Last year, in the awakening time of Maskwa (Bear 2022) I picked up a stick because it made me it think it had something it wanted to teach me.
This stick has fallen from the tree - probably not where it wanted to be. It's got skin peeling off and I could see the tender insides - some of them dried out already from the sun and the wind. Some of them are still wet and raw. As I think about this stick - maybe I'm like that stick. Maybe I wanted to be up on the tree this year. I wanted to have branches and leaves and become part of foundation of that tree. I wanted to have the birds to come sit and the squirrels - but that wasn't for me and that wasn't my path.
The stick is on the ground and it's waiting. Maybe it's worrying – maybe its mother tree is welcoming it back, but it's hard and it's gonna take a long time for the Earth to bring that stick home again and to be with the rest of his relatives. But maybe that tree didn't know and now it's in my hand. Maybe that branch has a whole different path - a path that it couldn't have imagined while it was on the tree. A path to become a part of something beautiful – a toy or an art price or even just a stick for one of our canine brothers. Maybe this stick didn't know how much of a lesson it had to share with us. Ho.
Some nights past, after spending time with Cheryl (Maskwa Kôhkomwiy / Bear’s Grandmother) talking about economic reconciliation, I heard the Kôhkomwata/Grandmothers in the dream spaces. They spoke in one voice and echoed the answers given to us by Elder Barb almost five years ago when we spoke about the practicalities of writing the “Daring to Meet the Bear” paper. I had asked for her guidance on the time period and scope of the policy paper. Her response was simple.
“Listen to what
the people have already told you.”
“Go back to the beginning.”
I also felt the Kôhkomach/Grandmothers remind us to find
answers in the practical, a teaching first gifted to Maskwa (Bear) by Elder
Solomon in our third year. I understood how these answers continue to hold the same
truth as when they were first spoken.
I woke to a small sliver of Grandmother Moon illuminating my
sleeping space. I thought about how using a principals/risk based approach to
meet the policy challenges of the pandemic had allowed our programs to be
nimble, to respond to changing situations and unique regional needs. I thought
of how, since the authorities we received were “to fill gaps” in mainstream
programming, that allowed us to think about our programs in new ways and to
address outstanding GBA+ concerns with our funding. I thought about what we
know about our current programs and related challenges. I thought about how
most of our resources go directly to communities already and I thought about
what we could do if we could focus on building a bridge of economic healing, reconciliation
rooted in a truth telling about Indigenous economies. Could that allow us to bypass
the many binaries we face in the current framing of Indigenous economic
development? (Such as high/low capacity, western ideas about time, risk
tolerance) I wondered if the recommendations of the Bear Paper might have some
other ideas on how to build the infrastructures we need to support ISC to meet
it’s goals of service transfer and implement economic reconciliation. I thought
about the abundance of tools in the innovation world and the opportunities they
might provide to try new things and work differently with Indigenous partners
to build sustainable and mutual capacity. I thought of wisdom and knowledges of
the Ancestors that we have forgotten or put aside – the richness of thinking on
these issues we are gifted if we take time to learn.
Most of all I thought of the people (oysin kitayame/ All my
relations). Those we work for and with. Of those who were and will be. The
people who hold the wisdom of their Grandparents. I share these words for the
Bear Bundle and those who are and will join into the Bear Circle. Ho Pehiw/ Nipon
Kona
NanaBjörn Preparing 23
NanaBjörn Preparing 23
NanaBjörn Preparing 23
Sometimes
I wear black
I know Grandmas
You taught me different
READ
Like NanaBear’s Grandmother
Steel cabinet
Silk scarf
Showing up
Listening
Asking
“Models of Indigenous Development” considers different models of indigenous development and provides examples of development as a means of resistance. Of particular interest for me was the discussion on the need to decolonize planning. Various essays in this volume ask us to consider if using Western ideas of planning can lead to anything but a replication of Western ideas of economic success.
Similar to the critiques around the role of accounting in reproducing certain economic norms, this volume argues that there is a need to decolonize the tool of planning as part of positioning it within Indigenous methodologies. This analysis also makes me think about the need for a further analysis of the tools used in economic development to determine where these tools need to be reconsidered for their neutrality and/or the need to rethink how to indigenize some of these tools.
What other analysis tools do we need to reconsider with the indigenous lens?
One day I sat down on the sand near the river. While I sat I was visited by a duck sister (ᓰᓰᑊ sîsîp - Cree). She came boldly to me. She knows that the two legged ones bring food. She came close and when I did not give her food she nipped at my toes pausing in between pecks to meet my gaze and remind me of my duty. I looked deep into her in her eyes and after some time we came to an understanding. She stopped nipping and sat down to guard me from any other feathered visitors.
We sat together as family. Arms and legs pulled in, ears alert to the environment but at ease. Briefly she wandered off to play a goose game but shook that off. She knows what she is. She knows that Geese games are not the ones for her today. She reminded me of the lessons of currents and winds in our lives. She reminded me of the duck’s ability to adjust themselves and slough off the water from their feathers. She reminded me of living as a creature on land and water and sky. She reminded me to share my gifts and inhabit my natural spaces. In her tellings she returned me to the lessons of taking time to sit down and listen. I thank her for the visit.
What lessons have the crawling, flying and swimming relations brought you?
Pehiw Wandering 2022
*Keaton Henson - Epilogue - Track one
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| Métis Fear 249: The economic crisis has led sîsîp (ᓰᓰᑊ duck) trying out some new accessories. |
Pehiw Wandering 2022
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| Battle and birth |
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| All emptied out |
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| Kitchen Wisdom |
