National Indigenous History Month

The Thanksgiving Address teaches mutual respect, conservation, love, generosity, and the responsibility to understand that what is done to one part of the Web of Life, we do to ourselves.  

The Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy open and close every meeting with a Thanksgiving Address (Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen). As we begin our acknowledgment and celebration of the contribution Indigenous culture has had on our heritage as part of #NationalIndigenousHistoryMonth, we do so by giving a prayer of thanks for life and the world around us. 

When one recites the Thanksgiving Address, the Natural World is thanked, and in thanking each life-sustaining force, one becomes spiritually tied to each of the forces of the Natural and Spiritual World.

All over the world, cultures and communities have mapped the moon cycle, which happens 13 times per year, in cycles of 28 days. The Haudenosaunee follow the cycle of the Thirteen Grandmother Moons. June is the sixth moon of creation and is called the Strawberry Moon. The medicine of the strawberry is reconciliation. It was during this moon cycle that communities usually held their annual feasts, welcoming everyone home, regardless of their differences over the past year, letting go of judgment or self-righteousness. 

In the Anishinaabe story of the Seven Grandfathers, a young boy was given the seven sacred teachings by the Seven Grandfathers.  The seven gifts: wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility, and truth were the guiding principle given to help the people to live a good life, to teach them respect for the Creator, Mother Earth, and each other. 

The Seven Grandfathers told the young boy to go out into the world and share the teachings and that “Each of these teachings must be used with the rest; you cannot have wisdom without love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility and truth.  To leave one out is to embrace the opposite of what that teaching is.” 

In order to achieve balance, one must apply all of the gifts, practise them, and teach them to our children. 

In Indigenous culture, the circle is timeless, with no beginning and no ending, and is an integral part of their belief system. 

The Medicine Wheel (sometimes referred to as the Sacred Hoop) represents the process of how life evolves and moves forward.  The Medicine Wheel represents the interconnectivity of all aspects of one’s being including their connection with the natural world and is divided into four quadrants: the four stages of life, the four directions, the four elements, the four sacred medicines, the four seasons, the four states of wellbeing, the four colours of mankind, and the four stages of life. 

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• The four directions: East, south, west, north 
• The four elements: Fire, earth, water, air 
• The four sacred medicines: Tobacco, sweetgrass, sage, cedar 
• The four seasons: Spring, summer, fall, winter 
• The four states of wellbeing: Mental, physical, emotional, spiritual 
• The four colours of mankind: Yellow, red, black, white 
• The four stages of life: childhood, adolescence, adult, elder