Our Knowledge Is Not Primitive by Wendy Makoons Geniusz

Author:Wendy Makoons Geniusz
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780815656524
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 2022-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

1. For one example of plant stories in a collection of folklore, see Laidlaw 1922, 28–38.

2. The database of plant identification offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is available at http://plants.usda.gov.

4

Giizhikaatig miinawaa Wiigwaasi-mitig

A Sample of Decolonized Anishinaabe-gikendaasowin

INTRODUCTION

When teaching within the context of izhitwaawin, one makes sure that those learning how to work with botanical materials can properly identify the plants and trees from which those materials come. As explained in chapter 3, there are poisonous plants and trees that injure or kill a person if used incorrectly; so, learning how to recognize plants and trees is important. It is impossible for me to take all of my readers out to learn how to identify the two trees discussed in this chapter, giizhikaatig (white cedar) and wiigwaasi-mitig (paper birch), so pictures of them, drawn by Annmarie Geniusz, are presented on the following pages. A third plant, makwa-miskomin (bearberry, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi [L.] Spreng), is also pictured here because it is mentioned several times in this chapter and in chapter 2.

This chapter is a sample of the decolonization process. I begin with a presentation of the gikendaasowin I carry from my background so that the reader can better understand my focus in this research. The first piece of gikendaasowin that I ever received about the cedar tree was a song, which Keewaydinoquay taught me when I was approximately six years old. She says this song is “commonly sung when the people bless themselves. Cause … everything we have, every good medicine we have, whether it’s spiritual good medicine or whether it’s good medicine for a physical ill … contains something of the grandmother cedar” (Keewaydinoquay n.d.b). This song is an aadizookaan, that is, it has a spirit that knows that it is being sung. Aadizookaan are important keepers of gikendaasowin, some of which can be seen in the Ojibwe and English lines of this song. Here is a written transcription of this song, which Keewaydinoquay often called “Nookomis Giizhik: The Cedar Song,” with both the English and Ojibwe verses, presented as she taught them to me:

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