Band Member Voices
November Culture Column - THE ADULTS MUST GO FIRST — PART 2 OF 3
By Nazhike, Mille Lacs Band Member
As Anishinaabe, when we talk about the future of our children, we tend to focus on what they need to learn. We want them speaking Anishinaabemowin. We want them attending ceremony, knowing their manidoog. They need (you fill in the blank).
A baby cannot create an Anishinaabe environment for themselves. They experience whatever environment we create around them. If English is spoken all day, they learn English. If ceremony happens only occasionally, ceremony becomes an occasional part of life. Our children are watching what we make normal. So, the adults have to go first.
We do not all have to become fluent speakers, ceremonial leaders, hunters, medicine people or cultural experts. Our ancestors had different responsibilities too. That is part of what our doodem system teaches us. A healthy community depends upon people developing their gifts and then using those gifts for the community.
Maybe one parent decides to learn how to make asemaa. An uncle takes the children fishing. A grandmother tells stories. Someone learns the songs. Someone begins growing food. Someone knows how to prepare manoomin. Another relative makes sure the family attends ceremonies. Individually, these may seem like small things. Together, they create an Anishinaabe world around a child.
We should not be ashamed because we do not know something or everything. But once we recognize that something is missing, we have a responsibility to learn. That may require changing how we spend our time. If we want them speaking Anishinaabemowin, they need to hear us trying to speak it. If we want them attending ceremony, they need to see us getting ready and going with them. If we want them to know those manidoog, we have to create opportunities for those relationships to develop. If we want them connected to the land, we have to take them outside and show them what is happening during each season. We cannot expect our children to prioritize an Anishinaabe way of life if they rarely see the adults around them prioritizing it. They will learn what is important by watching where we spend our time, what we talk about, who we visit and what we practice. Maybe revitalization begins there. Not with expecting more from our children, but expecting more from ourselves. Every little thing we learn today becomes something our children do not have to search for tomorrow.
Cultural revitalization is something we have to live in front of our children. That might be one of the greatest responsibilities facing this very generation of adults. Many of us inherited pieces of knowledge. Some received language. Some received ceremony teachings. Others received hunting, harvesting, songs, stories, medicines and/or teachings. Some of us have spent adulthood trying to learn.
The babies born today give us an opportunity to put those pieces back together.
Twenty years from now, those babies will be young adults. What they know then will largely depend upon what we decide to do during the next twenty years. Miigwech.
