The Humility of Coming Down to Earth

 

I recently attended an art exhibition with the theme of Humility.  Anishinaabeg artist Paul Shilling working with the Orillia District Arts Council and three other artists from diverse cultural backgrounds has created seven events on each of the Seven Grandfather Teachings of the Anishinaabeg called A Visual Reconciliation.   These teachings are (in no particular order) Courage, Humility, Truth, Wisdom, Love, Honesty and Respect. 

At the event, the four artists, Ted Fullerton, Julie Tian, Xavier Fernandes and Paul Shilling each spoke about the pieces of art they had created just for this event which focused on Humility.  Then there was space for questions and later a time to mingle and have discussions.  I have older ears and the sound system wasn’t as good as it could be in the gallery space so I missed some of what was said.  However, I did hear some of the questions from the audience and that is what stuck out for me.

Some non-Indigenous participants seemed to be having difficulty with the word humility.  A few spoke about not wanting to “lower themselves” and some explained that they had a strong connection between the words “humility” and “humiliation” and so they had trouble embracing this Grandfather teaching.  Artist Xavier Fernandes said that humility is “not to think less of yourself, but to think of yourself less.”  Some members of the audience hoped that the word humility in Anishinaabemowin wouldn’t mean to lower oneself. 

I came home and did some research.  In the Nishnaabemwin on-line dictionary https://dictionary.nishnaabemwin.atlas-ling.ca/#/help the verb dbasebdiza is defined as “to be humble, think lowly of oneself. From this root comes the word Dabasendizowin or Humility.  On the program for the event, Humility was described in this way: “This teaching brings home that you are a sacred part of creation and allows you to carry your pride with your people and praise the accomplishments of all.  Humility will teach you to find a balance within yourself for all creation.”

I looked up the English word humility in several on-line dictionaries and found the definition “to be humble”.  So I looked up humble and found that it is derived from the Latin word humus meaning ground which later became humilis  which meant low or lowly.  This became humble in Middle English.

The word humiliation is defined as “to make someone feel ashamed or lose respect for himself or herself.”  Perhaps this is an enforced humbling at the hands of another.  No wonder people have an aversion to the word humiliation, I thought.

I pondered these words looking for a way to reconcile these varied points of view that emerged from our shared space.  I frequently describe the dominant worldview of competition and hierarchy by making the shape of a pyramid with my hands.  In this worldview, one is supposed to climb to the top of the pyramid through hard work and seemingly any means available including pushing others down to find space at the tiny top.  In this worldview, “lowering oneself” is a kind of social suicide.  You’ll never get ahead this way in this paradigm.

However, in an Indigenous worldview the interconnectedness of all of life requires a different set of actions.  The Anishinaabeg definition on the event program speaks of “praising the accomplishments of all.”  Instead of climbing on top of people, you are lifting them up.

In the worldview of the pyramid, one gets farther and farther away from the Earth and other life forms, the higher one climbs.  One is less guided by all our other relations that we share Earth with.  So, humility could mean coming back to Earth in order to achieve balance.  Being knocked off the top could be humiliating.  Choosing to lower oneself back to the ground would be humility.

The monotheistic religions speak of God giving man dominion over the Earth and everything on it.  This creates an automatic pyramid.  This basic worldview was then extended to humans in which some humans are higher than others.  Colonization was born from this worldview.  And we all know how this worldview of “dominion over” is threatening life itself.  It is a kind of suicide.

Realizing that we come from the Earth, we are a part of the Earth and coming back to Earth is an act of humility.  Working from our place within the vast interconnectedness of life and sharing our gifts there is also humility.  The predominant pyramid worldview is not sustainable.  We are waking up to that.  The generous sharing of the Grandfather Teachings is a lifeline to us.  It is a model of sustainability that leads to life.

At the event, I observed people engaging and wrestling with worldviews.  I came home and did the same.  Perhaps this is what turning from death to life looks like.