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Cree teachings with Knowledge Keeper Marilyn Dykstra

October 21, 2023

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A large number of snow geese along with a few Ross’s geese fly across a grey sky. Partially obscured.

Photo: Sandra Uecker/USFWS Mountain-Prairie, Light Goose Migration at the Huron Wetland Management District South Dakota, Public Domain Mark 1.0

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.

Migrating is a difficult yet wonderful transition in life. We envelop ourselves in the teachings of the pipe – Nîkân isîhcikêwin, "the way ceremony was conducted since the beginning of time." This is the way of our ancestors.

The pipe teachings give us the plan to walk the red road, rooted in ancient knowledge and custom, that we humans migrate.

Let’s celebrate the momentous migration that our animal family members will make during this moon. We will send them off with a pipe ceremony and then we will share a potluck lunch. Please bring a food item to share with the rest of the group. Dishes, cutlery and echinacea tea will be provided.

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