influence the core of one’s being. There is a diversity of ways of being within a Nishnaabeg value system.
We need to act against political processes that undermine our traditional forms of governance, our political cultures, our intellectual traditions, the occupation and destruction of our lands, violence against our children and women, and a host of many other issues. Our political and social cultures were profundly non-hierarchical, non-authoritarian and non-coercive. Individuals figuring out their own path, or their own theoretical understanding of their life and their life’s work. High level of autonomy for exploring and expressing their rerponsibilities. An “ethic of non-interference”. Coupled with individual responsibilities of figuring out one’s place in the cosmos and how to contribute to the collective while respecting oneself and one’s inner being.
Aanjigone: be very, very careful with making judgements and criticism. Framing of Nishnaabeg values and ethics in the positive. Our spiritual being may take on the very things we are criticizing. Non-interference, the “implicate order” will come back on that person and correct the imbalance in some other way. There is then no need to criticize or be angry with the perpetrators, this will be mediated by the Spiritual world. Our responsibility is to live our lives according to the teachings and values that were given to us with great love by Gzhwe Mnidoo.
Critique is an internal process and the outcome is an individual action rather than an attack on another. When an Elder is displeased with an action of one of their students, the Elder does not criticize that action, but is silent. Often at a later pint, the Elder will use a story or an activity to convey a particular teaching in an indirect manner. He made sure I understood that I had a responsibility to do something. He told me a particular story so I understood that what was truly important was how I took on that responsibility.
We need to spend an enormous amount of energy recovering and rebuilding. Critique and revelation cannot in and of themselves create the kinds of magnificent change our people are looking for. Focus within. Flourishment. This dose not exclude taking action against the colonizer to protect our lands, our knowledge or our lives. Think carefully and strategically about our responses rather than blindly reacting out of anger.
Naakgonige: carefully deliberate and decide when faced with any kind of change or decision. We do not tell Animal stories or Nanabush stories in the spring, summer, and fall, because these beings are awake and active. We take our time with the winder stories and allow ourselves plenty of time to think abut them. One is calling the spirits you are talking about, this should be done according to protocol and tradition. Deliberate and consider the impacts of decisions on all aspects of life and our relationships. Change, even on a personal level, was a long and deliberate process. Slow and carefully.
Naanaagede’enmowin, the art of thinking to come to a decision. The heart must help or guide the mind to come to a good decision.
They protect against Zhaaganashiiyaadizi. Culturally embedded processes that require individuals, clans and communities to carefully deliberate, not just in an intellectual sense, but using their emotional, physical and spiritual beings as well. One of the first things given to the Nishaabeg by Gzhwe Mnidoo was to be kind and have a gentle heart. Gentle people are highly sensitive to potential threats against mino bimaadiziwin. Highly in tune with peace, the proper use of power and heart knowledge.
Debwewin: turth, the sound of the heart. My truth will be different from someone else’s. A plurality of truth. Each of the seven original clans has their own truth; and when you put those together, a new or eighth truth emerges. The speaker is exercising the highest degree of accuracy possible given what they know. There is no such thing as absolute truth.
For Nishnaabeg people there was fluidity around gender in terms of roles and responsibilities. Often one’s name, clan affiliation, ability and individual self-determination positioned one in society more than gender, in addition to gender. I am also someone who has been profoundly transformed through giving birth, nursing and mothering. Critical interrogation of heteropatriarchy must be at the core of nation building, sovereignty and social change. Decolonization of our gender.
Gdi-nweninaa: listening to the sound of our voice means that we need to listen with our full bodies–our hearts, our minds and our physicality. A full presence of being. Using specific words as windows into a deeper, layered understanding.
In a time of peace and flourishment, seven prophets came to the Nishnaabeg people and made seven predictions for the future. An epic journey from the east coast of Turtle Island to the western shores of the Great Lakes, they encouraged our people to make that journey as a protection against the coming colonizers. The First Fire set in motion the greatest mobilization in Nishnaabeg history, the nation moved in west in waves, taking five hundred years or ten generations to complete. We are a culture that embodies both movement and collectivity.
The prophets explained the coming of a light-skinned people who would either come with the face of goodwill, or they would come wearing the face of death. They came with many warnings of manipulation and dishonesty, not trust the light-skinned people until they had proved their goodwill. “You will know that the face they wear is the one of death if the rivers run with poison and fish become unfit to eat”.
The Fifth and Sixth Fires were periods of immense destruction. The prophecy of the Seventh Fire foretold of a time when the most oppressive parts of the colonial regime would loosen and Nishnaabeg people would be able to pick up the pieces of their language, culture and thought-ways and begin to build a resurgence. During the Fifth and Sixth Fire, people planned for the Seventh Fire. Scrolls were hidden. Ceremonies were practiced underground with children present. Stories were passed along through the families. Families retreated to the bush whenever possible. Our Grandparents resisted by planting the seeds of resurgence and resistance, our only responsibility in the face of colonialism. It has the power to transform settler society generating political relationships based on the Indigenous principles of peace, justice, and righteousness.
Chibimoodaywin: a long, slow, painful crawl. A social movement that was inspired by a spiritual vision, debated and planned by leaders, intellectuals and political, and ultimately carried out by our families. Debate, respect for dissenting voices, consensus, and the respect for the sovereignty of individuals, families and clans, allowed the spread of Nishnaabeg people as a movement of energy over the land. Imagine what we could accomplish with a committed, strategic persistent resurgence movement over the next ten generations.
In the last section of the Seven Fires Prophecy, there is a mirroring of the cycle of creation-destruction-re-creation. Within Indigenous thought, there is not a singularr vision of resurgence, but many. Elders direct our people to live their lives in a way that promotes positive relationships with the land, their families and all of Creation. We all carry responsibilities in therms of resurgence; and that we are also responsible for re-creating the good life in whatever forms we imagine, vision and live in contemporary times.
Aakde’ewin: the art of having courage.
Dbadendiziwin: humility.
Debwewin: truth or sincerity.
Mnaadendiwin: respect.
Nbwaakawin: wisdom.
Gwekwaadiziwin: honesty.
Zaagidewin: love.
Gzhwe Mnidoo brought a large flood to the lands, not as a punitive act, but as purification, to realign. Waynabozhoo managed to save himself by finding a large log. More and more animals joined him. He decided to dive down in the water and grab a handful of earth. All tried and failed. Zhaashkoonh, the muskrat tried, was gone forever, and eventually floated to the surface dead, with a handful of mud in their paw. Mikinaag, the turtle, volunteered to bear the weight of the earth on her back. Waynabozhoo began to sing. The animals danced in a clockwise circular fashion and the winds blew, creating a huge and widening circle. Eventually they created the huge island on which we live, North America.
We each need to bring that earth to the surface, to our community, with the intent of transformation. It is then our responsibility to also ensure that our action is collectivized. Ask the implicate order for assistance. If we are doing our work to the best of our abilities, doorways and opportunities will open to us that previously did not exist. Resurgence is dancing on our turtle’s back.
Wiindigo–a large monster-like creature that is cannibalistic, embodies imbalance and unhealthy relationships. Craved human flesh, and the more it ate, the more it wanted. When certain desires are indulged, this stimulates more indulgence until all reason and control are lost. Represented a serious and specific danger in the winter months. It also warns against greed, excesses, and engaging in relationships in which indulgence leads to even more indulgence, creating realities based on imbalance. It is often used to refer to colonialism and its capitalistic manifestations, particularly around natural resources. To the point where it will eventually destroy itself through over-exploitation. When one harms the earth, one harms oneself. Indulgence in order to mask trauma, cope with one’s life, or fill a hole created from past trauma.
One still must be open to the emergent properties of the flux of the implicate order, aligned with transmotion, and open in all channels to help from other realms of Creation, but strategy and planning are still present.
Nanabush or Nanabozho, teaches us lessons by never learning and representing ordinary human struggle to live a good life. Constantly succumbing to their own weaknesses. Power teacher, our first teacher, “the Elder Brother”. Trickster is inaccurate. He means well, but more often than not, he fails because his appetites get the better of him. When he succeeds it is by chance. To often the stories [have been recorded to] reflect Christian values.
There should be wood piles, fires, but instead there is nothing. He starts to feel scared. He starts to feel real worried. Something’s not right. He loves those gdigaa bzhiwag. His eyes make tears that run down. Everybody’s still flat on their backs, with their mouths really wide open with that ziiwaagmide dripping right in. Gdigaa bzhiwag are going to get sick. Gdigaa bzhiwag are not eating good food, not taking care of each other. They are getting soft in the mind, not thinking ahead. He decides to go see Nokomis.
Nishnaabeg governance was localized instead of centralized. Localized within an individual’s self-determination, the self-determination of families, clans and communities, as well as being localized within a given geographical region. Nishnaabeg people traveled throughout their localized territories in a seasonal fashion. In dagwagin, people moved to the shores of certain rivers and lakes to harvest mnomiin by conducting ceremonies, dancing, singing, drumming and picking the rice. After ricing and fall fishing were completed, families moved to hunting or trapping grounds where they would work to cache food and supplies for the coming winter months. In the early parts of spring, families moved to Sugar Bushes to collect the sweet water and make it into maple sugar. Next they moved to spring fishing areas, and finally for niibin, they gathered in larger clan and inter-clan assemblies in their summer areas to berry pick, collect medicinal plants, conduct larger ceremonial gatherings and finally, to engage in inter-clan and inter-regional governance.
Dissent was also a normal and a critical part of decision-making. A plurality of individual truths within a common context. Express themselves and their opinions in a way that simultaneously protected the experience of the individual within the consciousness of the collective. Important interventions come from people close to the spiritual world–women, the elderly and children–coming to us through dreams, visions, and ceremony. We are not dissenting, mobilizing, resisting or creating controversy to “win” superiority or to dominate settler society. Our doals have been consistent throughout history: to restore balance, justice and good health to our lands and our peoples and to have good relations within settler governments and peoples based on respect for our sovereignty, independence and jurisdiction over our territories. Gradual emergence of carefully mediated consensus that considers and addresses difference of opinion from within our communities. Salmon and eels, their sheer numbers and ability to travel, adapt and celebrate the flux of the ecological context, the diversity of life and power to mass mobilization, impressed and informed Nishnaabeg thinkers. One of our people had a vision for a mass migration from the Atlantic region to the Great Lakes, it resonated with the people because they had already witnessed their relatives completing a similar journey.
Movement, the language utilizes verbs to a far greater extend than nouns. Leaders emerged as issues did. Society and clan structure expanded and contracted like a beating heart or working lungs. Centralized government and political structures are barriers to transmotion. Nishnaabeg concepts of “nation” and “sovereignty” are much different than modern constructs, but they exist and are expressed. Gdoo-Nagaanina, a pre-colonial treaty with Hadenosaunee, governed the areas of our two overlapping territories. Facilitated the international Indigenous economy. “Boundaries” are about relationships. As someone moves away from the centre of their territory–the place they have the strongest and most familiar bonds and relationships–their knowledge and relationship to the land weakens. This is a place where one needs to practice good relations with neighbouring nations. Presence is required to maintain those. Communication is required to jointly care-take this region, which is much wider than a line.
People wishing to immigrate into our nation were granted full citizenship responsibilities, as long as they were willing to live as Nishnaabeg. Not require them to give up their identity, the expression of that identity was modulated within the web of mino bimaadiziwin. Community acceptance was dependent upon the individual’s commitment to and expression of the values and philosophies of mino bimaadiziwin. The way you conducted yourself and lived your life would dictate the level of acceptance you gained from the community, as well as the level of responsibilities you were given with regards to citizenship. Adoption and marriage traditions as processes by which our families brought new members into clans, communities and our nation, were the microcosm for citizen traditions. Caring relationships were so often the responsibility of Aunties, Grandmothers, Sisters, Daughters and Mothers. We should be placing women at the centre of these decisions.
Emergence. Mediated through the implicate order, non-linear. Process and context-oriented, rather than content-driven. The way in which something is done becomes very important because it carries with it all of the meaning. Be with the flux, experience its changing forms, develop a relationship with the forces, thus creating harmony. The law of circular inaction.
Migration produces difference, new communities, new peoples, new ways of living, new sacred foods, new stories, and new ceremonies. The old never dies, it gets supplemented by the new, and the result is diversity.
My ancestors were constantly engaged in the act of creating: clothes, food, shelter, stories, games, modes of transportation, instruments, songs and dances. They created circumstances to commune with the implicate order, and also created the new generation of Nishnaabeg, based on bringing out their personal gifts and creativity. Creating was regenerative and ensured more diversity, more innovation, and more life. Modern society primarily looks for meaning (in books, computers, art), whereas Indigenous cultures engage in processes or acts to create meaning.
oodena means city, the place where the heats gataher. Odemih Giizis is june, the moon when the heart berries, the strawberries, are ready. Odaenauh refers to nation, an interconnected web of hearts. Truth, (o)debwewin, the sound of the heart. The heart berries serve as a reminder of the importance of working together in a good way, the importance of working through conflict in a manner that doesn’t hurt one another, and the importance of letting go. Remind us of the destructive nature of conflict and the value of peace. Heart is the compass of life, and things that really matter in life are relationships, knowledge and experiences of the heart. The importance of keeping peace when we gather in large numbers.
The ancestors not only fought, blockaded, protested and mobilized against these forces on every Indigenous territory in Turtle Island, they also engaged in countless acts of hidden resistance and kitchen table resistance aimed at ensuring their children and grandchildren could live as Indigenous Peoples .The Grandmothers, Mothers and Aunties were particularly adept at keeping us alive, and passing down whatever traditions they could so we would have warmth in our hearts and warmth in our bellies. Demonstrate to future generations that they exist because of the responsibility, sacrifice, courage and commitment of their Ancestors.
Whenever one throws a stone into the lake with intent, commitment and vision, the implicate order or spiritual world mobilizes to provide support and open doors. The ‘echo’ metaphor has been used by Cree storytellers as a way of describing the past coming up to the present through stories. There is a critical reflection or examination that is woven into the experience for both the storyteller and the audience. Meaning is derived from the presence of both the storyteller and the listeners. Nishnaabeg storytellers, when telling in English, will use phrases such as “maybe it happened this way”, “some people say that’s what happened, I don’t know, I wasn’t there”, or “I heard it happened that way, but I don’t know”. One can only speak about what they know to be true from direct experience. Aanjigone with phrases such as “this is when my big mistake happened”, or “this time in my life I was flying in circles”. It can take many years after hearing a story to know the meaning of that story in one’s heart, for it to become a truth. One has to live the knowledge in order to know it. If we do not live our stories and our teachings, the echoes become fainter and will eventually disappear. When the land is not being used in a respectful and honourable way, the power of her teachings are lost. Healers know that plants will disappear if one takes too much and also if one does not use them at all. Biskaabiiyang means that new stories often come from old stories.
Canadians are taught that treaties are legal agreements through which Indians ceded our lands for cash. At the time of contact we had been making treaties with animal nations and with other Indigenous nations for generations. Breastfeeding is the very first treaty. When my first child, I started to understand Nursing is ultimately about a relationship. Treaties are ultimately about a relationship. My second child taught me about balance, that both the mother and the child have to be taken care of, in order for the relationship to work. I became an Auntie, and it was partly my responsibility to help the two of them to negotiate their new relationship, she taught me that negotiating treaty is about patience and persistence. It is about ensuring the relationship for the long term. The relationship comes first above all else, above the pain. It is about commitment and compassion. It is about a love of the land and a love for the people. And it requires the support of your family and your community.
Before there were humans on earth, a female spirit being came to the earth. Her name was Wenonah, which means the first breast feeder. Wenonah took the responsibility of creating humans on earth. Our leaders were responsible for building consensus. These values were reflected in our parenting and in our families. Our ancestors practiced relationships with children that embodied kindness, gentleness, patience and love. Children were respected as people, encouraged to follow their visions and to realize their full potential while living up to the responsibilities of their families, communities, and nations. The key to creating leaders with integrity, creating good governance, and teaching future leaders how to interact in a respectful manner with other human and non-human nations.
Treaties are viewed as sacred relationships, between independent and sovereign nations, including agreement between humans and non-humans. The people of the fish clans, who are the intellectuals of the nation, met with the fish nations. The fish clans and the fish nations gathered to talk, to tend to their treaty relationships, to renew life. We had to be accountable for how we used this “resource”. Only fish at particular times of the year in certain locations. Only took as much as they needed and never wasted. They shared with other members of their families and communities, and they performed the appropriate ceremonies and rituals before beginning. A time long ago, all of the deer, moose and caribou suddenly disappeared. The animals had willingly left the territory because the Nishnaabeg were no longer respecting them. Had been wasting animal meat and not treating animal bodies with the proper reverence. When the animal nations met in council, the chief deer outlined how the Nishnaabeg nation could make amends, they must honour the waawaashkeshigook in both life and death, by not wasting their flesh, by preserving their habitats, by leaving tobacco to acknowledge the anguish humans have brought upon them in order to feed themselves, and to engage in ceremony to nurture this relationship. Contemporary Nishnaabeg hunters, when they kill a deer or a moose, still go through the many rituals outlined that day. You do not get an animal because you are a good hunter, but because the animal feels sorry and gives himself to you to feed your family. The treaty outlines a relationship that, when practiced continually and in perpetuity, maintains peaceful coexistence, respect, and mutual benefit.
The Nishnaabeg nation was in conflict with the Dakota nation. After several years of strife, a young woman dreamed or visioned the drum. She was taught several songs to share with the people. She constructed a drum, and taught both the Dakota and the Nishnaabeg peoples the songs. The drum became more than a symbol of peace between the two nations. By carrying out the ceremonies given to her, and by sharing them with the people, peace between the two nations has been maintained ever since. All of these values and processes are reflected in the Nishnaabeg nation’s pre-colonial treaty-making practices, and these practices provide us with important insights into the kind of relationship our Ancestors intended to have, and intend us to have with settler governments.
Our Dish, a treaty that sets forth the terms for taking care of a shared territory while maintaining separate, independent, sovereign nations. Nishnaabeg and Haudenosaunee were eating out the same dish through shared hunting territory and the ecological connections between their territories. Parties were to be responsible for taking care of the Dish. It was designed to promote peaceful coexistence and it required regular renewal through meeting, ritual and ceremony. Nishnaabeg custom required decision makers to consider the impact of their decisions on all the plant and animal nations, in addition to the next seven generations. There are no knives allowed around the Dish so that no one gets hurt. At no time the Haudenosaunee assume that the Nishnaabeg intended to give up their sovereignty, independence or nationhood. Both parties knew that they had to follow their own cultural protocols for renewing the relationship on a regular basis to promote peace, goodwill and friendship. Both parties knew that, if peace were to be maintained, they had to follow the original instructions passed down to them from their Ancestors.
According to our prophecies, the Nishnaabeg knew a “light-skinned” race was coming to their territory. They expected to have to share their territory. They expected respect for their government, their sovereignty, and their nation. Peace, mutual respect and mutual benefit. These are the expectations we carry with us into meetings with settler governments today.
I intended to reclaim birth and infant care traditions. I did not plan on learning about Nishnaabeg political culture, governance and international relations. Emergence took care of that.
Elders embody gentleness, kindness, respect, humility, and have grounded, authentic sources of power that come from working within the emergent forces of nature and the implicate order, rather than from authoritarian power. I watched as they empowered youth to self-actualize, make mistakes, figure out solutions, divesting of their own authority of power. They “lead by following”. They are always around, but they are not directing us.
Different clans had different responsibilities, and therefore different areas of expertise. When a particular issue arose, leaders emerged according to their expertise (a combination of authentic power, knowledge, experience and personal gifts or attributes as recognized by the collective).
Leaders did not seek followers; followers sought them. It was common for a community to have more than one leader.
Leadership was diffused, shared, and emergent arising out of need. Leaders emerge and then divest themselves of that responsibility. Eniigaanzid means “the one to go first”, “the first to face the future”, “the first to face danger”, and “the one that should be acting as protector”. “One who leads with reluctance”, out of a sense of responsibility and sacrifice, rather than desire for esteem and accolades. Is not an authoritarian style of leadership based on unilateral decision making, coercion and hierarchy. Based on humility, emergence, collectivity in decision making, sharing of the work and in action, and listening.
Our children learn about governance, power, decision making and our political cultures first and foremost in our families. The family is the microcosm for the nation. Aabawaadiziwin means togetherness, we must practice good relationships with all living beings around us.
Seven stages of life:
Children were highly respected people, valued for their insights, their humor, and their contributions to families and communities at each stage of their lives. Coming from the spirit-world at birth, children were closer to that world, have great spiritual power. This created highly autonomous individuals that were community-minded. Interdependence was a core value. It created leaders that were able to build consensus by listening to the people, full of humility, responsibility and respect, willing to sacrifice on a personal level for the betterment of the nation.
Colonizers mistakenly interpret “a lack of parenting” because of the absence of punishment, coercion, manipulation, criticism, authoritarian power, and hierarchy. They failed to recognize that Nishnaabeg parenting was rooted in attachment, following children through their stages of development, with empathy, patience, unconditional love, mutual respect, and freedom of choice.
Individuals led on the basis of their Gifts, and their commitment to their people. Relationships were of the utmost importance.
*Kokum Dibaajimowinan", Grandmother teachings:
Aakde’ewin: the art of having courage. Being brave. Strong hearted, comes from knowing who one is, a grunding in self-knowledge. The one that is given strength from family, stories, teachings. Without fear of a foe or the unknown, confident in who they are and where they are going. Exercised within the context of tremendous humility.
Debwewin: truth or sincerity. The sound of the heart. Speaking from the heart, being a person whose word you could trust.
Mnaadendiwin: respect. We are to deeply cherish each other for who we are, so we become one. Be very slow to judge one another, very careful with our words and actions to not bring those negative attributes back onto ourselves and our families.
Zaagidewin: love. Unconditional love. Bearing their soul and heart nakedly, expressing a complete vulnerability. Trusting that the other person will be non-judgemental, caring and gentle, they come expecting acceptance, gentleness, kindness and nurturing.
Gwekwaadiziwin: honesty. Kaazhaadizi. A good person with peace of mind and both feet on the ground. To be kind.
Nbwaakawin: wisdom. Knowledge. The art of kindness in knowledge. Put others before one’s own self. Think abut yourself after you have thought about others. You cannot always show what you know. Keeps ego in check. Be careful with that wisdom and use it in an appropriate way. This often confuses western experts. The expression of tremendous humility around knowledge and knowing is something that authentic Elders do constantly.
Dbadendiziwin: humility. Never look upon oneself as being better than anyone else. Look after or maintain oneself. Look after our spiritual, emotional, physical and intellectual selves in order to maintain balance. Kokum Dibaajimowinan, while also having the skills to critically engage the colonial. I have a responsibility to decolonize my own mothering skills to create space within my family for Nishnaabeg philosophies to flourish.
There was a great diversity in the kinds of childrearing practices, and not all of the pre-colonial techniques are acceptable or desirable in contemporary times.
Children have it right already, it is the adults that need to learn. Infants teach their parents and extended family about love, the kind of love that is unconditional, based on sacrifice and putting the needs of others before oneself. Toddlers teach the importance of safe environments as they busily explore and learn. Children teach us, often humorously, about truth, unaware of the culturally constructed norms arund the kinds of information shared publicly and the kinds not. Our youth remind us of important teachings that give way to young adults who are responsible for “the work of the nation”. Parents are firmly in the “planting stage” of life, sowing the seeds for the next generation, and nurturing those seedlings to adulthood. The primary responsibility of parents is that of provider; so during this life phase, contributions to the wider community and nation are kept to a minimum. Children require a lot of time, and healthy relationships take time to foster, develop and maintain. Is the responsibility of extended family in nurturing children. Everybody is both a teacher and a learner. Each individual both teaches and learns different things at different stages.
We need to make sure more of our babies, children and youth are making it to the top of their hills, are healthy and full of life once they get there. Using Nishnaabeg ways of being, and that they have cares for others on the way.
Nengaajgchigewin, the art of doing something gentle. Extended nursing, strong attachment to the mother, and immediate response to infant’s cries. It is the parent’s responsibility to figure what those needs arae and how to respond to them. There was a fundamental belief that children only asked for things as long as they needed them. Children were continually given the benefit of the doubt. They were never far from parents, so they were always there to calm any fears. Tikanaga, a traditional baby carrier.
Parenting values: interdependence, non-interference, teaching by modeling, learning by doing. Co-operation, generosity, sharing, non-competitiveness, harmony and respect for life.
Zhinoomoowin, the art of showing someone something, to show how it is done, modeling desirable behaviours for children to mimic. More important than telling or directing. The primary nurturing relationship should be positive, supportive, and absent of fear. Absence of punishment. We counseled them instead. Children deserve to be treated with dignity, respect, understanding and compassion, just like any adult, simply meant that manipulation, excessive praise, punishment, rewards, withholding of privileges, criticism, and threats were out of the question.
Criticism and anger are immediately communicated by silence. After a period of conservative withdrawal, people engage in open discussion, healing and solution building.
The grammatical structure of our language was founded on the premise of non-interference, making it difficult to express gossip and hearsay. They only had a right to their own experiences. They did not offer advice unless it was asked for directly. Meddling into another’s affairs, under the guise of friendship or parental responsibility, was not tolerated. A plurality of truths.
Non-interference can only work in a system where children are highly connected and attached to their parents and extended family, so good choices are easy to make and in the best interest of the child. Older members of the family would intervene if a child’s choice was going to cause great harm. This is a rare occurrence. The role of the parent is to love, guide and support, not to control. We allow children to make mistakes, supporting them in finding solutions to their problems. Children become enormously loyal, they have enjoyed only pleasurable experiences with them free of complaint, criticism, advice or coercion.
The support of extended family allows mothers “breaks” from parenting in order to preserve the loving nature of their relationships with their children and prevent any one relationship from becoming too frightening for the child. The conservative withdrawal ethic, one retreats into one’s own self when one’s emotions are running high, also promotes a safe environment for women and children. Mechanisms for dealing with anger, such as Sharing Circles and shared decision making, could occur only after emotional restraint had been regained, this precluded hostile behaviour towards others. Gender violence and violence towards children were rare occurrences.
This is not a parenting style that is even remotely supported by settler society, few of us have the support of extended families and healthy communities to assist us. I have no role models in my family or my community for what I am trying to accomplish. Many facets of this parenting philosophy are “do-able” in a modern context, vital to passing on a legacy of responsibility, hope and love to the next generation. Children are the glue that holds families together.
Sustainable development, meeting the needs (and wants) of humans without compromising the needs (and wants) of future generations. We should be doing the opposite. Humans should be taking as little as possible, giving up as much as possible, be as gentle as possible with our Mother, taking the bare minimum to ensure our survival. So that life can promote more life. To promote life and to live it rasher than just talk about it. Izhiwebezieyaa, to flow river-like to a specific place.
As rivers flow and birds fly, practicing religious ceremonies and other customs produces more life. Behaving skillfully leads to more life as well, as evidenced by the proliferation of happy children and healthy crops. Living a certain way allows a community to see, use, decide and make clear judgments, all values guiding the making of more life. Bimaawadaaso, to move along in a group like a school of fish.
Zhaaganashiiyaadizi destroys Nishnaabeg presence, and this is counter to mino bimaadiziwin. Resurgence movements, movements to create more life, propel life, nurture life, motion, presence and emergence.
Desired outcomes are heavily influenced by the processes we engage in, our relationships, and how we live in this world. The spiral radiates in all seven directions–inward, outward in the four cardinal directions, upwards, downwards and through time. Resurgence works the same way. Nkweshkgdaadiwin, the art of meeting together. It is impossible to predict the outcome or influence of a single action or stone’s throw once the implicate order is mobilized, and once the act becomes collectivized.
Many, many stories begin with a welcoming of the spirits through a dream. When we put our tobacco down and ask for help to solve a problem, to come up with a strategy or so that the Stone we threw ripples through the world in a positive way, we are asking the implicate order to visit our action. These visions create Shki-kiin, new worlds. Without dreams and idealism, we will truly be a conquered people. We will not have the ability to imagine our way out of the cognitive box of imperialism.
Once one has received an important dream, they have the responsibility to act on that vision. That responsibility is in essence a treaty we make with the spiritual world when we place our tobacco down and ask for help. Sometimes the vision is clear and complete. Other times, it is incomplete and is a process–an individual might have to speak with an Elder or several in order to understand what that vision means or more ceremonies might be required. More dreams may even be required to understand the meaning. It may take months, years, or even decades of searching and learning to fully understand the meaning of one’s visions and to chart a course of action. It is the responsibility oft he person who had the dream to ensure that the full meaning comes to fruition.
Vision must be coupled with intent for transformation, for re-creation and resurgence. We cannot be haphazard about it. Intent is communicated by placing an offering down and asking the implicate order for help.
Skodewin means the art of setting a fire. A fire that needs to be collectively fed and maintained, grown when it needs to be grown, and reduced to embers at certain times as well, until it is no longer needed for heat, warmth and resilience, and the coals are saved for the next time.
A call for Indigenous Peoples to delve into their own culture’s stories, philosophies, theories and concepts to align themselves with the process and forces of regeneration, revitalization, remembering, and visioning. Live these teachings and stories in the diversity of their contemporary lives, act in and of itself is the precursor to generating more stories, processes, visions and forces of regeneration, propelling us into new social spaces based on justice and peace. Tapping into the life force. Great Mystery. Rebirth, like any birth, is a powerful but painful process. We place our piece on the back of our turtle and dance a new world into existence.