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"We Are Still Here!"
- Updated April 24, 2022
Hello! Welcome once again to my Storytelling Lodge, where legends and teaching tales are shared.
Through a blog series titled "REFLECTIONS OF THE GREAT LAKES," featuring my artwork and jewelry designs alongside creations by fellow artists inspired by the same source, I honor and seek to recapture the spirit, beauty, and majesty of GICHIGAMIIN, the Great Seas of the Anishinaabe People. These unparalleled freshwater lakes, once respected, revered, and held sacred, are a vast natural resource now largely unappreciated. Their ecosystem is being misused and abused by commercial fisheries, timber companies, power plants, and various international chemical corporations. Meanwhile, the growing tourist economy aligns with the alarming decline in water levels. Make no mistake, the lakes and their connected waterways, which have nourished many generations of our People both physically and spiritually, are under serious threat...
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Recovering the sacred
In this context, I am honored to share with you the sacred story of these gold rings. Like all of my jewelry, the rings serve solely as teaching tools and are not for sale. My motivation to create the rings stemmed from a deep desire to reclaim what was once sacred. The subtle symbolism of the rings highlights a long history of neglectful abuse of sacred Native lands and waters across Turtle Island (North America) and reflects the unfortunate realization that much of the ancestral lands and numerous sacred sites of the Anishinaabeg and other Native Nations are now overwhelmed and polluted by various economic activities, from recreation to mining.
The rings are crafted following the ancient tradition of Nishinaabe mazinaajimowin, or ‘Spirit drawing’; this spiritual art of the Anishinaabe ancestors is still preserved in birch bark scrolls maintained by the Midewiwin (Ojibwe Grand Medicine Society) and in numerous rock paintings found across the Canadian Shield and the Great Lakes region.
The story of the rings is a story that has been told throughout history by countless tongues. It is among the many grandfather-stories that, since ancient times, rise from the roots of the trees, the cliffs around the Great Lakes, and the banks of the rivers traversing Anishinaabe land. While its significance is deeply embedded in the collective memory and cultural awareness of the Anishinaabe People, I also believe it is fundamentally universal in its relevance and application to our daily lives and relationships._______________________________________________________________________________
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The outer surfaces of the rings feature a stylized representation of the ANISHINAABE MINO-MIIKANA: the Good Life Road of the People. Inside the rings, there are stylized images of a human hand and a thunderbird figure. These symbols are also found as red ochre pictographs in secluded locations near the Great Lakes, typically in rocky natural settings—often on cliffs by the water, accessible only by canoe—where a strong connection to the spirit world exists.
Diagram of the Path Of Life
The teachings of MIDEWIWIN, the Lodge of Medicine and Ethics of the Anishinaabe People, convey that each individual has a path to follow, known as The True Path of Life. This path is unpredictable, with numerous detours (dangers and temptations) that traverse four 'hills': infancy, youth, adulthood, and old age. Originally illustrated by ancestors on ancient, sacred birchbark scrolls, this life path is shown as a stylized trail with seven or nine detours or lines branching off from the main trail. Preserved within the caches of the Mide spiritual practices, the teachings of the True Path of Life have been handed down to many Mideg over the centuries.
The MIDEWIWIN teaches that the concept of mino-bimaadiziwin, living a good life, should be our primary aim. Achieving this mino-bimaadiziwin requires gaining spiritual power from the manidoog or manitu's ('spirits') and aadizoogaanag ('our grandfathers' or spirit-helpers), who reside in all layers of the universe and sometimes appear to us in dreams and visions. Additionally, reciprocal responsibilities and mutual obligations, not only among humans but also in relation to all life forces and beings in the world, should always be assumed.
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Handprint of the ancestors
The HAND PRINT inside the ring on the left represents the ancestors' handprint, symbolizing their silent, eternal presence conveyed through sacred images (petroglyphs, paintings on stone) found on steep cliff walls around gichigamiin (the Great Lakes). This design embodies the spiritual legacy and cultural heritage of the ancestors, passed down through numerous songs, creation stories, oral histories, ceremonies, and migration records. It serves as a graphic reminder and reawakening of mino-bimaadiziwin, honoring the principle of mutual obligations between humans and all life forms.
The common belief regarding the pictographic handprints is that they represent a special prayer of gratitude to GICHI-MANIDOO, the Great Mystery of Life, painted on the rock by mideg (medicine persons) for receiving powerful medicine. Additionally, Anishinaabe dibaajimowin (legend) suggests that a handprint on the rock is a mark left by a MEMEGWESI as he closes the door after entering his rock home. The Memegwesiwag, or memegawesag, are good-natured yet mischievous water spirits with hairy faces who dwell on steep, rocky slopes near lakes. They are renowned for their medicine and are said to travel in stone canoes that move independently, as if propelled by an external force, despite having stone paddles. Their name means "Persons Who Speak Strangely." They were once considered powerful dream guardians, and those fasting for a vision might dream of the Memegwesiwag, who would protect them from the evil spell of a jaasakiid or shaking tent seer.
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Acrylic on canvas by Miskwaabik Animikii (Norval
Morrisseau), title unknown, 1972
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Thunderbird metaphor
The THUNDERBIRD depicted in the ring on the left (refer to the ring image above) symbolizes our link to the worlds of the manidoog and aadizookaanag, which are supernatural beings of great size and power.
The design of the animikii binesi (thunderbird) represents the relationship we, as humans, must uphold with the broader world and other beings to achieve bimaadiziwin, a life characterized by longevity, good health, and spiritual and mental freedom.
This principle is perhaps most clearly expressed by the phrase indiniwemaaganag (all my relatives) or by a specific Anishinaabe saying: Gakina-awiiya - "We Are All Related" (Literally: somebody is everyone).
Gegiinawind Anishinaabeg, naahaa nakinekanaa!We are all human beings. In the end we are all related...
Miigwech.
* Source: Niigonwedom James Sinclair
Click here to view #5 in the series Reflections of the Great Lakes
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About the artist/author:
The MAZINAAJIMOWINAN or ‘pictorial spirit writings’ - which are rich with symbolism and have been painted throughout history on rocks and etched on other sacred items, such as copper and slate, birch bark and animal hide - are Zhaawano's main design inspiration. To his ancestors, the mazinaajimowin was a form of spiritual as well as educational communication that gave structure and meaning to the world as they experienced it. Many of these sacred pictographs or petroforms – some of which are many, many generations old - hide in sacred locations where the manidoog (spirits) reside, particularly in those mystic places near the coastline where the sky, the earth, the water, the underground and the underwater meet.
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