The Traditional Anishinaabe World View.pdf
Illustrated glossary offering a cross section of the traditional worldview of the Ojibwe Anishinaabeg, who for the past 1000 years or more inhabit Gaa-zaaga'ekanikaag, the Land of Many Lakes ( the North American Great Lakes area).
Illustrated glossary offering a cross section of the traditional worldview of the Ojibwe Anishinaabeg, who for the past 1000 years or more inhabit Gaa-zaaga'ekanikaag, the Land of Many Lakes ( the North American Great Lakes area).
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<strong>The</strong> Universe of <strong>The</strong> Ojibwe <strong>Anishinaabe</strong>g by Zhaawano Giizhik - 2014<br />
Above illustration: In this beautiful and powerful painting, depicting Manidookwe or Mother Earth, the Earth<br />
has the qualities of a woman who is giving and nurturing, her breasts heavy with milk, her pelvis and fertile<br />
vagina opening stylistically echoing the (possible) contours of a Miigis cowry shell. Since cowry shells are<br />
thought to possess life-giving and healing powers and held responsible for the origin of the Midewiwin, the<br />
artist possibly suggests that Aki (Earth) and Miigis (Shell) are passageways through which life emerges. See<br />
also: MIDE-MIIGIS.<br />
ANANGOOG: the stars. From of old, the constellations and star knowledge of the<br />
<strong>Anishinaabe</strong> Peoples relate to aandakiiwinan (seasonal changes), nandawenjige (hunting<br />
and fishing) and gathering activities such as: bakibajige or picking fruit, bawa’am or<br />
harvesting wild rice, onjigawibii or tapping tree sap, manidookewinan (ceremonies), and<br />
aadizookewin (storytelling).<br />
In <strong>Anishinaabe</strong> cosmology, the celestial bodies of the upper sky are sometimes regarded<br />
as the thoughts of GICHI-MANIDOO, the Great Mystery of the Universe. Stars are<br />
associated with physical and symbolic light, and with enlightenment and wisdom. It is in<br />
the upper sky vault, too, that the Land of Peace is situated. It is a land of happiness<br />
reached within four days by the spirits of the deceased that travel jiibay-miikana, the trail<br />
of souls, the Milky Way. A dazzling blue light in the northern skies the <strong>Anishinaabe</strong>g<br />
sometimes see at night illuminates this trail: the waasnode, or northern lights. Also<br />
known as: naanaate, and niimidiwag. Since they are the spirits of the ancestors gone by,<br />
one is supposed never to whistle at them.<br />
Abe Kakepetum: ‘<strong>The</strong> Sign”<br />
Left: “Ancestral Shaman In <strong>The</strong> Portals Of Time” by the late Ojibwe Medicine Art Painter Norval Morrisseau.<br />
Right: Print by the late Oji-Cree Medicine Art painter Jackson Beardy, of Ojiig the Fisher storming the Sky.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Universe of <strong>The</strong> Ojibwe <strong>Anishinaabe</strong>g by Zhaawano Giizhik - 2014<br />
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