Geese and their connected spirits teach us about compassion, empathy, and how to live in harmony with all creation, explains Cree Knowledge Keeper Marilyn Dykstra. We learn to support one another through communication, protection, hope and encouragement. 

In this Cree Teachings workshop, Marilyn will remind participants that it’s hard to communicate with our Wahkowtowin ancestors when we are busy with unnecessary things – so put down the technology and connect to your creator and spirit. If we look up, we can watch our creature teachers soaring above in their loving formations.

On a migawap‐tipi, the fourth pole creates the door and connects us to the outside world and our community connections. When the Goose Moon returns in spring, we feel the loving warmth of the sun on our face and connect with life again within the medicine wheel. Life is continually moving forward, like the water that the geese return to each year.

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.