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Free admission on Sundays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

The Museum is accessible to all

Cree teachings with Knowledge Keeper Marilyn Dykstra

Saturday, May 18, 2024

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A stylized image shows a human hand gently holding a glass orb of the earth. The background is a night sky with stars and bright green northern lights. Partially obscured.

Photo: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Cost:
Free, registration required
Location:
Canadian Museum for Human Rights The group will meet in Bonnie & John Buhler Hall, Level 1 and proceed together to Level 6.
Language and Accessibility:
This event is offered in English.

The Frog moon is here and it’s easy being green when we follow natural law. During the Frog Moon, we focus on learning to love the first gift we received – the rhythm of our ancestral spirit and heartbeat. We also learn about other types of love and our reciprocal relationships within Wahkowtowin. And we learn how to demonstrate that love – how to say Kisâkihitin (I love you).

Join us to learn from Cree Knowledge Keeper Marilyn Dykstra how our hope and ultimate protection come from the Kitche Migawap (sacred teepee) that encloses our circular foundation and doorway.

Obedience, respect, humility and happiness are already intertwined and bound together in our foundation poles, Marilyn will explain, but we are not finished until our grandmothers’ shawl is wrapped around her shoulders and covering her feet. Enclosing this circle cradles the love we share when we are within the ultimate protection of our sacredness. A rhythm exists in the heat of the fire, the grounding of the earth, the movement of the water and the gusts from the wind. This brings together our love and our connections – our Wahkowtowin.

Workshop

This workshop is part of a monthly Wahkowtowin and Ways of Being series led by Knowledge Keeper Marilyn Dykstra. Each month, we will explore a variety of moon, pole and tea teachings in the Cree tradition.

Wahkowtowin – which translates to kinship – highlights how relationships, communities and the natural world are all interconnected.

Participants will discover and reflect on their connections with each other, with balance and with human rights through teachings and a traditional tea.

Marilyn Dykstra is a status Bill C‑31 First Nations woman from northern Manitoba. She has been immersed in a working matriarchal system that practiced Indigenous ways of thinking and being since she was born. Alongside her family, she has participated in many peaceful social justice movements. 

Marilyn uses her matriarchal knowledge as a foundation for her work in the Indigenous community, which has been ongoing for over thirty years. She still follows her matriarchal teachings, but she has also spent her life learning traditional knowledge and passing the teachings on. 

She is a pow wow dancer, knowledge keeper, and she carries the responsibility of a bundle. She happily participates in naming ceremonies, sweats, pipe ceremonies, moon teachings and more.

Find out more about this series

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