Transcription
All of us human beings, everything in creation, we depend on water. The sacredness of water, and it sustains us. It not only quenches our thirst, it's so sacred that it can heal you. It has to do with the spirit and the rock. My connection to the land has to do with the bear, and I'm originally from here. We cool mini dominic.
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They say the only fresh water island in the whole world, and it's the Creator's island. Minidominus, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place. This is where I emerged, and this is where my loved ones buried my umbilical cord. So that in itself is a beautiful story about connection to the land and your connection to where you come from.
People don't realize how powerful the water is, like woman. Woman is very powerful. People don't see that, and the water is very, very powerful. All the waters of the lakes, of the oceans, and the streams and the creeks, the water that we drink, that we don't take it for granted. There are people in the world who are thirsty. So even as we lift up our our prayers, our songs, we think about the whole world and how much we rely. We can go without food for a certain length of time, but water, you can't go without water. And so we are made up of water. And uh, and so we want to be able to uh to acknowledge that.
There's a saying that I heard one time: "As long as the water flows, as long as the waters shall flow." Well, to me, I I would take it further than that because I am Anishnabe, and because our teachings talk about the sacredness of water, and that we come from water. We come from that sacred place, and our spirit, our little bodies are formed in that water in our mother's womb. We're molded and shaped in that water, and when that door is ready to be opened, that little vessel is issued forth, flows out with the water, right? That's such a great blessing.
I kind of smile at the fact that we've always been seen as an inferior race, that we weren't intelligent enough, we weren't smart enough. But there is something that we've always had, and it's that connection, that communication, and that respect. Respect for the land, respect for all of creation, all of life. The dominant society doesn't have that. Our mother, the Earth, she has everything: all the the plants, the medicines, the trees that provide us with the oxygen. And so it's like it's a family, a whole family. And we refer to them as grandmothers and grandfathers. The trees have their relatives, the grasses, the four-leggeds, the swimmers, the crawlers, the flyers. Everything, everything in creation has a purpose and a reason.
So we were the last ones to be created. We have a strong connection with the land because of how we were molded and shaped. We are the last ones to be lowered on Turtle Island. The human being, this being was touched on the forehead and given the thoughts. And so in our teachings, there is a level in the sky world. The first level is what we see: the stars, the moon, and the sun, and the work that they do. They do work for us, those elements, the sun, the moon, and the stars, the star worlds, they do. And the next level has to do with our helpers, and those are our clans. And for me, it's one of them is is that bear. That's what we come into the world with. We're not just born, we come into the world with help. There are helpers. And so for me, there's my name. The name gives me direction. My clan gives me direction, and my spirit. We are a spirit, and we're we're having this beautiful, beautiful, beautiful journey that we've chosen to to come and do our work. That's that level.
And that second is calling on that that help. And they say each and every one of us, we all have that help. We all have that help. It's for you to find out who your your helper is. If you don't know, find out. And that third level is a beautiful, beautiful lake. And I have been taken to that beautiful, beautiful lake, and it's clean, clean water. It's a clean, pure, pure, pure lake. And so when we pray over that water, we loft up that water, and we sing for that water. We know that that water flows from that level. So that when we take that water, they've been done. I will put my lips to that water and feel the the energy, the sacredness of that water. It'll flow into my every organ, into every fiber, every cell of my being. It'll look after every organ in my body. That water has that energy to to heal and to help us.
Georgian Bay, that's that's where we are. We have beautiful, beautiful stories about the water beings that look after these waters. One of them is uh, they call them the water panther, and Mishibizhiw. And there have been sightings out on the bay. People fishing, they'll see it lift up. There's a reason why they show themselves. They are the caretakers. They look after the waters. I would think of it as a great blessing of a water spirit showed itself to you.
The one story that I was really fascinated by because I'd never heard anything like this before, and just in in fairy tales and and I can't remember the name of the the fisherman he in South Bay, but he is a champ who who traveled, who fished these waters. He lived most of his life near the water. That's what he did. He fished. When he was getting close to the time that he was finishing his life, someone showed herself to him. He thought he was going crazy, and so he didn't tell anybody for a long time, until he was ready to go through that western doorway. Then he wanted to share that beautiful story about this beautiful, beautiful woman that he saw. Showed itself as a mermaid that showed herself to him. I thought, what a blessing. That spirit was letting him know, saying thank you for looking after the waters all these years, for your whole life. You've been fishing here, and you've been taking care of these waters. Whatever you fished, you shared, you made sure that the community had fish, and she was just saying thank you.
When we look up at the universe, at the sky world, we look at the star world, and it reminds us of uh, the thoughts of creation, the thoughts of the Creator. And uh, it's endless. Our thoughts are are like that. And heartbeat, the sound of the drum. So being encouraged and be reminded that we are in harmony, and we are a connection, and to be in sync, to be in rhythm with the rest of creation. The heartbeat. And again, that reminds me of the heartbeat that woke me up. Then breath, the air. We were given breath. The first breath is eternal life, everlasting life.
I will tell you that I didn't have a voice because of residential school. I lacked in self-worth, no self-esteem, no voice, easily intimidated by non-native people and institutions. We are not visible. It's somebody else's space. It's somebody else's place. So that kind of intimidation, very, very strong. Moving from a rule from northern community from Manitoulin, it seemed like a long ways back then when I was young to the bright lights of Toronto. Eventually, there were places for us. At first, it was just the Y, where we hung out as young people. We met on a Saturday night, and it was before we even had any knowledge of our own ways. Young people would gather at the Y for waltzes and digging and square dancing. That was our dance.
Living in the city, you kind of wonder, well, where is it? What is it that talks about who we are? That reflects who we are? Where is it? In the city, you don't see it. I didn't see it. I didn't see anything that was uh traditional, uh, Aboriginal, Indigenous, or any of those things. And so finally, we asked each other, who are we? What are our teachings? Where's our music? Where's our songs? Where's our dances? Instead of square dancing, we must have had a way of celebrating life and singing. So we started finding a way, looking for our dances. We started to look for our movement, our connection to our culture. So by dancing, learning how to dance Anishinaabe, learning how to powwow, and getting a drum. Before then, they they called it tom-tom.
Our first powwow was in early '60s, and that's really when I heard that first sound. The first sound reminds me of the creation story, the sound of the gourd, the sound of the shaker, that represents the thoughts of the Creator that went out out into the void, the emptiness. And so for me, it stirred something within me that was very deep. The sound went deep, deep into the core of my being, and it's like it woke something up in me. It stirred something.
The next sound I heard 10 years later, in the early '70s, was the sound of the water drum. I saw a little poster, a tiny little card that showed a picture of a water drum, and I had never seen, I had never witnessed a ceremony with a water drum. The Midewiwin. When I saw that, I said to my partner, I said, "Hey, these are Ojibwe ceremonies. Go check it out." And so we did. And so when when I got there, I heard somebody speaking the language that I understood. So I knew I was in the right place. That's a sign for me. I I understood. I'm I'm understanding what's being said, and these are my people because they speak the same tongue, they speak the same dialect. So I know.
Went into this lodge, and so there's this drum that's being dressed. Once it's dressed, they speak for the water. They pray over the water when they're dressing, getting it ready. And it's a woman that speaks for the water. Every once in a while, they would turn it upside down like this to wet the hide because everything is natural there. They put water in the vessel, in this wooden vessel, the water and the medicines in there, and the hollow log, and the deer hide represents kindness. The sound of the water drum was the most powerful sound that I had ever heard.
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And the first time I heard that sound, again, more powerful than the one that I had heard ten years before. This one stirred and shook every fiber of my being, every cell, everything inside of me was turned upside down and shook. The sacredness of that drum, the water in that drum, brought tears of incredible joy, but also a great sadness and a great release. A release of unresolved stuff that has been stored within me. My sadness, my abandonment, my grief, my shame, all of those things. When that water drum shook me, it all came, and I sobbed, and I sobbed, and I sobbed, and I couldn't stop it. The words of the song, the music, the sound, the vibration, that water that creates that vibration, the sound drum, the vessel created an incredible release of unresolved issues, and I couldn't stop crying.
So that's the sacredness, that's the power of water, that it can release unresolved issues that are stored within the body. Their memories. We we don't forget, but they don't control us anymore. That's the thing. That's the blessing. Whether it is anger, whatever it is, my abandonment that was with me for a long time, it doesn't interfere with my life anymore. To me, there is uh, the power of of water, the power of the sound, the power of the vibration, and the movement that stirs up within you to make the changes that we need to make to come home. For me, I'm very big on on coming home because that was a strong message when I first heard that. So coming home for me is not only to who we are, but you see the re-emergence of our sacred ways, of our sacred items, of our ceremonies, and even our languages.
The water has a very, very strong connection with the moon, and the moon is very powerful. We relate to uh, the moon as uh, grandmother. And um, she's the one that's connected to the Earth. Her daughter is the Earth, and of course, her connection to the waters that flow, the lakes, the streams, the creeks, everything in creation on the Earth. When we say that she controls the waters, we're not only talking about the cycles, she's in charge of the tides, the flow, the way the water is. She has a strong connection with the woman's flow, her cycles. She's in charge of the menstrual flow and the birthing, our ovulation, 28 days, all of that. She's the one that controls that. So a very, very powerful connection there with Grandmother Moon.
Water is so sacred, and we as women, as grandmothers, as mothers, were given the responsibility to care for that water, to speak up for that water. Why women? I often wondered that myself, why women? Until I was told, well, the woman is the life carrier. The woman is the one who carries that life. She's the water bearer. She's the vessel. It's an incredible, beautiful responsibility that was given to a woman to be the creator. She has the Creator's blood to create life, to bring forth life. She's acting out the creation story, and it's in the body. So as soon as she feels movement in her body, she knows that there is something, someone is getting ready. And so the thoughts, the thoughts, the thinking, the heart, what we put into our body goes into nurturing this movement, this life that is beginning to form in the body, this fetus.
The first sound that the fetus hears is the heartbeat, just like in our creation story, the heartbeat of our mother, the Earth. It's the same thing with the woman, the mother. That fetus hears the heartbeat. That's the first sound. And so there's this communication already happening. We're communicating with this life that is forming, that is beginning to stir within us. And there's the water, the water that is holding this life and creating and molding and shaping this life. When this life is ready to come through, come forth, and the door opens, begins to get ready to open, water gushes out. That's the first, that's the first breakthrough. That's how that life issues forth. What an awesome, awesome gift. It's a miracle. It's an incredible, beautiful responsibility that was given to be the only doorkeeper in which life, a spirit can come into the world and be able to be with the Earth, be with the land, be with with life. The spirit is beginning its journey.
I've always just been so moved by that that beautiful, beautiful story and the awesome responsibility. And it isn't just a woman, it takes two to create life, a man and a woman, and they work together. They work together to bring forth this this beautiful, beautiful spirit. There's beautiful, beautiful ceremonies that are given to acknowledge this new life. And before the cord is even cut, that cord is long enough that the mother can put her child to her breast. She is the first teacher. By putting her child to her breast, she is letting that new life know nourishment and connection and kindness.
A very, very special grandfather that came amongst us was a Kyunene, and uh, one of the things that he said to me one time was was um, "You know, the first treaty, it's a woman. It's through a woman the first treaty was made." And I often wondered, well, what did he mean by that? Sometimes I didn't pick it up right away. I'd have to think about it for a while. And so he talked about a mother putting her child to her breast was the first treaty. And I thought, well, how is that the first treaty? I thought treaties were made by politicians. Says, "No, the first treaty was made by a woman when she puts her child to her breast." Already she's teaching her child. She's reminding her child about love, about bounding, a connection, respect. And she's being true, she's being honest. By putting her child to her breast, she's nourishing, giving nourishment, she's feeding her child. So kindness, she said, he said, kindness. You're being kind because you're giving of yourself. By being kind, you're sharing of yourself. By being kind, and you're you're giving, you're giving love. You're being true, you're being honest. That's the first treaty. And he used the breast and the child and the mother as as a as a teaching to use that to about those principles of life. He said, "That's the way we treated the newcomers that came onto the shores of our land. When they came, that's how we treated them. We welcomed them with kindness, and we were honest, and we agreed to share. We didn't give up everything, we agreed to share. We helped them, we cared for them, we had compassion, and they they got strong, they got well, they got better."
What happened after that? And that's when he referred to the darkness. A big change, a big change came on to our people. We see it today. We see the big changes that are happening today, and it's the way that the Earth is letting us know it's time. So the Earth, our mother, is telling us it is time to do something. Water is movement. It needs to be passed on, that knowledge. But it had come to a standstill. It's almost as though it was static because of the traumatic history that we have been through. Coming through that darkness, I really feel that today again, there's a shift. I feel a shift.
A young man, Edward George, he's been advocating that people recognize in the Great Lakes that uh, that there, that it is a spirit. There is a spirit, and for people to to recognize that, to care for all of our waterways, all of our lakes. Our young people, they have an incredible sense of resiliency. Like autumn, that's our hope. Our young people, they give us hope. They encourage us, and encourage us and give us the incentive, the motivation to keep moving. We're proud of our young people who are out there lifting up because that's what they do. They lift up the people. They lift us up. They lift our spirits to keep moving, keep keep doing what we're doing. I remind our young people, take care of the water, it'll take care of you. The water gives life, but it can also take life. And so we have to be careful in how we treat that.
When the strangers came looking, I guess it was Columbus back then, who thought he had found India. When they came onto our shores, that's the way we treated them. We were kind to them, we had compassion, we gave them food, we gave them shelter, we nursed them. But then they saw the incredible beauty of this beautiful, beautiful new world that they called her. To them, she was brand new because she was beautiful and young and full of incredible resources and power, and she had on this beautiful green shawl. And they were leaving their place over there because they were calling it old world because they were depleting her, they were using her up. That's a term I don't like, but that's what I heard him say. They used her up until she couldn't give any more. There are places over there where people are starving, where there is no water, people are thirsty. While we look around our beautiful Mother Earth here, where we where we were placed, our original, we are the original people of this land, and we look around and we see how she has been raped and desecrated, and how they are using her up here. That's pretty profound. There are places in our communities where our people don't have clean water here in this land, and yet we have incredible resources. If only we knew how to respect the water.
How do you relate to water? What is your relationship with water? For us as Indigenous people, it's family. All of creation is family. So the Earth is my mother, the water is my grandmother. All of that is in that teaching about our connection and how we should be with the land, with the Earth, how we should treat her. We're the ones that need her. She is already whole and complete, but we have fallen away so far away. Disconnection. But Anishnabe, the Indigenous people, have maintained a connection, even though they went through a dark, dark time in the history. They maintained a connection because there are those who hung on to ceremony, who hung on to the songs, singing for the water, encouraging the water to keep flowing, and saying thank you, being grateful. Those of our people who continued, no matter what, they continued.
The water does indeed have a spirit. A grandmother has a spirit. The mother Earth has a spirit. All of those animals, the four-leggeds, the flyers, they all have a purpose, they all have a reason for being, and there is that relationship, there is that connection with all of creation. And so we all need to stand up and mend the green shawl and to ensure that the water stays clean. In part, I want to share that in a good way, just to bring that awareness for our mother, for the water. I'm not going to be around forever. Those of us who are grandmothers and grandfathers, our seniors, we want to leave a good legacy for the water, for the air.
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We don't do this for nothing. We don't do this for fame. We do it because we we care, and we keep moving, we keep going because we want to make sure that those little ones have clean water, have a place where they can enjoy and celebrate life. Hi, hi, Nikona.
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