Near starvation.....?

In the summer I try to do learning with the girls.  This week we read "What do you Believe?"  I want to make sure that the girls understand how other people are living their lives and that they can make good decisions about how they live their own lives.  It is also important to me that they can see how Christianized our culture is (even spell check just capitalized it for me) and that they are able to ask smart questions about these things.  

 This book seemed like a good overall introduction to different belief systems.  It is Doris Kindersly who is usually  a decent publisher.  It was all going ok until we got to the two pages where they threw in everything not "Religion" including aboriginal spirituality, norse mythology, African, Australian Aboriginals into a big pile of "other".  I especially enjoyed the aside about the frozen north and the shared ideas about religion and starvation (Anyone out there coming down on the "starvation is great" side?).  To make it worse this is a recent imprint.  To be fair, it gave us lots to talk about.  Just not in the way we planned. 

The other book I read was "Wisdom of our First Nations".  This is part of a series on first nations personalities.  Each chapter introduces an Elder, their history and work, and their lessons.  It is sometimes a bit hard to read as the author has tried to reflect the speech patterns of the specific elders.  I really like this approach, but it can be challenging as a reader who is used to one bland voice.  There appears to be good representation between male and female Elders and Elders from different tribes.  This is a young adult book, but I enjoyed learning more about what indigenous people are doing on turtle island and how they have used their own gifts.

Give Away for 200 Posts

Hello folks, to celebrate 200 posts I would like to have a give away.  Leave a comment below by July 21 and I will choose a person at random to bead a medallion for. 

The winner can choose the subject of the medallion, the colors and the finishing (barrette, pin etcetera).

Hårnäver - Swedish Inspirations

At Powwow we rescued some pieces of birch bark from the garbage.  I think they were too small for the artist's project, but they were like gold for us.  I have long had designs on some of the amazing birch bark earrings I have been seeing.  In looking for birch bark projects and earring designs I came across these two pictures of a “Hårnäver” a headdress from Norra Ny in Värmland! (Sweden)



http://www.nordiskamuseet.se/artiklar/katalogkort-varmland

I was inspired by how these captured the spirit of the Métis and decided to make on for myself.  I don't have quite enough hair for the braids, but I was very happy about how this turned out.  It was nice working with the birch and learning about how to sew it together.

First Moon Time Book

"Walking the Moon Path"

As I mentioned previously, last year I made a book for Sophie about moon time. We read this when we have our red teepee time or she has questions. This book looks at the whole life cycle of a woman and situates the first moon time in the larger context of her life. I tried to pull from all my learning over the years, my favorite artwork and some great books about indigenous women. I thought I would share some of the pages with you occasionally. This is the Cover and below is the opening blessing. What are you doing for girls entering this phase of life? What resources would you recommend?

" As you take you place, in a linking of arms going back to when the first woman fell to the sky, her arms still outreached to mother moon, we come together cleansed by the burning of sage and with thanks in our heart to the creator, spirits and our ancestors. As you walk your path of womanhood, do not forget your connection to this earth, your great power of creation as a woman nor the beauty that resides in you."

Making things

Summertime means lots of time at the park with the children.  I find I can get a lot done during this period.  It is also really inspiring to be watching the children play and sitting out under the trees.  I finished a project from last year with appliques of t-shirt material.  It forms one side of a pair of culottes.  The picture above is the first finished moccasin for Sophie.  I am so proud to see this come together.  What are you creating right now?

Métis Awsomeness

I was so excited to see that Christi Belcourt worked with Valentino.   She is such an amazing artist and an inspiration.  It was great to see indigenous work treated with respect and I was really proud to see that she looked into who they were before saying yes.  It is a good example.  Getting ahead isn't worth it if you need to sell out the other things that are important in your life. 

Who is indigenous?

Discussion on who is part of the "group" be it indigenous or metis can get pretty intense.  A blog post by âpihtawikosisân generated plenty of discussion and her blog overall explores some of these issues.  I don't know if you have been following the case of a woman in the US who lived her life as a black woman.  This case has fascinated a lot of people interested in issues of race, belonging and consumption of the other.  I wanted to write about this a while back, but I was not quite sure what I wanted to say about this case in the indigenous space.  I guess it comes back to that fear of "going Indian" and taking on an identity which is not yours.

Indian Country had a number of articles on this issue - here are a couple for you

Ethnic Fraud and the Quest for Authenticity by Dina Gilio-Whitaker where she explores why someone might want to take on another "Race" identity.

Rachel Dolezal Is the Big, Bad Wolf in This Red Riding Hood Tale by Terese Marie Mailhot who sets out some practical ideas for what non-indigenous people can do. to help the indigenous cause without taking on another identity.  I like this approach or leaving people with action.

A couple of the children's books we have read try to address this issue.  One is "I like who I am" by Tara White.  She explores the idea that being Mohawk is more than just looking Mohawk.  We use this book to talk to the children about the importance of living a good Metis life even if you don't look like someone's idea of a Metis person. 

The second book is "Unusual Friendships" by Beatrice Culleton Mosioner that speaks to belonging beyond the colour of skin or type of animal.