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Free admission on Sundays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

The Museum is accessible to all

Cree teachings, bear pipe ceremony and potluck feast with Knowledge Keeper Marilyn Dykstra

Saturday, December 21, 2024

A traditional Indigenous structure, commonly called a tipi, made of sticks sits on a leaf-strewn forest floor, surrounded by cut logs. Partially obscured.

Photo: North American Indigenous Structure, Michael Hunter, CC BY-SA 2.0

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.
Schedule:

Saturday, December 21, 2024
11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Language and Accessibility:
This event is offered in English.
Register

In this session, Cree Knowledge Keeper Marilyn Dykstra invites you to learn how children are lifted to grow their sacredness.

She will explain that children are ceremony. Raising a child is much like placing the lifting pole on a migawap‐tipi. The lift requires coordination with the foundation poles of obedience, respect and humility. If the coordination is done well, children grow in happiness and mastery of their own sense of belonging, meaning, purpose and ultimate hope. 

Join Marilyn to learn about how children become connected to Mother Earth when their placenta is placed in the earth; how their spirit and journey connect during their walking out ceremony; and how their journey will be further directed during their fast as they move into adulthood. 

Fundamentally, children are always connected within Wahkowtowin (“kinship”) and the seven generations. They are the rebirth of the ancestors in a human form – and that form needs to be surrounded by the ultimate protection of the migawap(great tipi), the tikinagan (baby carrier) and the ospwâkan (pipe).

“We serve our purpose when we rear our children in a good way,” Marilyn says. “The purpose teaches us how to leave a sacred path to guide children and not to leave harm within them that requires healing.”

Ceremony and potluck lunch 

The teachings will include a bear pipe ceremony to honour the winter solstice and a potluck feast. Please bring a food item to share with the rest of the group that has no nuts or pork products. Dishes, cutlery, plates, and 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

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