In this session, Cree Knowledge Keeper Marilyn Dykstra invites you to learn how our relatedness provides us with our identity and ceremony. As land stewards, we acknowledge our responsibility to live in truthfulness and respect with the earth, taking only what we need.

Our connections within Wahkowtowin must remain compassionate. These times are challenging, and our fasting is heavy. Our stories provide healing and prepare us for the year to come. We need to be mindful that although our freedom is important, we cannot have freedom without connection — we must work together as a cohesive group.

We must connect our conversations with the universe and our Ancestors while being thankful for everything they provide us. If all we do is complain about the ice and snow that provides Mother Earth with her much‐needed rest, we will only ever feel the cold and darkness, not the hope and ultimate protection that comes from her rest.

Although we follow the ancestors’ footprints, we recognize that we are also walking on our first mothers’ back and our ancestral paths. We must ensure that we do not leave any hurt in our interactions for others to clean up. What happens to Mother Earth happens to the children of Mother Earth.

The first 25 registered participants will be given the opportunity to make a feast bag that they can use with their own gathered feasting housewares.

View image in fullscreen gallery Overhead view of colourful, handmade quilted fabric, created by past attendees of the Full Moon teachings. When it is fully opened, the quilt features floral and geometric designs in red, blue, green and gold tones that form into a turtle with representations of the full moons.

Method of teaching

Knowledge Keeper, Marilyn Dykstra, will highlight the Inninewak (Cree) ways of being and thinking regarding personal conduct within hWahkowtowin and how everything is interrelated. The method of teaching will utilize Indigenous pedagogy as well as incorporate a traditional tea. Participants will discover their relatedness and interconnection with human rights and balance.

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 Inninewak (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.

Traditional Helper Peyton will support the teachings while she continues her learning journey within Wahkowtowin.

Marilyn Dykstra is a status Bill C31 First Nations woman from northern Manitoba. She has been immersed in a working matriarchal system that practised 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.