Traditional food is very important for Aboriginal People's Health and Spirituality

Saskatoon Berries

TSawAta

TSawAta.Tee

Soap berry Juice

   








 Please check out Shane Chartrand at RedX :  

   https://vimeo.com/168471494

"How did you know you were cared for?"

I have already mentioned my tuxedo cats and I believe my cats "Aurora" and "Thunder" care for me very much reasons being:

1. They greet me at the door when I return home.
2. They follow me around, hang around, we go for walks, and they wait for me when I am in the shower.
3. They stare at me when I am on the computer, doing homework, reading, watching TV, cooking, cleaning and talking on the phone.
4. They deliberately blink at me every now and again. I heard a long slow blink is a cat equivalent of a kiss.
5. My cats meow like they are speaking to me. It is like they are telling me about their day and they love me.
6. When they purr in unison it is very comforting for all of us.
7. My cats tolerate my kissing and cuddling them. Especially when I have been away.
8. They do not bite or scratch me only playfully.
9. Aurora doesn't do any headbutting, but Thunder does and gallantly. He has headbutted the bedroom door and forced it open many times.
10. Thunder is a fat cat and when he wants me to get up he will stomp all over me when I am sleeping until I wake up.
11. Sometimes I wake up with a scratch across my face, nothing major, but, I am not sure what that is about.
12. Both cats like to lick my toes and hands at different times. I just do not care for it much.
13. Aurora likes to knead me like dough and purr loudly when she comes to bed with me like I am her mother.
14. I know Thunder likes to bring me presents such as mice and birds. It is usually apparent when the room is full of feathers. Aurora likes to bring me moths and bugs and I am not sure what I am suppose to do with them, but I accept them and pat her and give them both a treat. They look at me lovingly.
15. When I am on the computer to long Aurora likes to walk across the keys. I think she is a little jealous.
16. When I am doing dishes Aurora and Thunder both love to weave through my legs. I guess they are showing they are there for me.
17. When I am away to long one of the cats I am not sure which one, I believe it is Thunder does a dump on the bathroom rug. I think he is trying to make a point that I don't forget him.
18. Both cats love to show me their belly, which is the most vulnerable part of the cat. I believe it means they trust me.
19. My cats do not run away they always come home and come when I call them.

Both my cats are very loving and I feel very cared for by them. We have a special bond.

"Knowing" and "Knowledge" are they the same or different?

SFU's President's   Dream Colloquium on returning to the teachings: Manulani Aluli-Meyer Professor of Education at the University of Hawaii, Indigenous Epistemologist. October 13, 2016

Raramuri People or "runners on foot"

 Tarahumara natives of northwestern Mexico are know for their long distant running and little foot wear while doing it. They still live mainly in their natural  environment and very traditionally. A composer that studied the Tarahumara named Romayne Wheeler writes that "Music sanctifies the moment in the life of all the Tarahumara" and "All of our actions have musical meaning". (Romayne Wheeler (1993). Life through the Eyes of the Tarahumara. Editorial Camino. p. 161.)

imesh (meaning "to walk" in Squamish language) Mobile App developed by the Bill Reid Centre at SFU

A step towards decolonizing the University by communicating through experience which is done with walking tours on SFU campus and Burnaby Mountain.

App can be found at:    https://www.sfu.ca/brc/imeshMobileApp.html

Making Moccasins

SELF-CARE AND ACTIVE LIVING

                The Indian Residential Schools had devastating inter-generational harm for the Nlaka’pamux people. Residential school has caused my culture, my history, my language, my people’s spiritual connection to the life force itself to be lost to many of the Nlaka’pamux people. In return I received a “void” creating an internal imbalance. My elders have to rewrite history because it shapes us and defines us. The true identity of the aboriginal people was purposefully stolen, and lost by stealing our children and outlawing the teaching of the elders and our very way of thinking. This disconnects from the knowledge of our arts, our stories, our spiritual ceremonies, our languages, and our history resulting in a disconnection with my inner self. So I ask myself who am I, really?

To determine the answer to these questions and for understanding and balance I sought out what was taken. What I found was a proposed comfort and calming through cultural activities, specifically aboriginal. I believe the aboriginal medicine wheel that is thousands of years old and passed down by the elders and traditional healers is a holistic approach to defining wellbeing and determining self-care not only for aboriginal people, but for all people. Aboriginal people use the symbol of the circle to show the interrelationship of nature and the association to all of creation. Most medicine wheels are in circles and have the concept of four directions in order to illustrate a certain balance and equality. For my personal self-care:

1.      Within my medicine wheel I am at the center and on the outside circle is the universe.

2.      I have four directions the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

3.      I have three associates the future, past, and here and now. This is to give more definition for my path.

4.      One moves in a left to right direction like the sun.

5.      A circle gives the everlasting cycle of beginning and ending.

6.      The intention of my medicine wheel like most is to try a variety of personalities on our excursion along the cycle of life.

7.      I have the heart at the center of the medicine wheel to give a certain rhythm to distinguish internal balance.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=medicine+wheels&espv=2&biw=1160&bih=608&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilt8T0zffPAhUK2GMKHW7aAxoQsAQILwA

Therefore the most important history is the Nlaka’pamux history we are making today. I started my journey to find who I was with actively living my Nlaka’pamux and Indigenous culture. I’m currently going to the Sweat Lodge ceremony with my children where we meet other people in the Aboriginal community who are also engaged in Aboriginal spiritual practices. After we sweat and pray we all ate the traditional food we brought to the ceremony. For years, like my ancestors, my brother and my children and I would go fishing along the Fraser River each summer and then we would can, smoke, and dry it for the winter. In my grandmother’s footsteps, my sister and my children and I would go berry picking and then do canning for the winter. Many members of the Aboriginal community have taught my children. We have made drums with elk hide and then painted and smudged them. We would do beading and button blankets and have made traditional dress for the sweat and ceremonies. Our family would always make time to go and gather sage for smudging our home. This herb aids in cleansing our minds and helps purge a negative environment. Our Nlaka’pamux language is almost extinct and yet, I continue to look for my Elders to teach it to me. My grandparents were fluent speakers, but for some reason they refuse to teach me our language, but I think it has to do with the fact they are still dealing with their Residential School issues. In order to ask the Creator for help at the “asking rock” I visit the sacred area of our community in Stein Valley whenever I am able and then I pray along the river. I recently made a medicine bag that holds my sacred medicines, such as sage, sweet grass, and crystals. My spirituality has become a huge part of my life and helps me walk in a good way. I carry it for guidance, healing and protection. Every chance I get to go to an Aboriginal event or to make a drum, bead, dance, or sing I participate. This feeling I get from the culture that was taken away from me, a peaceful and a well-being feeling, like I have found something that was lost. This connection with my inner self and a spirituality for me and my children for here and now and for the future. Our future is our history. Whenever I can, or whenever I am in need, I go through the porthole of my community; which means going to talk with my Elder’s, being on the land and talking to the Creator.

I believe the interconnections of the circle can guide the process of understanding and education for the future, knowing is just the beginning. Wholeness requires that we look at the entire picture and by doing this we will see everything not just parts, but all of the pieces of the puzzle. Once the puzzle is put together one can see the whole picture. Interrelationship is when we establish a personal relationship with our whole being the big picture. By pursuing and learning about my Nlaka’pamux culture and being involved with cultural activities helps me recognize that the life force and earth is sacred and this gives me strength on my path to seeing the whole picture or being a healthy person. My reasons for joining the Heal program are because it is a piece of the puzzle for understanding and education for the future generations.

           

                                                                            

EVERY CHILD MATTERS

Mindfulness is the awareness that arises when paying attention to the present moment, without judgement

Aboriginal Reconciliation: The Healing Journey

Art Therapy

Cody Lecoy was just at SFU  at the Indigenous Center teaching art lessons

SFU Indigenous Day

         Traditional songs and dances were stories handed down through families. Between this sharing of tradition the family of elders, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, sons, daughters created a rich and caring familial bonding. This bonding is the backbone and strength of a culture.
          The laws to facilitate assimilation of the aboriginal people strove to negate the traditions, thus robbing the people of this strength. Legally kidnapping children, imprisoning them, torturing them, forbidding them of their language, spirituality, family bonding. The 'schools' were only shut down in 1996, so, this recent history has effected the generations detrimentally.
         In BC alone, there are almost 200 different bands and nations and around 30 different aboriginal languages. This means there is a large diverse number of dances, culture, and traditions. We are not all the same and it is important to recognize this because it is one of the main reasons for putting on Indigenous days for the first nation student society.  These songs and dances give the first nation peoples a sense of  personal empowerment that is also healing.

We had the Git Hayetsk dancers; KwhliGbaku dancers; Kulu dancers; Urban Kwakwak'awiku Cultural group; Tzo'any and Gtsatsu Stalquyu dancers perform.
       

 

Is this vitality?

I had a dream, a dream about a bear

This bear was running up a mountain

It was the fastest and biggest bear I had ever seen

She kept running and running and running

I could see her muscular strength as she ran in a determined like rythm

When she finally arrived at the top of the mountain her cubs surrounded her

She carefully gathered the smallest cub in her arms

As she stood tall, waiting, looking and loving

The baby cub squirmed happily in her mothers arms

My tuxedo cats.

I have two cats that became a part of our family when they were a year old.
They each have their own personalities Thunder is above and the male and very dominating. He loves to play with the birds and mice in the area.
Arora on the left is the smallest and most sensitive. We go on many walks around the building together.

Hi I'm Karen Johnson. My  Indian name is “Dark Rain Storm”. I am an Nlaka’pamux woman from Lytton, B.C.

It has been said because of Indian Residential School most first nation people were brought up by their grandparent and I am one of those people. I originally grew up in the lower mainland, but spent most summers in Lytton on my grandfather  Jimmy Johnson's farm.

When describing who we are we discuss who we are related to. I have one older sister named Sherry and two younger brothers Mike and Pat. We spent many hot summers running free along the Fraser River, the mountains and snacking while sitting leisurely in apple trees. There was no electricity, running water or even a bathroom. Yet  it did not bother us even the slightest. A world without computers, cell phones, iPads, T.V., or electronic games. It did not concern us for we were very happy and contented. When I look back it seems surreal.

Like most people from my Nation, I never graduated from high school. I married young and had five beautiful children. Samantha is my oldest child. She is 31 years old and studied Criminology at SFU. Joseph is my oldest son; he is 26, and he studied Communications at SFU. William is my next oldest and he is presently at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia studying to be a nurse. Anaka is 18 and graduated from high school in 2015 and my youngest, Erica, is the most athletic and still in high school.

After 25 years of being a stay at home mother I went back to school. It was now a whole new technical world. A world that in order for me to succeed I needed to learn how to belong in. I finished my Bachelor of Arts Degree in December, 2014, with a major in Criminology and a specialty in First Nations. From here I went back to my community of Lytton to volunteer in Stein Valley Senior Secondary. While in this school I discovered that first nation’s people in smaller communities were sickly and had many health problems. Until I went back to my community this had seemed unreal, but, in  the short time that I was there I noticed that all of the children had many health problems. From Fetal alcohol system to ADHD, broken arms, legs, hips, malnutrition to being behind in education by a year or two. This was in huge comparison to the kids in the lower mainland schools. The non-native teachers were over worked and underpaid and unhealthy because of it. There was a high turnover of teachers and a low rate of graduation.

I believe there needs to be a way to bring the holistic aboriginal way of doing things and the linear Caucasian way of doing things together in order to improve first nation’s graduation rates in school and in their health and wellness. There are too many barriers for first nation’s children and they' ve become  stagnant  on many levels. In order for first nations people  to succeed and  for the understanding in education, they must expand their knowledge and understanding of the world outside their culture. Conversely the first nation culture must be respected and included within their learning experience.

This is why I am interested in the Masters of Education C&I Health and Wellness. As a first nation person it is important to bring  back to our communities what we have learned.