Spirit of the Seasons, part 10: Wenabozho and the Gift of the Blueberries
Last night, in the early morning hours, another full moon appeared, marking the beginning of what some refer to as Miini-giizis: "Blueberry Moon." The painting I created yesterday illustrates the Miziweyaabikizi-minii-giizis or "Full Blueberry Moon" casting her glow on our friend and teacher Wenabozho, who, despite his endless wisdom, indulges in the ripe blueberries. "Indulges" is indeed more fitting, as anyone familiar with Wenabozho's tales knows he always tends to overdo it. He simply doesn't know when to stop...
Below is a list of several names for the moon that is called "July" in dominant society. Anishinaabeg (Ojibweg) in different areas have always used different names for the moons; there are many variations in the dialects spoken. Also, since our culture and our language are traditionally intricately linked to nature, the names used are typically based on observations of natural phenomena, animal activity, and the cultural practices and beliefs of the given community. The common factor is the idea that the moons orient us to our calendar, the changing seasons, plant life cycles, and animal migration. What is equally important is that with each moon cycle, spiritual as well as moral teachings are involved, which are the fiber of Anishinaabe izhitwaawin (Indigenous culture and tradition).
Different names in use in Anishinaabe Aki (the land of the Anishinaabe Peoples) are:
Miini-giizis: "Blueberry Moon"
Miinikaa-giizis: "There Are Many Blueberries Moon"
Miinikewi-giizis: "Picking Blueberries Moon"
Ishkaninjiimini-giizis: "Unripe (Blue)Berry Moon"
Aabita-niibino-giizis: "Halfway Summer Moon"
Miskomini-giizis, Miskwiwmini-giizis: "Raspberry Moon"
Baashkawe’o-giizis: "Flying Moon"
Baapaashkizige-giizis: "Keeps Shooting Moon"
Madwezige-giizis: "Be Heard Shooting Moon"
Baashkaawe'o-giizis: "Hatching Moon"
Giizhibagaawi-giizis /Giizhibagaawi-biisim: "Be All Out in Leaves Moon"
Opaaskowi-giizis, or -biisim: Meaning unknown
Joolay-biisim: "July Moon"
Then there is a 8th moon (the eighth moon can fall in either July or August, depending on the year): Odaatagaamini-giizis: "blueberry/thimbleberry/blackberry Moon."
Illustration: Wenabozho and the Gift of the Blueberries ©2023 Zhaawano Giizhik
About the author/artist and his inspiration
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 a (non-commercial) artist and jewelry designer, Zhaawano draws on the oral and pictorial traditions of his ancestors. For this he calls on his manidoo-minjimandamowin, or 'Spirit Memory'; which means he tries to remember the knowledge and the lessons of his ancestors. In doing so he sometimes works together with kindred artists.
To Zhaawano's ancestors the MAZINAAJIMOWIN 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 - were a form of spiritual as well as educational communication that gave structure and meaning to the cosmos that they felt they were an integral part of.
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 lake's coastlines where the sky, the earth, the water, the underground and the underwater meet.
The way Zhaawano understands it, it is in these sacred places invisible to the ordinary, waking eye that his design and storyteller's inspiration originate from.
No comments:
Post a Comment