The Four Directions

Hi everybody. Memashkegaabowek ndizhinikaaz. Adik ndoodem. Opwaaganisiniing niindonjiba. Niibing niindonji. My Spirit name is Standing Strong. That’s one of them, I have two. My clan is Caribou and I’m a member of the Red Rock Indian Band. I live here on this land that I call Niibing so I respectfully acknowledge this sacred land known to me as Niibing which is “it is summer” on the western shores of Ktichigaming (the great lake), the traditional homelands of the Anishinaabeg. It is between Animikii-Wiikwedong (Thunder Bay), the traditional homelands of Fort William First Nation, and Gichi Onigaming (Portage) the traditional homelands of Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. I am in relationship with this land which loves me, protects me, sustains me, entertains me, teaches me, and so much more. I could go on for an hour about the land itself, how it cares for me.

We’ve been doing the medicine wheel teachings. Today it’s about the north. They’re all my favourite but I’d say the north is definitely my favourite. They’re all my favourite. And to be clear, that this is my understanding only. So, every single individual would have their own understanding, every community, every family, every region. This is only what I have absorbed as my understanding.

So first, I wanted to talk about the circle and I’m going to pronounce it in Ojibwe “waawiyebii’igan – (wah-wee-yay-bee-{k}gin)”. There is no beginning or end to a circle. I love circles. I do a lot of circles. In a circle, much the same as the medicine wheel teachings, everyone is equal. Everyone belongs. Everyone is welcome. Everyone brings gifts and value to the circle. That’s why circles are so important. If we were living in community and circle, then everyone that brings their gifts and values to the circle can help with our relationship with each other and our relationship with the land. And everyone is safe in the circle. So, I wanted to share a little bit about the circle.

So today, we are doing the northern direction. In Ojibwe we would say giiwedin ({k}gee-way-din). Which is to me, I think of this as being the stage of storytelling. When the snow is on the ground, if you can imagine, in our ancient villages, people would have been gathered around the fireplace. And what are they doing? They’re sharing stories. This is why I understand that this is the time of the year to share stories, is in the wintertime.

Also, it’s a period of rest. It’s a period of rest for the earth. So, quite literally we have some animals that hibernate, that sleep during the winter. The plants will hibernate during the winter and then come back in the springtime which is the eastern quadrant. So, this is a rest period for all of us. I always enjoy winter because of this. It’s as if the earth sounds different when the snow is on the ground. To me, this a time of reflection and preparing for the new season.

We are in the medicine wheel quadrant of spiritual. So, when we look at the four sides of ourselves – physical, emotional, intellectual, and then spiritual. It can also be referred to as cultural. Spirit you would pronounce that as manidoo – (man-ih-too). And when we think of spirit we also think of wisdom. I love that about that quadrant.

The colour, again, the colours will vary from community to community, family to family. But I have seen it mostly represented as white. And that’s what I like to use in the northern direction. You would pronounce white as waabishkaa – (wah-bish-kah), which is “it is white”. We could think of the white color as being representative of where we are geographically and how far North we are. We haven’t had a lot of snow this winter, but generally we would have.  It could also be representative of wisdom and spiritual so when I think of the clothing that spiritual people wear sometimes it’s white. Also, it could be representative of the white race. When I think of the 4 colors I’m thinking of the Asian people, the Indigenous people, the Black people and the White people, very simply put.

So again, this could change but the plant medicine that I would look at for this quadrant would be sweetgrass and you can pronounce that as wiingashk – (wing-gashk). Sweetgrass is one of those plant medicines that gives us another opportunity for smudging. I like using sweetgrass, especially when I’m working with families that are experiencing grief or pain or trauma, any of those really intense emotions. The sweet grass does provide a calming effect. Then we think about, where do we find sweetgrass? So sweetgrass likes to grow next to water. It looks like regular grass when you’re out looking for it, but at the root, it has a bit of a purple tinge to it. You will also know by the smell. Once you smell sweetgrass, you never forget what it smells like, and you can find it that way literally following your nose. There’s lots of times when I’m outside or traveling some place and I’ll go, “oh I can smell sweetgrass!” so you can look around to see if you can see it. When we’re harvesting sweet grass or any of the plant medicines, we want to put sema or tobacco down first as an offering. Then we’re communicating with the plant and we’re asking it if we have permission to harvest them. And when we harvest them, we don’t want to pull it out by the roots, we want to cut it above the ground. You don’t want to pick an area dry, so you want to pick a little bit and then go to another area, and you’re always checking in with Creator if it’s okay to pick that. Most of the time, it’s usually braided. I think that’s because it makes it really easy to carry around rather than when it’s loose. I’ve also heard of people say that they’ll use 21 strands in a braid. I will confess that I don’t usually count how many strands I have in a braid, but I have heard that. I’ve also heard that the sweetgrass is representative of Mother Earth’s hair, which I really like that like that idea.

Cindy Crowe – Standing Strong
Caribou Clan, Red Rock Indian Band

Cindy Crowe is a Lodge Keeper. She holds physical space as well as spiritual space for people. Cindy provides assistance to people with their identities and their life purpose. She also offers tourism opportunities with Blue Sky Community Healing Centre.