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Cree Teachings with Knowledge Keeper Marilyn Dykstra

Saturday, June 3, 2023

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The night sky is lit up green, yellow and blue with Northern lights. There are large, tall trees on the right-hand side of the image and a lake to the left. Partially obscured.

Photo: Keith Williams, Solar Storm over Twin Lakes, CC BY-NC 2.0

Cost:
Free, registration required
Location:
Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Bonnie & John Buhler Hall, Level 1
Language and Accessibility:
This event is offered in English.

Faith and relationships give us hope and protect us in life’s turbulence. Faith lives in each being. With this hope in us, we grow from mistakes, grow in relationships, and move forward in a better way.

We are small beings, or little eggs, on Mother Earth that are beginning a path of discovery and making a commitment to growing in faith. Each day, our Grandmother Moon rises and reminds us that we can continue, no matter how many clouds distort our sight. We clean our minds with sage, so that the clouds will clear just as our Grandmother does when she wanes.

So how do we grow faith? How can we move forward on this path of discovery? This session is not to change anyone’s faith, but rather give space to look at their own, understand the benefits and learn how to grow it. Come and enjoy a cup of sage tea while we look at these things and end our experience together with a full‐moon ceremony for women and Two‐Spirit people.

More information

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.