The Drumbeat of One Heart Guides Us

 

It is said that the first sound that we humans hear is our mother’s heartbeat while we are in the womb.  The Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language) word for drum is dewe’igan which translates as the object which makes the sound of a heartbeat.  It is also said that when people drum together, their hearts synchronize, that they experience unity. 

I belong to an Indigenous hand drum group that graciously allows me as a non-Indigenous woman to take part.  I have spent the last three years learning many songs and their Anishinaabemowin words as I have drummed with the other women and men that are part of the group.  It is good for my mind, body and spirit to drum and sing these songs with other people.  I have to remember the tunes and words which keeps my mind in the present moment.  I have to take deep breaths to sing and keep a steady rhythm which is good for my body.  And drumming with other people, experiencing that unity is good for my spirit.  It has become an essential part of my life.

Last week, I attended many celebrations with the hand drum group in honour of National Indigenous Peoples Day.  We drummed at the Métis Rendevous in Penetanguishene, at the Georgian Bay Native Friendship Centre, at a Summer Solstice Celebration in a local forest, at an award ceremony for the Seventh Fire Academy in Midland and at a Water Walk Ceremony in Barrie.  I was aware that we were bringing Anishinaabeg culture to all these celebrations and keeping the language and songs alive.  A few of our group also drummed at a local celebration at a community garden on June 21^st.

A Summer Solstice ceremony was held at this memorial to the 215 children whose graves were found last year at the former Indian Residential School in Kamloops, BC.  Tobacco ties carrying the prayers of many people were tied together and strung on the sculptures for all the children that are still being found and their families and communities.

It was a busy week and we did a lot of drumming and singing.  People enjoyed hearing us drum and sing and often sang along with us.  We are a diverse group of Anishinaabeg, Métis and non-Indigenous people who sing in unison and we are mostly seniors.  Each person brings different gifts and challenges to the group but when we sing and drum, we do it together.  I believe that this gives people an experience of unity in a world that is full of division.  I believe that the Indigenous ancestors from this land knew this.  There is an Anishinaabeg story of the big drum being given to the men by a young girl to stop them from fighting amongst themselves.  Anishinaabeg author Richard Wagamese writes in One Drum “ We are all one energy, one soul, one song and one drum”.  Our world looks as if we have forgotten that. And I wonder if hearing many drums beating as one triggers a remembering in all of us, a remembering of unity, of oneness.  I wonder what happens to all the hearts hearing the drum beat, if they start to synchronize, if humans get to experience unity in their bodies. 

As a non-Indigenous woman living on Turtle Island, I am seeking to heal the ancestral wounds that are in my lineage.  Hundreds if not thousands of years of war, bloodshed and conquering lands, over and over again are coded in my DNA.  But so too is the wisdom of understanding our connections, our oneness, the unity of all life.  My ancestors also knew this at some point, way back when but the culture that I was born into seems to focus on the opposite, on dividing so to conquer.  It is my friends and neighbours who are Indigenous who can help me to connect to that ancestral wisdom through ceremony and drumming.  They are my teachers and I will be forever grateful (apane nimiigwechwendam) for their generosity in sharing these traditions with me.

Tomorrow, July 1^st, also know as Canada Day, I will be joining my hand drum group to drum at a memorial to the children whose graves are still being located at the sites of former Indian Residential Schools across Canada.  This memorial is at the gate to the Martyr’s Shrine in Midland where people have tied teddy bears, moccasins and other items since the first 215 graves were found a year ago.  The Jesuits who manage Martyr’s Shrine added their own message of support to the collection.  There is still much work to be done.  There is still much remembering to be done. The drum beat of our one heart will guide us all in this.

Sacred Forest Visit

 

This week is full of activities celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Day here in Canada which I will write about in the next installment.  But today I came across this lovely video by fellow TreeSister (treesisters.org) Coleen Douglas called Sacred Forest.  Viewing it is like a visit to the forest so if you need a quick forest visit to calm your nerves and renew your spirit check it out:

 

Where Can Plants and Rocks be Companions?

 

The local children’s club came to visit the community garden this week.  We asked them to bring their creativity and good wishes to the garden by painting rocks that would be companions to the plants.  The thirty children were aged from five to sixteen years of age and they are used to doing things together as a group in which the older kids help the younger ones.

While the initial coat of paint was drying we told them the story of the Three Sisters, corn beans and squash that are grown together as companions. The Three Sister plants are the centrepiece of our garden.   If you are not familiar with this ancient Indigenous story, you can hear it here:

In this story, the corn helps the beans to climb up to where the sun is.  The beans have bacteria in their roots that takes nitrogen out of the air and the beans share this nitrogen with the corn which uses a lot of nitrogen as it grows.  And the squash covers the ground so that the water doesn’t evaporate as quickly.  The squash’s prickly leaves keep away predators as well.  When these three plants are grown together, they produce 30% more food than if they grow separately.  And of course, these three sisters feed people in a balanced way with protein, carbohydrates and vitamins.  Just like these three sisters, the kids in the club are stronger when they work together as well.

After the story and a vegetable identification game, the children put the second coat of paint on their rocks and after they were dry, placed them in the garden beside the plants that the rocks would be companions to.  Here are some pictures of those beautiful companions.

The children also decorates wooden medallion that were
hung on the chicken wire surrounding the garden.

The word companion comes from the Latin com which means together and panis which means bread.  It literally means to break bread together.  And in keeping with the theme of companions, we will be sharing the food that is grown in this garden with the community.

Renewing Relationship Means Paying Attention

 

The trail from Waubaushene to Fesserton is made from limestone screenings.  It follows the path of the old railway track that was built in the 1800’s to take lumber to the ports in the south.  Once all the trees had been cut down in a mere sixty years and cars became the preferred mode of transport, the railway tracks were removed.  Interestingly, the railway line was built on the trail followed by the Indigenous people who have lived here since time immemorial.  Ironically, the trail is once again a footpath used by walkers, bicyclists and snowmobilers in the winter.

This spring, the plants all leafed out together due to a slow spring and then a heat wave.  It was an explosion of green that catapulted me into a new world.  I feel like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland muttering, “I’m late, I’m late.”  I am experiencing a strong feeling of having missed something.  And so, as I walked along the trail that borders swampland and Matchedash Bay, the most easterly part of Georgian Bay in Lake Huron, I stopped to look at many of the plants that grow on the edge.  Some of them looked vaguely familiar but I couldn’t remember their names.  It was like meeting someone on the street whose face is familiar but you can’t remember their name out of the context in which you usually encounter them. 

A tiny plant grows in a crack in the asphalt at the start of the trail showing great life force. 

In addition to this, many of the trail side plants, in their rush to procreate, have flowered at a height lower than usual and so my vantage point made them look different.  For example, the Goatsbeard usually flowers at a height of two or three feet and so I see the flower from the side.  Yesterday, I was looking down on their yellow flowers and noticing the symmetry of their shape.  I didn’t recognize them at first because of this different point of view.  They looked new and unfamiliar until I oriented myself.

I am not equally enamored with every plant.  I have my favourites such as the only Saskatoon tree that I have found on the first part of the trail.  Last year I could spot it easily because I put a little piece of red wool on one of its branches.  This year, I searched and searched but found no red marker.  The tree that I suspected as being a Saskatoon had only a few leaves on it so far, perhaps in response to the large LDD caterpillar population last year.  Perhaps the red wool became part of a bird’s nest.

Seen from above, the radiant pattern of Bird's Foot Trefoil flowers is evident
but this was somethingI had never noticed in previous years.

One of my other favourite trees is the Elderberry.  Once Elderberry trees have flowered, they are easy to find but this hasn’t happened yet.  They have pinnate lance shaped leaves that resemble Ash tree leaves except they are a bit darker and thinner.  In my search, I examined many Ash trees and I began to notice that the Ash trees I was looking at had 7 leaflets in each leaf whereas Elderberry had only 5.  I also noticed that the stem for each of the Ash leaves comes off the woody branches in parallel pairs.  The next set comes off at 90 degrees to the previous set and so it goes, spirally around the stem.  Perhaps this allows the leaves to get more sun.  Elderberry sections come off in pairs at the end of last year’s branches.

As I slowly made my way along the trail I felt as though I was renewing my relationship with old friends who I hadn’t seen all winter, catching up so to speak, remembering their names.  My partner who has excellent vision spied a turtle a long way ahead of us, crossing the trail, slowly.  This is the time of year when female turtles come onto the shore to lay their eggs.  Limestone trails are a favourite nesting spot because they are easy to dig holes into.  I knew there was no hurry to get to the turtle so I kept on greeting my old friends, touching their leaves and saying hello.  Eventually we came close to the turtle who was not happy to renew a relationship with us.   Map Turtles are very shy and wary of people.  We said hello and moved on so that she could get on with her procreative imperative. 

Walking the same trails through all seasons, year after year may seem boring to the casual observer.  However, if the time is taken to examine plants closely, they will continue to reveal their structures, beauty and intelligence.  They become our teachers when we stop to listen respectfully.  As I apply their teachings to people, I become aware of the complexity of personalities.  People respond differently in different situations.  They can be at their best when they feel safe and loved and at their worst when they are afraid.  It takes time to get to know people and that same curiosity that I bring to the plants on the trail allows me to learn from the people around me as well.  This is what my elder brothers and sisters, the plants and trees taught me this week.