Oral storytelling becomes an even more important vehicle for the creation of free cognitive spaces because the physical act of gathering a group of people together within our territories reinforces the web of relationships that stitch our communities together. The storyteller then has to work with emergence and flux, developing a unique relationship with the audience based entirely on context and relationships. Whose is in the audience? Where are they from? Which clans are present? What age groups? What challenges are individuals, families and communities going through? What personal gifts does the audience bring with them? What emotions do people bring? Which moon are we in? This context provides the storyteller with information s/he uses to decide what to tell and how to tell it to gain both individual meaning and collective resonance. The relationship between those present becomes dynamic, with the storyteller adjusting their “performance”[8] based on the reactions and presence of the audience. The lines between storyteller and audience become blurred as individuals make non-verbal (and sometimes verbal) contributions to the collective event. The “performance,” whether a song, a dance or a spoken word story, becomes then an individual and collective experience, with the goal of lifting the burden of colonialism by visioning new realities.
While this is now also accomplished by Indigenous artists through the written word, spoken word, theatre, performance art, visual art, music and rap, film and video, it is most powerful in terms of transformation in its original cultural context because that context places dynamic relationships at the core. When mediated through print or recording devices, these relationships become either reduced (technology that limits interactivity) or unilateral (as in print, film, or video, when the creator cannot respond to the reaction of the audience). Then the process, to me, loses some of its transformative power because it is no longer emergent.
Storytelling is an important process for visioning, imagining, critiquing the social space around us, and ultimately challenging the colonial norms fraught in our daily lives. In a similar way, dreams and visions propel resurgence because they provide Nishnaabeg with both the knowledge from the spiritual world and processes for realizing those visions. Dreams and visions provide glimpses of decolonized spaces and transformed realities that we have collectively yet to imagine.
This is a thread that runs through this entire book, but begins here with the consideration of a Creation Story. There are several different Creation Stories within Nishnaabeg cosmology and these stories are epics in and of themselves, often taking several hours or even days to tell. It is not ethically appropriate for me to tell these stories here, since these stories are traditionally told by Elders who carry these responsibilities during ceremony or under certain circumstances. They are not widely shared. However, sketches of these stories have been printed by some of those Elders themselves.[9] Relying on these published version and versions I have heard told in workshops and Elders Conferences (so in public not ceremonial contexts), I wish to bring attention to four tenets of the story that directly relate to the role of intellectual pursuits and theory in relation to resurgence; and I want to reclaim the context for interpretation of these teachings. One print version of this story is by Eddie Benton-Banai and is known as the Seven Fires of Ojibway Creation.[10] The following version was told to me by Edna Manitowabi, and she spent a lot of time explaining this story in the context of her own life and in the context of her work with our young women. It is printed here with her permission.
Grandmother Teachings[11]
Edna Manitowabi
My name is Asinykwe and I am a relative of Mkwa, the Bear. I am from Wiiwemikong, Mnidoo Minising. My father was Gaazongii (John Mnidoo Abi). My mother was Naakwegiizigokwe,[12] (Mary Louise Trudeau) and she was a relative of Jijak (Crane). My mother lost nine children to residential school. I was the last to go. I went searching for these teachings as a way of recovering from this loss.
Dreamtime has always been a great teacher for me. I see my dreams as guides or mentors, as the Grandfathers and Grandmothers giving me direction in my life. Dreams are how my own spirit guides me through my life. In the mid 1970s, a dream led me to ceremonies and to the Little Boy water drum. When I first heard the sound of the Little Boy and felt his incredible vibration quivering through every cell and every fiber of my being, I knew I had come home, because I had dreamed of that Little Boy long before then.
I vividly recall the way the Little Boy was dressed the first time I saw him. He wore a headband with Seven Teaching Stones on his head. These symbolize the Seven Fires or the Seven Stages. I have tried to live my life according to these teachings, especially now as I move into my senior years. The time has come for me as a Grandmother, a teacher and a Great Grandmother to pass these on to the next generation of women. I have taken up this work and these responsibilities and now I must remember these teachings, wear them, and pass them on to the younger generation of women who are now coming into that power time as a new woman spirit.
For a number of years now, I have had the honour and the privilege of preparing our young girls as they move into womanhood, and for helping young women, Mothers and Aunties who want to change their lives and have new understandings as Oshki-Nishnaabekwe[13] and as Ogichitaa.[14] These are not easy transitions to make. As a Grandmother, I try to help young women understand what is happening to them when their Grandmother comes to visit for the first time.[15] 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. We need to pass on the teachings of the sacredness of the water that sustains us, the air that we breathe, and the fire within us, so that our next generation of women have an understanding of what is happening to them during this powerful transition. Through these teachings they will then come to understand the Earth as their Mother. Through these teachings, they will then come to understand the Earth as themselves.
They will understand her seasons, her moods and her cycles.
They will understand that she is the Mother to all of Creation.
They will understand that she takes care of herself.
They will see that she is beautiful, sacred and that she was created first.
They will know that she holds a special place in our hearts because she is our Mother.
They will understand that our people connect to this land as their Mother.
We need to help our young people maintain this relationship and these teachings, because that connection is the umbilical bond to all of Creation.
When our young women understand this, they will understand their own seasons, cycles and moods. They will understand that they are sacred and beautiful. They will understand that they must take care of themselves, and that they are the mothers to generations yet to be born.
We do this for our young women so they will be guided by our Mother’s wisdom and so they will model themselves after this Earth. So they might grow up to be good and kind compassionate Anishinaabekwewag. So they might know how to look after their children and their grandchildren. So that together, we might be a strong nation again. That is my dream. That is why I keep working. We do this work because we love our children. This is my purpose in life as a Grandmother and a Great Grandmother. This is my purpose in life as a Kobaade.[16]
In the beginning, before the beginning, there was only darkness and emptiness. In this cold, dark, vastness there was a sound, a sound like the shaking of seeds in a gourd. Then there was one thought, the first thought. The thought of the Great Mystery, Creator, Gzhwe Mnidoo.[17]
Gzhwe Mnidoo’s thoughts went out into the darkness. S/he knew s/he had to create a place for these thoughts, so Gzhwe Mnidoo created a circle in that darkness and within that circle s/he made a fire. At the centre of the circle was the heart beat of the Creator.
In the beginning, the fir
st thought was the pulse and rhythm of Gzhwe Mnidoo. The thoughts and the heartbeat went out into the vastness. The thoughts and the vibrational sound of the heartbeat created the star world, the sky, and the universe. The Creator’s first thought combined with the first heartbeat became the First Fire of Creation.
Within that great circle of the universe came another circle when Gzhwe Mnidoo made a fire creating light in that darkness. This is Creator’s Second Fire, Giizis, the Sun. Within that great circle was the partner to the Giizis, our Grandmother the Moon. Dibiki-Giizis is the nighttime sun who would give us light in our darkness—the duality of all was created.
Grandmother Moon is the Grand woman of the universe was given to us to govern the cycles. The seasons would renew all the life that would be created. The partnership of night and day was established and this was the Third Fire of Creation. All of this was set into motion with the four sacred directions, and in doing so movement was created, the Fourth Fire of Creation.
Gzhwe Mnidoo then called on the beneshiinyak[18] of every colour, song, size and shape. Gzhwe Mnidoo put all of the thoughts and creative energy into seeds and asked the beneshiinyak to spread the seeds. Those seeds carried all of the creative energy, all of the thoughts and the potential for all of life. This was the Fifth Fire of Creation.
Then Gzhwe Mnidoo made a place for those seeds to go. S/he made the most beautiful Woman, who we know as our Mother the Earth. Three times, Gzhwe Mnidoo tried. On the fourth try, s/he made our beautiful, round earth. Gzhwe Mnidoo gave her a heart from the First Fire and placed it at the very core of her being. 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.
Gzhwe Mnidoo looked upon Creation, the incredible beauty of the Earth, the waterways, the lakes and streams, the rivers. Her Life Blood flowing below and above the ground. These are the very waters of life that feed and nourish all of life, all of Creation. Her veins and her lifeblood, her bloodlines give life to all that Gzhwe Mnidoo had made. In all of that we would always know that we are joined together as one. We have the same Mother. We would always know she was created first, the first woman with a heart. When Creator finished Creation, Gzhwe Mnidoo gave it to her. You are the Creator now, you will create life and renew it. This is why these teachings are so important to our young women—when we bring forth new life we are reenacting this story.
When the seeds had been scattered on the face of the Earth, Gzhwe Mnidoo saw the beauty of her and how everything moved in harmony and in balance. Gzhwe Mnidoo saw how everything was full and so complete and Creator was filled with great joy. Gzhwe Mnidoo was filled with tears at this great joy, and they fell to the earth nourishing the land and the seeds mated to the soil.
And so from her breast, from her, came all that there is, and all that there will be; the winged of the air, the swimmers, the four legged, the flowers, the plants, the crawlers, the trees, and the seas that moved across the land. Upon her bosom reigned peace and happiness for ages and ages, and this was the Sixth Fire of Creation.
Original Man was the last to be created. Gzhwe Mnidoo wanted one who would reflect her/his thoughts, and so from the first woman s/he took four parts of her body— soil, air, water and fire and molded a being, a vessel. Gzhwe Mnidoo blew his/her own spirit breath into the being and gave him her/his own thoughts, and these thoughts were so vast that they spilled out of his head into his entire body. Gzhwe Mnidoo touched Original Man’s breast causing his heart to beat in harmony with the rhythm of the universe and with Gzhwe Mnidoo.
Gzhwe Mnidoo then lowered him down to the Earth so that he might also be a child of the great Mother. It is in that and with great kindness and humility, with the utmost gentleness, that Anishinaabe touched and met his Mother. This is the Seventh Fire of Creation.
This story is important for young women to know because they re-create this story in pregnancy. When we create new life, it is an extension of ourselves, just as Original Man was an extension of Gzhwe Mnidoo. In the same way, our thoughts, our breath, and our heartbeat, pulses in the new life we carry in our sacred waters.
Our Theory is Personal[19]
A theory in its most basic form is simply an explanation for why we do the things we do. When we think of theory in this way, the Aandisokaanan and our language encodes our theories, and we express those theories in both the Dibaajimowinan[20] and our ways of being in the world. I have come to understand the Dibaajimowinan as echoing the Aandisokaanan. Our personal creation stories—our lives, mirror and reflect the Seven Fires of Creation.
The starting point within Indigenous theoretical frameworks then is different than from within western theories: the spiritual world is alive and influencing; colonialism is contested; and storytelling, or “narrative imagination,” is a tool to vision other existences outside of the current ones by critiquing and analyzing the current state of affairs, but also by dreaming and visioning other realities.[21] The responsibility for finding meaning within these Aandisokaanan lies within individual Nishnaabeg; and this is communicated through our Dibaajimowinan. Every Nishnaabeg has our own personal stories or narratives that communicate their personal truths, learning, histories and insights. Dibaajimowinan in this sense are personal opportunities to create. Our Elders consider Creation Stories to be of paramount importance because they provide the ontological and epistemological framework to interpret other Aandisokaanan and Dibaajimowinan in a culturally inherent way. It is critical then, that these stories themselves are interpreted in a culturally inherent way, rather than through the obfuscated lens of imperial thought, because they are foundational and they serve to build meaning into the other stories.
The first insight into Nishnaabeg theoretical foundations I would like to explore occurs in the Seventh Fire of creation, after Gzhwe Mnidoo[22] has dreamed the physical world through the first Six Fires. The First Fire created the universe through the union of the first thought (intellectual knowledge) with the first heartbeat (heart-knowledge or emotion, truth). In the Second Fire, Gzhwe Mnidoo created the first fire and the Four Directions. In the Third Fire duality exists for the first time. The Fourth Fire brings movement. By combining duality and movement, Gzhwe Mnidoo encapsulated his thoughts into seeds (the Fifth Fire), and the Sixth Fire was the creation of the first woman as a mother, the earth so those seeds would have somewhere to go.
Gzhwe Mnidoo next created the first beings, but it took a very, very long time. S/he wanted to create the most beautiful beings possible. So Gzhwe Mnidoo dreamed. Gzhwe Mnidoo visioned. Gzhwe Mnidoo took time, tried some things out. S/he was careful and persistent, and finally, after a good length of time, Gzhwe Mnidoo lowered the first being, ever so gently to earth. Nishna is our verb for “being lowered.” Reclaiming the context of this story means that rather than saying or thinking that Gzhwe Mnidoo lowered an abstract “first person” to the earth, if I am a woman, I say or think Gzhwe Mnidoo lowered “the first woman to the earth.”[23]
That first being was the most beautiful thing Gzhwe Mnidoo had every seen, and Gzhwe Mnidoo’s heart swelled with love. Again, 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 are taught to insert ourselves into the story. Gzhwe Mnidoo created the most beautiful, perfect person possible and that most beautiful, perfect person was me, Betasamosake.[24] What does this tell us about Nishnaabeg thought?
It is personal.
We were created out of love.
That the love of Gzhwe Mnidoo is unconditional, complete, and that s/he loves us the way we are, without judgment.
By inserting ourselves into these stories, we assume responsibilities—responsibilities that are not necessarily bestowed upon us by the collective, but that we take on according to our own gifts, abilities and affiliations. Nishnaabeg theory has to be learned in the context of our own personal lives, in an emotional, physical, spiritual and intellectual way. Every time I tell my children
this story, or they hear this part of it in ceremony, their faces light up. It re-affirms that they are good, and beautiful and perfect they way they are. Every time I have shared this part of our creation story with Indigenous students, their faces light up as well. When interpreted this way, our stories draw individuals into the resurgence narrative on their own terms and in accordance to their own names, clan affiliations and gifts. For just a moment, they are complete in the absence of want—decolonizing one moment at a time. Indigenous thought can only be learned through the personal; this is because our greatest influence is on ourselves, and because living in a good way is an incredible disruption of the colonial meta-narrative in and of itself. In a system requiring presence, the only way to learn is to live and demonstrate those teachings through a personal embodiment of mino bimaadiziwin. As Edna said in her Creation Story, we wear our teachings.
Embodied Knowledge, Unlimited Intelligence
The next part of the story, after Gzhwe Mnidoo has lowered me to the earth, tells us that Gzhwe Mnidoo put her/his right hand to my forehead and s/he transferred all of Gzhwe Mnidoo’s thoughts into me. There were so many, that the thoughts couldn’t just stay in my head; they spilled into every part of my being and filled up my whole body. Gzhwe Mnidoo’s knowledge was so immense from creating the world that it took all of my being to embody it.[25]
This tells us that 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. Our methodologies, our lifeways must reflect those components of our being and the integration of those four components into a whole. This gives rise to our “research methodologies,” our ways of knowing, our processes for living in the world.[26]
Dancing on Our Turtle's Back Page 4