69. Nishaabeg Things I Love Pt. 1
69. Nishnaabeg Things I Love Pt. 1
In no particular order - 10 Nishnabeg beliefs, values and world view that make me happy to be alive.
Let’s talk about ReEnchantment.
Transcript
Lezley (00:00):
The principle that everything is alive and sacred.
Lezley (00:05):
Yes, please. Yes, please. Hi folks. Fauci, welcome to Radical Re-Enchantment. I'm really looking forward to doing this video and I have no idea how long it's going to take. So for the last five years, I have been studying my ancestors. So the culture of my ancestors, which are Celtic, which is primarily Irish and Scottish and mostly Scottish. I have been studying and learning Gaelic.
Is mise Lezley MacDhaibhidh. Is mise shliochd nam Gàidheil air Turtle Island. Buinidh mi do Thìr nam Michi Saagii.
Lezley (00:55):
I'm Lezley Davidson. I am a Gaelic descendant on Turtle Island. I belong to the land of the Michi Saagiig. I've been learning Gaelic at the suggestion of Dr. Willie Ermine in Four Seasons of Reconciliation. He recommended that settlers reconnect to our roots, reconnect to our language, reconnect to our cultural and spiritual heritage. So I said, okay. And I did. And so I've been doing that for the last five years and I've been reading a lot and learning a lot and experiencing a lot in my life in a transformational way. And I love Indigenous worldview, belief and value. Love it. It is so validating to me. The learning that I have done is prioritizing Michi Saagiig and Chippewa knowledge and writings and wisdom. So if I have the choice, I will prioritize the knowledge of the place where I live, the knowledge of the people of the place where I live.
Lezley (02:12):
But I love so much what I'm learning. I love so much Indigenous belief and worldview because it validates what I feel inside. It validates my spirit. It validates my own worldview. And I think that it needs to be shared. It needs to be shared everywhere. It needs to be the foundation of our education system, the foundation of life, actually.
Lezley (02:42):
Actually.
Lezley (02:43):
So this video is in no particular order, 10 Indigenous worldview beliefs and values that make me happy to be alive. Because in no joke, the colonization of our spirit by science, by Western supremacy, by extractive capitalism, the colonization of our spirit by those factors has been such a traumatic, horrifying and all consuming perspective killer that during this process of learning and coming to roots on this land and coming to connect to my ancestors and relearning my own ancestral Indigenous worldview that is land connected, that is land based, I would often think, oh my God, I'm fucking crazy. This is crazy, right? And then I'd think, no, no. Indigenous nations all over the globe have thought this and believed this and lived this worldview for millenniums since time immemorial. There's nothing crazy about this. What's crazy is trying to live out of your head like Western colonial white supremacist capitalist patriarchal systems.
Lezley (04:16):
They're bullshit and they're harmful. And these are 10 Indigenous worldviews and beliefs that make me happy to be alive in no particular order. Also, all of these are based in reading. These aren't just my vibe or my willy-nilly thoughts about it. It's based in reading. And I'll link the bibliographies. I put everything that I'm reading on my website so that you can access that too, that you can also have those readings and find out for yourself what is valuable belief and worldview, what is actually nourishing and community building worldview. Okay. So the first one, this is going to be forever. It's already been five minutes and I have just introduced myself. Oh well, whatever. Okay. So the first is Mno Bmaadziwin. I love Mno Bmaadziwin. I was first introduced to this through this song.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Well every day for this life, a good life, we stay thanked. Give it up for the spirit and the mother earth and ancestors telling me I got worth. And ancestors telling me I got worth. And ancestors telling me I got worth. And all those grandfathers for shining on us.
Lezley (06:27):
By Mr. Saga, Jordan Jameson. I love this song. Everything that I learn in Indigenous worldview is heart based. Honestly, it's always emotionally resonant. And that's how I know that it's true because it's emotionally resonant. Things that make you feel glad to be alive and joyful, they're true. That's true. So Mno Bmaadziwin means the good life, but it's more than that. James Borrow says that Mno Bmaadziwin is...
Lezley (07:11):
The principle that everything is alive and sacred.
Lezley (07:16):
Yes, please. Yes, please. Yes, please. Thank you. Mno Bmaadziwin, good life, good life. And within this is the understanding. Oh, and keep in mind that my perspectives are my perspectives and I am inviting you to correct me if I have misunderstood or misrepresented any of these values or beliefs through my own perceptions. If my perception is not correct, please correct me because I'm just reading. I'm not getting feedback from community, so I may be misunderstanding. So Mno Bmaadziwin, the principle of all things, all things being alive and sacred. And with it is good, knowing that there is an underlying pattern and fabric to creation that is good, that there are laws and ways that are given to us, that we can learn through community and relationship with the land, and that we can follow them to have a good life. And you can find them in the grandfather teachings, the seven grandfather teachings.
Lezley (08:42):
Love, respect, bravery, truth, honesty, humility and wisdom.
Lezley (08:49):
I'm not the one that should share what those mean. I have resources on my website for you to go and look at that yourself, but those seven teachings are part of which will lead you and guide you on a good life. And what's beautiful to me that is constantly reiterated with Indigenous worldview and belief is the fact that your good life is woven with community, that your good life, what's good for you, is also good for the community. And it's good from a wholesome place, not a place of greed or selfishness. There is an understanding that you are who you are meant to be and that creator made you and that what is good for you in your life is going to be good for the community and following the good way, the good life, following the lessons of land, of how to be in relationship with ourselves, with spirit, with one another, with community, and then have that be relationship on scale and among nations, among plant nation, insect nation, animal nation, wind nation, water nation amongst nations, there's a right way to be in relationship and there's an honourable, wholesome way to be in relationship.
Lezley (10:37):
That's and that leads to a good life, balance, respect, honour, love, consideration, humility.
Lezley (10:50):
It's just such a moral and ethical way of viewing the world. It's fucking beautiful. Love that. It's also, and I'll dig into this at a later date because I don't know enough yet, but it's related in my own self with the word. They both have the root of good. Is good. It's a good way. It's the understanding that there is a natural good way to be in relationship with land. And is also a heartfelt relationship with land that your ancestors have been on for time memorial. So I feel that they're related, but I need to learn more.
Lezley (11:38):
So put a pin in that.
Lezley (11:40):
Okay. Love that. All right. So number two, and in no particular order, number two is basically the reason that I want to share anything with the world. The whole reason and source and core of everything that I want to share and teach and learn about and embody and be in relationship with is Manito Aki in Inakonigaawin. I understand this in Gaelic as. So Manito Aki in Inakonigaawin is basically Manitou spirit. Aki land Inakonigaawin is law or accord relationship. So by the way, all of these things really overlap a lot. They're all kind of talking around the same thing because honestly, from my understanding of Indigenous worldview and belief, things are very, very simple. There's a simple way to be.
Lezley (12:49):
It's very simple, very simple. We'll get to that. But anyway, so Manito Aki in Inakonigaawin, I understand it as an accord and I understand it as well as being the accord between nations, specifically land and spirit, and that all beings are in accord with land in the same way. So it's the land spirit law, land spirit accord, land spirit great binding law, I've also heard it called. And it is basically like we're all connected. We're all in this together. Land and spirit land and spirit are woven and sewn together forever. There is no separation between land and spirit. Spirit is here existing. Spirit is here communicating with us through all beings, within all beings, between all beings that we are in communication with spirit in land, that land is in communication with us, that they are not separate. Nothing is separate. There is an accord, there's an agreement and a relationship and an understanding that has been with land and spirit since creation.
Lezley (14:13):
And that if we're basically humble enough
Lezley (14:18):
To shut the fuck up
Lezley (14:20):
And listen and be in presence and embodiment with land and spirit, that we can be part of that relationship. We are supposed to be part of that relationship. We are already welcome and called to be part of that relationship, that we have to just do our work to get out of the way and stop thinking that we're better than other beings, better than other creatures.
Lezley (14:42):
That we know everything already.
Lezley (14:45):
And be taught, be taught by land and spirit. Manito Aki and there is an accord already established here. And everything will find you. All wisdom will find you when you're ready. And when I first started really becoming rooted and belonging to land, I kept tripping over Indigenous belief and worldview. I don't believe that you can be on Turtle Island and become rooted to this land without coming into accord with Indigenous worldview because that was the first relationship land had with human beings was Indigenous to Turtle Island. The relationship between human beings and all the other nations happened with Indigenous nations. So those nations hold the original relationship with land and spirit here in this place and place is important. Place matters because spirit and land are never separate. Place matters. Where you are matters because this place speaks the truth in a slightly different way than other places do and that's good and right.
Lezley (16:12):
And if we can all understand that we're all connected we can go into relationship with one another who are different, but understanding that we both hold the same source, we both hold the same accord. We can learn so much from one another, learn through our differences, learn through the shoreline of our differences. Thank you, Madeline.
Lezley (16:49):
I love this so much. This feeds my spirit and my body like nothing else does. And this is why I think there's a Pretendian problem as well is because white settlers, because white is bullshit by the way, doesn't exist. It's made up nothing. It's surface nothing. It's not nourishing at all. Anyway, white settlers are in so much need of rooting and belonging to place, to belonging again to land, to being in relationship with land and spirit that instead of doing the work of reconnecting to our own European roots and working through our own grief and our own shame and all of the shit, because there's so much shit, instead of doing that, Pretendians want to just be Indigenous. I get it. I know why you want to be Indigenous. Of course you do. Who wouldn't want to be? But we're not settlers, you're not Indigenous to this place.
Lezley (18:05):
We're Indigenous to a different place. And so we need to do the work of rooting here, of belonging to this land. And you can't sidestep it by pretending to be Metis or whatever. Fuck, where the fuck am I now? So John Barrow is James Barrow? John Barrow? Excuse me. John Borrows.
Lezley (18:29):
John Burrows.
Lezley (18:30):
John Borrows, I haven't read any, I have one of his books. I haven't read it yet. He's a lawyer and an Indigenous activist and is sharing beautiful ideas about treaty and law and how they exist on Turtle Island amongst nations. He introduced me to a concept, Gizhewaadiziwin, which is the way of creator. So the sacred laws of creation and the sacred laws of creation are living and loving kindness. Yes, please. Yes. Yes. Yes, please. And what I love most about that is living and loving kindness includes all beings. It's always baked right in to Indigenous worldview, belief and value is that there's no exclusions.
Lezley (19:43):
There's no exclusions.
Lezley (19:46):
You can exclude yourself by your own behaviour and your own impact on others, but you're never always excluded. There's always ways back to community, but is creator's laws, sacred laws of creation, living and loving kindness. I think a lot of religions offer that, but few actually put it into practice. And because of the inter-wovenness of land with Indigenous worldview and spirit, that there tends to be more active practice of belief where there's an understanding and an impetus that you can't just think something or believe something, you have to act it in the world, that it has to be fully present and embodied and actioned in the world. That having a belief isn't a belief if you're not willing and able to action that belief in the world. And that's something that I think is integral to wholeness, integral to wellbeing that Indigenous nations fundamentally understand is that as a whole being, all of your body's mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual have to be in alignment, that you can't hold a belief and then not act it out or not feel it, that if there's one aspect of your embodiment that isn't in integrity, in wholeness, it will result in illness.
Lezley (21:59):
And I don't think it's a big stretch to say that Western society is a disease, that it's in disease that is not healthy. It's not a healthy structure. It's not a healthy framework. And there's imbalance and a holding of ideas that are said. It creates almost a schizophrenia. It gets a fracture. It creates a fracture where there will be a repeated belief said, spoken, "Oh, you're valuable." Of course, every person's valuable. Everyone matters, everyone. But then it's not actioned. It's not actioned in bureaucracy or the framework or in how resources are distributed. So it creates a fracture in the people of that society where they're being told a beautiful lie that is then not carried out. It creates a distinct lack of trust in your embodiment. And I think that's the point because if you are taught not to trust your embodiment, not to trust the land and not to trust your spirit and not to trust the relationship, land and spirit, you're more easier to control and you're not as likely to stand up for what you believe in, for the integrity of wholeness and truth and honesty.
Lezley (23:47):
Indigenous worldview and belief and value makes me happy to be alive. It is constantly, constantly, constantly validating things that I believe and how I want to live and the structures of life that I want to be guiding us. They're Indigenous. And we're all Indigenous to some place and we're all required to reconnect to our Indigeneity and then root in place where we are. So if you're interested in more of this, in the practice of doing that through my own pathway, check out Braiding Roots. It's what I've been doing for the past three years is actively practicing this in the world and creating a pathway for you to practice, to begin that process of coming back to your own Indigeneity and then rooting on Turtle Island. Okay. If you're interested, check it out. It's free. For a year, it's free in the library. Practice. Okay. Okay.
Lezley (24:57):
Love you. Bye.
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In no particular order - 10 Nishnabeg beliefs, values and world view that make me happy to be alive.