Reflections of the Great Lakes, part 2

"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.
 

For over six centuries, my Native ancestors have called the Great Lakes basin home. The basin's plentiful waters, which seasonally rise and fall, flow into the North American continent and the Atlantic Ocean. For generations, my ancestors have lived near the water's edge to sustain themselves. 

From the time when these Algonquian-speaking settlers first arrived in this area abundant with freshwater lakes, islands, rivers, and forests, its waters have sustained many generations of the People both physically and spiritually. In addition to water, various fish species, turtle spirits, snakes, muskrats, water birds, mermen and mermaids, underwater panthers, and numerous other water creatures hold a significant place in the traditional stories and creation myths of the Anishinaabe Peoples.From the time when these Algonquian-speaking settlers first arrived in this area abundant with freshwater lakes, islands, rivers, and forests, its waters have sustained many generations of the People both physically and spiritually. In addition to water, various fish species, turtle spirits, snakes, muskrats, water birds, mermen and mermaids, underwater panthers, and numerous other water creatures hold a significant place in the traditional stories and creation myths of the Anishinaabe Peoples.

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Through a new blog series titled "REFLECTIONS OF THE GREAT LAKES," featuring pencil drawings, oil and acrylic paintings, and unique jewelry creations, Simone and I aim to capture and honor the spirit, beauty, and majesty of GICHIGAMIIN, the Great Seas of the Anishinaabe People. This vast natural resource, once respected, revered, and held sacred, is now often overlooked and its ecosystem largely exploited and damaged by commercial fishing and timber industries, various international chemical companies, and, of course, the tourism sector.

GICHIGAMIIN, AKIIWIN 
ONDA'INAAN (The Great Lakes, Source of Life)

Sterling silver ladies' ring set with 43x32 mm (1.69x1.26") stabilized, oval Kingman turquoise.

This unique six-prong silver-and-turquoise ring, like all of my jewelry, serves as a teaching tool and is not available for purchase. The ring, rich in symbolism, pays tribute to the sacred waters of the NORTH AMERICAN GREAT LAKES and the legendary 600-year eastward migration that ultimately brought the Anishinaabe Peoples to their expansive territories.

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!

An Anishinaabe rock painting from the 19th century (or possibly partly from the 17th and partly from the 19th century) at Agawa, Lake Superior, Ontario, illustrates a horned underwater manidoo (manitu) named Mishibizhiw, the Great Lynx. In Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe), the site is called Mazinaabikiniganing, meaning "the painted rock." The sacred red ochre paint used for this, and many similar depictions was typically made by mixing iron hematite with boiled sturgeon spine or bear grease.

Mishibizhiw is linked to the water domain and is respected by the Anishinaabeg and Ininiwak (Cree) as a being that governs the temperaments of the Lake and acts as a sometimes-perilous guardian of rapids and turbulent waters. Like other manidoog, Mishibizhiw possesses the ability to transform into different animal forms. Mishibizhiw is believed to assist those attempting to cross treacherous waters, given that an appropriate offering is made

Certain Anishinaabeg, especially medicine men who aspire to gain the ability to enter the sacred rocks, continue to leave offerings such as asemaa (tobacco), clothing, and bundles of colored sticks. The rock painting narrates the bold four-day journey across eastern Lake Superior in the early 1600s by a fleet of war canoes, led by the warrior and Mide medicine man Ma-iingan (Wolf), with the blessing of Mishibiziw.

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For the Anishinaabeg, NIBI, or water, is akin to an organic system similar to the human body. It functions like a circulatory system that maintains the health and well-being of the body it serves. The Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes region, who have long understood the presence of subterranean rivers, recognize these underground waterways as the veins of OMIZAKAMIGOKWE, or OGASHINAN (Mother Earth). As she flows through rivers, lakes, and streams, NIBI travels through underground channels or emerges from the Earth's surface as artesian wells. NIBI is seen as the lifeblood of OGASINAN, purifying and nourishing her. Since NIBI is the source of life and women possess the gift of life, its care is entrusted to women. It is the women who understand the necessity of protecting and preserving the purity of the Great Lakes' waters for the benefit of all current and future life.

The turquoise cabochon's blue hue represents the waters of the Great Lakes as well as the essence 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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Ring Design and jewelry photography:by ZhaawanArt (2011). Like all of Zhaawano's jewelry, the ring acts as an educational tool and is not for sale.

Photo Lake Huron shoreline by Brucesky

The author at Agawa Rock, summer 2015. Photo by Simone McLeod.
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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 a writer and non-commercial artist and jewelry designer, Zhaawano draws on the oral and pictorial traditions of his ancestors. In doing so he sometimes works together with kindred artists.