The Four Directions

What I am going to share with you today is only my understanding. Every Elder, every Knowledge Keeper, every Anishinaabe person that you talk to is going to have a different understanding.

The time of the day associated with the southern direction is the afternoon. The Earth’s element that is associated with this quadrant is nibi or water. It was interesting I was having a conversation with someone, and they said, “water is the only one that has Spirit”. I gave her some food for thought and said “Actually, all of our relations, all of the animals, all of the grass, trees, rocks, rivers, and mountains, they all have Spirit”. Nibi of course is a very important spirit, this is how we were born. We need water to survive. The other thing I like to think about when I think about Nibi is that the water that I am drinking was drunk by my ancestors and my descendants as well. That’s a very powerful thought for me and it illustrates again how we are all connected.

The winds from the South, they’re usually warmer. That’s usually how it goes, not always of course, weather has its own mind about things but usually the winds from the South are warmer.

When we think about our stage of life when we are looking at ourselves holistically, this would be the stage when we would be a youth. This stage is a very powerful time in a person’s life because this is when we are discovering who we are. This is when we are testing what our boundaries are. We are exploring things, we’re discovering what is important to us and what we want to pay our attention to. The Elders suggest that this is the time when the youth truly need to be supported and encouraged to believe in themselves, to accept who they are. Again, it’s a time in life when they are discovering their identities. As we know, there is so much pressure on so many people about their identities and how their identities are being challenged. So now more than ever, as Elders, as Knowledge Keepers, we need to provide this support to youth to help them through this very important time in their life.

It’s also important to consider that many youths are very wise Knowledge Keepers. Even though others may perceive them to be too young, that’s not actually the case. These youth carry much wisdom and all of us should be listening to them and respecting them, acknowledging, and honouring them. That is my life’s mission. It is important for them to connect with likeminded people.

The final thing that I will say about this direction, is that at this stage of their life they could be perceived as being a warrior. A warrior but not attaching a gender identity to that role. We don’t want to do that. Again, there are so many gifted young people out there, they have so much for us to understand and learn about. I’m 63, I’ll be 64 in July, and I am working at and practicing learning about these different identities because in our villages before contact, there were many different genders, and the different genders were highly respected and revered in the communities. I would like to see society get back to that understanding and respecting people for who they are. I had a neighbour out here yesterday, and we were saying, “Live and let live. If they’re not causing anyone harm, if they are not causing us harm, why wouldn’t we simply be grateful and respectful of what it is they believe in and how they see themselves”. If we are simply respecting people for who they are, I think the world would be a much better place.

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.