Just like the moon, all relationships experience periods of waxing and waning, but how do we remain thankful? We need to focus on what’s important and what we put into the bags we carry.

We treat each relationship with gratitude because even if someone shares a fleeting moment with us, our spirits meet to teach each other something. We must focus on the teachings of our Mother Earth’s creature teachers because they carry true integrity. They practise calling others into the circle, not calling others out.

Creature teachers teach inclusion. A bear does not look at another type of bear and challenge its percentage of bear genetics. Not all bears come from the same region, carry the same knowledge, or look the same. We can learn to work with other communities and grow within Wahkowtowin . All nations and people are equally important. Nobody receives a bigger piece in the medicine wheel.

As the new school year starts, let’s practise inclusion. We are working towards repairing the harm of the past and strengthening our interconnections. Everything we do is relational. So to answer the question in the beginning, how do we stay thankful?, we build inclusive learning because learning about other bears doesn’t diminish anyone’s bear‐ness. It strengthens the relations within Wahkowtowin .

Special note: There will be smudging smoke present during the event.

The first 30 registered people will be offered the opportunity to decorate a felt bag to take home.

Method of teaching

The method of teaching will utilize Indigenous pedagogy as well as incorporate traditional tea and burning of traditional medicines. 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

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