1. There is a big circle we call The Circle of Life. Every living thing The Creator made fits on this circle side by side. Every living thing, including the smallest insect, was given jobs to do. Plants and trees for example were given many jobs, cleaning the air, medicines, as food for the birds, animals, fish and people. Some of the animals, birds and fish where given the job to feed us and much more. Our job as given to us by The Creator was to take care of all life on earth.
Albert Bittern (November 2013)
2. As Annishinaabe people we want to leave a lasting legacy to protect and preserve of this area for the benefit of the planet.
Sophia Rabliauskas, July 1, 2018 (remarks to the World Heritage Committee following inscription of Pimachiowin Aki on the World Heritage List)
3. We want to keep the area the way it always was, to keep it for our children, grandchildren and unborn children, so that they can use and care for it as we have.
Victor Bruce, March 200
4. Traditional knowledge was offered to others only if the Elder felt it was appropriate. People weren’t forced to know about the tradition, but they would be noticed by the Elders as time went by.
Joe Owen, March 2014
5. Teachings are shared through drumming, singing, community gatherings, offerings. For as long as we remember, the Elder that has the most knowledge and wisdom is the community leader. This Elder would perform traditional drum songs, provide medicine for healing, and use many other traditional methods.
Solomon Pascal (in translation, January 2014)
6. The Creator has a match and that match is the Thunderbird. He brings that match to the land when the forest gets too old and can’t grow anymore. So the thunderbird comes to earth. After the forest is burnt new growth starts. Animals get tired of eating old food. Just like you and me. The Creator knows that animals need new food. The fire there brings fresh food to eat. As an example: rabbit favours new growth area. When you look at rabbit I think it is like a food chain for animals. Rabbits have three litters a summer. Fox, lynx, marten all depend on rabbit. The Creator has to care for all animals so he sends Thunderbird to earth to make food for rabbit. We like to eat rabbit, too. So he burns for us, too. Where fire comes to a rock area, blueberries come after the fire. [That] feeds a lot of animals. We eat blueberries, too. Fire makes good food areas.
Whitehead Moose, June 2006
7. This place is sacred to me. Why? For as long as I can remember my family trapped, hunted, gathered, had ceremonies. My parents and great grandfather would sing pow-wow and play the drum. They used to do this by the end of the day to give thanks to Manidoo, Creator.
Melba Green, March 2014
8. Since stones are grammatically animate, I once asked an old man, Alex Keeper (Giiwiich), ‘Are all of the stones we see about us here alive?’ He reflected a long while and then replied, ‘No! But some are.’ This qualified answer made a lasting impression on me.
A. Irving Hallowell, 1930s
9. After the Creator finished making everything on earth, he decided to create human beings. He took pieces of mud from the four directions and made them into the shape of a man. Then he took a miigis [cowrie] shell, blew his breath into it and placed it in the man he had made. The man came to life. The Creator gently took this man in his hands and lowered him onto the earth and said, “This is my beautiful garden and I am asking you to take care of it.”
Abel Bruce and Albert Bittern
10. There is a cliff-rock-painting of a snapping turtle [on a certain river]. When someone travels along over there, they’d cut some tobacco. They would hope to kill a moose, they would say. Sure enough, that was exactly what would happen. That person would get the blessing to kill a moose. This is the reason they put tobacco in their pipe. They would say, I will kill a moose, as they placed tobacco in their pipe. That was the purpose of the cliff rock-paintings.
Kenneth Owen
11. The head of the family would make the decisions in regards to the land. If there was a shortage of beaver or muskrat for example they would leave that area alone for a while, until these populations increased. They did this to ensure future use of these resources.
Ed Hudson, September 2013
12. The most qualified wildlife hunter that existed in the boreal forest region. People are very concerned that nobody will carry on or replace such skills.
Joe Owen, 2010
13. Well, the women wear the bells too. Goodness did they sound good when they were sliding their feet and dancing … Mii wa’a igi ikwewag, igi Gichi-Ikwewag! These were the women. The Grand Women!
Maangoons Strang (Little Loon), 1992
14. The medicines have kept us alive and helped to cure sickness. The bush is our drugstore and we are grateful for all those plants that are happy to give up their lives to help us.
Abel Bruce and Albert Bittern
15. Most people think about a landscape as a physical and natural backdrop for life, a sort of stage upon which life happens. But in the Ojibwe way of thinking, the landscape is alive; it is full of human and non-human beings that engage with the people who know a certain place thoroughly.
Pauingassi Lands Management Plan
16. The water represents life to the Anishinaabe people. The Creator gave the responsibility to women to create life and to care for the health of the water. Life begins by being surrounded by water in our mother’s womb. In our ceremonies it is the women’s responsibility to carry that water and share it with others. In our stories and teachings, it has always been the grandmothers who watch over the water and they are still carrying out that sacred responsibility today. We were also taught that the water is very spiritual and that we need to acknowledge that spirit in our prayers each day.
Sophia Rabliauskas, December 2011
17. Ji-ganawendamang Gidakiiminaan is itself a tradition of monitoring, of keeping the land by watching over the land.
Enil Keeper, October 2014
18. My dad told me that I had to have a net, hooks, and snare. If you ever go hungry, you can set snares for rabbits and set those hooks for fish. If you do that all the time, you won’t go hungry. If you use your gun to fish with, you won’t kill fish that way. You don’t kill everything with a gun.
Adam Owen, March 1984
19. We don’t laugh at or tease any animals. We hold them with much respect because it is not proper in our culture to tease animals, whether they are large or small. They will hear you when you don’t respect them and they will come after you, get even with you.
Anishinaabe Elder, in translation
20. Knowledge of when and what to harvest, trap and hunt has been passed down through generations. For Anishinaabeg, it’s like instinct.
Melba Green
21. It’s always important to respect people when you meet them because you don’t know what carries them or what watches over them. It’s not the person that you offend. That person may forgive you but the one that’s watching over that person may not forgive you. That’s why it’s important that we always talk polite to people. Even when we travel, we always travel with tobacco and offerings out of respect.
Clinton Keeper (in response to the Wiindigoo Story told to him by Maggie Duck)
Feature Image: Elder Abel Bruce © Otake Hidehiro
