Items from the columnist's Miywasin Moment collection: a hand-beaded deer hide journal; a Pueblo double-spouted wedding vase; a copy of 2021's Sept. 30 National Day for Truth and Reconciliation front cover story.--PHOTO BY JOLYNN PARENTEAU
Miywasin is a Cree word meaning “it is good.” This column intends to be a “good moment” as you read it over your morning pihkahtewâpoy (“coffee”, Cree). If you are a new reader, I say to you: Tawâw (“come in, you’re welcome, there is room”, Cree).
Since its launch in August 2021, the Miywasin Moment has brought you 40 stories of history and tradition; events alive with culture, music and healing; and human stories of success, creativity and resilience.
We are discovering Indigenous ways of knowing maamawi (“together”, Ojibwe). I have taken you with me as I’ve travelled across Turtle Island (Indigenous North America). On Wasan Island in Ontario’s Muskoka Lakes, we have walked on sacred earth with 10,000 years of Anishinaabe history. In the desert territory of the Apache, Hopi and Navajo peoples, we visited the Heard Museum of Phoenix, Ariz., observing wonders of ancient and modern art and by-gone relics of everyday and ceremonial life.
In the Cypress Hills we have journeyed back 160 years through family stories of rugged Métis life. Walking Medicine Hat’s own Saratoga Park Trail, we relived our local history of the Métis homestead, a community that for 80 years carved out its own way of life here.
Researching Miywasin Moment articles allows me to absorb a wealth of cultural knowledge. I have shared with you a campfire recipe for bannock over the fire and learned to sew ribbon skirts and make an elk hide drum. Joining the Miywasin Singers traditional drum group has taught me to raise my voice “in a good way” as our Elders say, performing Anishinaabe songs for local ceremonies and events. When I was first introduced to acclaimed Métis fiddler JJ Guy, he enthusiastically recognized me as “the prairie berry crumble lady!”, a nod to a recipe shared in a Kookum’s Kitchen segment. The start of a long friendship, no doubt.
Readers have glimpsed a sacred Blackfoot naming and pipe ceremony, joined in remembering relatives lost on Red Dress Awareness Day and the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and delved into our shared history with Saamis Tepee’s interpretive tour. We’ve celebrated the opening of the Miywasin Children’s Centre, a trailblazing early learning cultural space, and attended a Métis movie premiere with a hometown star.
The human stories shared introduce our neighbours who are making a difference. We have met First Nations and Métis entrepreneurs, artists, helpers, educators and advocates who all call Medicine Hat home.
As a writer, language fascinates me. Providing media coverage for the Mawachihitotaak Métis Studies Symposium and The Hills Are Alive Métis Cultural Festival has introduced me to the Michif language revitalization movement. Open to all, the Miiywaashin Michif Language and Culture Camp at Eagles Nest Ranch returns next month with registration through Miywasin Friendship Centre.
Native wisdom abounds in our oral histories. The Seven Sacred Teachings series explores values represented by sacred animals. We have looked back on wedding customs across Turtle Island and gained a better understanding of how we connect to Mother Earth.
Storytelling is at the heart of each Miywasin Moment. You have read legends of the changing seasons; the Cherokee cautionary tale of the Two Wolves and a Wise Mind; raven tales of the Haida’s Creation story and the Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest’s Box of Daylight; and the Chickasaw Nation’s wedding legend of the Ghost of the White Deer, which reached a reader as far away as Oklahoma!
Sharing our cultures with one another broadens mindsets in our community. In “Becoming Wasani” I reflected that “I have a better understanding now of how I represent all the experiences that have built me, and of all the places I have come from… from where I’m local.”
“I appreciated this article as it puts into words some of my thinking about our identity in a multicultural society,” wrote in one Hatter. “I am a senior and was educated to think about my identity as a citizen of the British Empire and also a Canadian but not as I see myself today. Thank you for this sentence as it is one that needs to circulate more widely than just the Medicine Hat News so that more Canadians can better understand who they are.”
This column provides a new platform for the timeless tradition of Indigenous storytelling. I offer my gratitude to Medicine Hat News editors Ryan McCracken and Scott Schmidt for providing this space for us to learn together; to Miywasin Friendship Centre for making cultural professional development opportunities possible; to my husband for his first draft editing; and to you, for taking your time to share these cross-cultural moments. Maarsii (Michif), kinanaskomitin (Cree) thank you.
JoLynn Parenteau is a Métis writer out of Miywasin Friendship Centre. Column feedback can be sent to jolynn.parenteau@gmail.com
