Affirmation Ceremonies
My Cycle of Life is perfect, whole and complete. There is a time of beginning, a time of growth, a time of being, a time of withering or wearing out, and a time of leaving.
Link to: Big Drums are Calling
Big Drums are Calling
“Listen. can you hear it! The sound is beginning to build in my heart. It is rhythmic, powerful, it comes from my soul’s depths as I cry for a vision. I close my eyes, and see stately guardians all around me, they are huge red cedars, they bend toward me as they, too, listen to the heartbeat coming from the centre of Mother Earth. The rhythm is swirling on the wings of the four great winds who were birthed there. Their breath encircles the trunks of the guardians and dance upwards to embrace the leaves and the fruit.
Link to: Elder ‘Speak’ – In Their Own Words
Elder ‘Speak’ - In Their Own Words
Now, more than ever, knowledgeable Elders are needed to guide Native people in a deeper understanding of who they are as Canada’s proud first citizens. The wider world also needs to know, differences must be reconciled. The twenty-first century is a critical time — church, state and Indigenous people are only now beginning the onerous task of righting historical wrongs.
Link to: TRIBAL KNOWLEDGE, SUPERNATURAL & CEREMONIES
Indigenous Knowledge, Supernatural & Ceremonies
“We had no churches, no religious organizations, so Sabbath day, no holidays, and yet we worshiped. Sometimes the whole tribe would assemble and sing and pray; sometimes a smaller number, perhaps only two or three. The songs had a few words, but were not formal. The singer would occasionally put in such words as he wished instead of the usual tone sound. Sometimes we prayed in silence; sometimes each prayed aloud; sometimes an aged person prayed for all of us. At other times one would rise and speak to us of our duties to each other and to Usen. Our services were short.”
Geronimo, Goyathlay (1829-1909),
Chiricahua Apache Chief
Medicine Wheel Knowledge
“We once thought you came to live with us. You still could have that chance. We’re still here, and we live on this land. We don’t live in your libraries in the pages of your books. This project is not for digging up our pottery, or for digging up our bones, for that matter. It’s not even for digging up data and statistics about us. We have a long surviving and sacred tradition and an experiential wisdom that’s been passed on for more centuries than you can imagine. This is your chance to benefit from that. All you have to do is be quiet and listen and quit worrying about proving and believing.”
(Mad Bear – Tuscarora Holy Man of the Tuscarora Nation of the Six-Nation Haudenosaunee Confederacy)
Pacific Northwest Coast
Imagine what it must have been like for First Nations people to live on the Pacific Northwest Coast of British Columbia before the Great Change. Small Native villages were scattered along the rivers, bays, and inlets. The Tsimshian had survived and flourished for thousands of years in their lush and bountiful rain forest home. Every region had its own language, tradition and distinctive identity.
Prophecies & Knowledge
“So it was predicted by the prophets of this land of the free: That one day we would encounter the presence of people of other races with ways different form our own. They would erect their own kingdom upon our land, they will pose as good hearted. Their words will be charming and they will multiply like ants. We must not be deceived by them for the vines of their kingdom will spread throughout the land diluting and devouring everything that gets in its way. We must be cautious and not covet or adopt any of their ways, for it will forever be a curse upon our Nation.” (Hopi)
Sacred Objects, Images, Nature and Their Meanings
May all who enter rest in peace and safety beneath my wings. May all who leave, take with them wings of comfort
(Tsimshian Prayer)
“They say we have been here for 60,000 years, but it is much longer. We have been here since the time before time begin. We have come directly out of the Dreamtime of the Creative Ancestors. We have lived and kept the earth as it was on the First Day.”
(Anonymous Aboriginal Tribal Elder)
“The following sacred symbols have sustained Turtle Island’s Indigenous for thousands of years. They offer health and healing and when used correctly and in the spirit of the Old Ones, knowledge, healing and emotional wellness can be profound. For this is the way of it….all my relations.” (Thunderbird)
Spirituality
“Religion is for those who are afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who have already been there.” (Vine Deloria Jr., Standing Rock Lakota, 1933-2005
