"Nibi, Source of Life"
- Updated January 11, 2017
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Boozhoo! Biindigen miinawaa noongom giizhigad! Hello, welcome again to our art blog! Let's talk about water today.
Since the days when these Algonquian speaking immigrants first came to this region of bountiful freshwater lakes and islands and rivers and forests, its waters have nourished many generations of the People, physically as well as spiritually. Along with water, all kinds of fish species, turtle spirits, snakes, muskrats, water birds, merrmen and mermaids, underwater panthers as well as a myriad of other water creatures, play a central role in the traditional narrations and creation stories of the Anishinaabe Peoples.

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By way of a new blog series called "REFLECTIONS OF THE GREAT LAKES", accompanied by pencil drawings, oil and acrylic paintings, and original works of jewelry, Simone and I aspire to capture, and pay homage to, the spirit and beauty and majesty of GICHIGAMIIN, the Great Seas of the Anishinaabe People. A natural resource of immense proportions once respected, revered and held sacred, yet nowadays unappreciated by many, its ecosystem largely being misused and abused by commercial fishery and timber companies, various international chemical corporations, and of course the tourist industry.
ONDA'INAAN (The Great Lakes, Source of Life)
Sterling silver ladies' ring set with 43x32
mm (1.69x1.26") stabilized, oval Kingman turquoise.
This unusual six-prong silver-and-turquoise
ring, which is rich in symbolism, honors the sacred waters of the NORTH
AMERICAN GREAT LAKES and the legendary 600-years lasting, eastward migration
that eventually led the Anishinaabe Peoples to their vast borders.
For six centuries or more, the Great Lakes have
been the home of the Gichi Gami Anishinaabeg (the Ojibwe Peoples of the Great Lakes), who descend
from the great Wabanaki Nation of the Eastern seaboard. Because the lakes and
adjacent rivers and streams in the Great Lakes territory are rich in fish,
these waters have been bountiful sources of food for the Gichi Gami
Anishinaabeg ever since.
However, the lakes’ immense stretches of
water are not only a source of food; they are also a MANIDOO (spirit), a sacred
source of many life forms. Therefore, whenever a person or a group of persons
pass a remarkable or dangerous place on the Great Lakes, one is supposed to say a prayer, accompanied sometimes with a
gift of asemaa (tobacco). Always place tobacco in the water whenever crossing a lake!
19th century (or, possibly, partially 17th and partially 19th century) Anishinaabe rock painting at Agawa, Lake Superior, Ontario, depicting a horned underwater manidoo (manitu) by the name of Mishibizhiw, the Great Lynx. The site's name in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) is Mazinaabikiniganing, which means "the painted rock". The sacred red ochre paint used to depict this, and many similar, accounts was generally created by mixing iron hematite with boiled
sturgeon spine or bear grease.
Mishibizhiw is associated with the water realm, and revered by the Anishinaabeg and Cree as one who controls the moods of the Lake and a sometimes dangerous guard of rapids and swift or troubled waters. Like other manidoog, Mishibizhiw has the power to shapeshift into various animal forms. Mishibizhiw is said to aid those who seek to cross dangerous water, provided that a suitable offer is made.
Mishibizhiw is associated with the water realm, and revered by the Anishinaabeg and Cree as one who controls the moods of the Lake and a sometimes dangerous guard of rapids and swift or troubled waters. Like other manidoog, Mishibizhiw has the power to shapeshift into various animal forms. Mishibizhiw is said to aid those who seek to cross dangerous water, provided that a suitable offer is made.
To the Anishinaabeg, NIBI or water is an
organic system like the human body. It is like any circulatory
system that ensures the ongoing health and well-being of the body that is the
bearer of such a system. The Anishinaabe inhabitants of the Great Lakes area, who have always been aware
of the existence of rivers that run
underground, know that these underground waterways are the veins of
OMIZAKAMIGOKWE, or OGASHINAN (Mother Earth). As she flows through the rivers,
lakes and streams, NIBI seeps through underground passageways or bursts out of
the surface of the Earth in the form of artesian wells. NIBI is regarded as the
life blood of OGASINAN, as she purifies and feeds her. Because NIBI is the
source of life and women have the gift of life, she is deemed the
responsibility of women. It is the women who know that the waters of the Great
Lakes must be protected, kept pure, for all life now and to come.
The blue color of the turquoise cabochon
symbolizes both the waters of the Great Lakes and the spirit of NIBI.
The silver bezel, hand stamped and adorned
Navajo-style and surrounded by sterling silver twisted wire, represents the
shores of the lakes, where since time immemorial the Anishinaabekweg, the
female caretakers of the Anishinaabe Nations, give offerings to the water
spirits and leave tobacco ties for their water ceremonies. Since 2003, a group
of courageous Anishinabekweg and male supporters take action to teach the
public about the sacred element of water, and to bring up the serious issues of water pollution by walking once a
year the perimeter of the Great Lakes. The mission of these MOTHER EARTH WATER WALKERS, which was initiated by two Anishinaabe grandmothers, is to address the
widespread pollution by big corporations. Their mission is to save fresh, clean
water for future generations. The Annual Women’s Water Walk was chosen to be held in Spring because of the natural re-growth of the natural habitat, as Springtime is a time for renewal, re-growth, and re-birth.
Bimaaji'i Anishinaabe Bimaadiziwin
Bimaaji'i Aki
Bimaaji'i Nibi
"Save the Way of Life of our People
Save the World
Save the Water"
The six wire shanks of the ring stand for
the 5 Great Lakes – Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake
Ontario - and the St. Lawrence River, which although not a lake, is an
important part of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system leading to the Atlantic
Ocean. The number six also symbolizes the legendary, 6 centuries lasting odyssey
of the Algonkin/Anishinaabe Nation. It was here, at the borders of the St.
Lawrence, that, more than a millennium ago after a foretelling of devastation
by mysterious prophets who appeared from
the Atlantic Ocean, began a migration of thousands of Algonquian families from
the seacoast inland to the Great Lakes territories.
To this day, this legendary migration of the Algonkin/Anishinaabeg is still known as niizhwaaso-ishkoden
niigaanaajimowin, or PROHECY OF THE SEVEN FIRES.
Click here to read part 3 of our series about Nibi.
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Click here to read part 3 of our series about Nibi.
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Ring Design and jewelry photography: by ZhaawanArt (2011)
Photo Lake Huron shoreline: by Brucesky
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About the author/artist:
Zhaawano Giizhik,
an American currently living in the Netherlands, was born in 1959 in
North Carolina, USA. Zhaawano has Anishinaabe blood running through his
veins; the doodem of his ancestors from Baawitigong (Sault Ste. Marie, Upper Michigan) is Waabizheshi, Marten. As an artist, a writer, and a designer of jewelry and wedding rings,
Zhaawano draws on the oral and pictorial traditions of his ancestors.
In doing so he sometimes works together with kindred artists.
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