Bgosendmoowin/Gbosendmoowin - Ceremony/Asking for Help

…prior to 1960, it was against the law to do our ceremonies. And you see that we have our religious rights and beliefs. So, you see that it awakened our spirit, so we started to make a new Fire; we ignited that Fire, and that Fire is the movement of who we are – spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically. We’re growing again. And who’s benefitting is our children; they’re looking for it; our youth are looking for our culture and our language. The older ones can’t change, and some of them won’t. But our future is... that’s why they say, “Bring a young person with you when you come to meetings like this, so they hear this and see this and witness this.” It feeds them, and they will have that enthusiasm and that determination that, “Yeah, we’re going to decide our future, not the Government of Ontario or the Church or the federal government. We are – in this community, for the betterment of all of us.”  Mike Bisson, Mississauga

Bgosendmoowin, meaning ceremonies or rites of passage, can serve many purposes, including education, decision-making and a means to request an appropriate response, formalize decisions being made, or as a standalone process to focus and cleanse participants, to close legal processes, and to commemorate outcomes. Specific life-stage ceremonies may be used to provide young families and parents with important teachings or to celebrate milestones in the lives of children and youth and instill responsibilities and connections to their families, communities, and nations. Other ceremonies, such as the pipe ceremony, may be used to resolve disputes and include important voices in decision-making. Ceremonies may be public or personal, or both. In times of struggle or challenge, individuals may engage with ceremony to seek answers within themselves or from the spiritual world that can help them on their healing journeys.

One important aspect of ceremonies for children is they help them understand who they are and where they come from as well as what their responsibilities are within their families and communities. A community engagement session participant from Batchewana described how “our songs are hundreds of years old, and we still know our songs. It’s our pipe song, it’s this song. We have different songs that we know, and they connect us with Lake Superior and Whitefish”.

Lee Obizaan Staples strongly encourages people to involve their children in ceremonies from an early age. Similarly, Kim Anderson said that life stage ceremonies helped an individual to establish and maintain these good relations with human, plant, and animal life, as well as spirit life. Ceremonies also give other community members an opportunity to identify individuals within their communities who hold particular gifts or skills.

Traditionally, ceremonies were held throughout a child’s life at various stages. As Margaret Toulouse of Sagamok stated, each life stage has those ceremonies that you would do. The Anishinaabemowin word for these changes in stage of life is “anjgaabwid”. Today, life stage ceremonies are a growing part of Anishinaabe community life as members work to revitalize them. As Margaret Toulouse explains,

Shke gonaamaampii ngii yaa naan jiinaago shpiming wii zhaawaad noonch enji kinoomaading, Tenoon dash go niw kina anishnaabek gaabizhi mnaachtoowaad niwn, Aaniish ezchiged wiya wii ni aanchzidood bimaadziwin, wii ni gyaksidood ge.

An example would be that we had a ceremony here to celebrate and introduce a new stage in life where students are going into high school. There are those ways in which our Anishnaabek celebrated, the changes they go through life. How are they going to go through those changes, and to make things right.

Ceremonies are an important part of this learning journey as they acknowledge the spirit and mark important milestones in the life of an individual. In the past, as in today, the values that accompanied identity formation were taught throughout childhood and reinforced in a formal way at coming-of-age ceremonies. Ceremonies teach children who they are, where they belong, and how they can contribute to their families and communities in ways that align with their cultural teachings. Ceremonies can also be a way of teaching adults how to live well in the world. Ceremonies such as the naming ceremony also help to protect children from ill health and ensure their wellbeing into the future.

Ceremonies also play an important role in governance and decision-making. In traditional times, cultural teachings and ceremonial processes were closely linked to the governance process. Anishinaabe kept their governance rooted in the wisdom teachings of the past and in the guidance from the Creator.

A community engagement session participant from Sagamok stated that:

We don't pay enough attention to our cultural protocols in our meetings. Our meetings should always begin with smudging, prayer, or possibly a song or teaching. And we should use the talking circle format we have learned from our ancestors, which gave everyone a chance to speak in an environment of respect and sharing. Right now, many of our people are not aware of why we do these things, and what value they could bring to us. We need to educate our community members on how to practice our own culture in a way that works for us in the 21st century.

For some community members, their relationships with bgosendmoowin are complicated by their experiences growing up in residential schools or public education. Earl Commanda explained that some community members feel afraid or disconnected from ceremony:

…in terms of that “old way” and “new way”, I think there was some controversy over that. A lot of people who were engrained in the Catholic Church saw this as, I don’t know, “Satanism, of the devil, not our way anymore.” And you still have some of that hesitancy there. Sweat lodges were in hiding, you know, they weren't out in the open. But it’s amazing how it has been embraced now; it’s there, it’s part of who we are now. And, you know, that teaching lodge that Nogdawindamin built up on the hill there, to me, is an example of that way. Because we’re Anishinaabe, of course, we don’t have Midewewin here, but we do have followers of some of those ways. And so, you see where that good life of the Midewewin has really been a good way for some of our people – following that way. So, my role, is to also try to bring that back now to our leadership in terms of saying, “Don’t be afraid of this, embrace this.” So, we’ve been using some of our cultural advisors in that direction as well.

This statement demonstrates how leaders can play a role in making ceremonies accessible within their communities. A community engagement session participant from Serpent River First Nation described how she “never grew up with ceremony. I struggle with it now because, as I learn more about it and I’ve rejected religion, I don't have anything to replace it with. And I don’t know, you know, who to trust, how to trust – different traditionalists – about whether what I’m learning or they’re trying to teach me, if it’s valid or if it’s real. Now that she has adopted and is raising two children, this individual is participating in ceremonies including a naming ceremony and a walking out ceremony.

In a recent example, the gookmisag miinwaa zigosag (grandmas and aunties) of Sagamok responded to a discovery of preteens using drugs at the skateboard park in part through ceremony. As Eva Jewell describes,

The gookmisag miinwaa zigosag offered semaa at the skateboard park and prayed. With help from the men, who lit a sacred fire and connected the pipe, the gookmisag miinwaa zigosag petitioned to the spirits: guide us as we take on the honourable responsibility to help our relatives who are struggling--guide us as we re-center mno bmaadziwin.

And so, at the core of this movement, a spiritual connection was made. That spiritual connection resonates with the love of Anishinaabekwe, the ones who hold our community together.

Gookmisag miinwaa zigosag eshpaa’endamojik. Our grandmothers and aunties--the ones who birthed us, raised us up, and care for us--are concerned.

This excerpt demonstrates how an important part of the gookmisag miinwaa zigosag legal process in responding to the harms that are occurring in their community was engaging with bgawsendamowin. These ceremonies provide a means to include other community members and to ask for spiritual support.

Our next blog post will highlight specific ceremonies that may be used to ground Anishinaabe children in their culture and worldview, along with the processes that can be used to facilitate and enhance decision-making.