As I walked along downtown Ottawa last
week, headed to the Byward Market, I stumbled upon a delight. Encased
in tall wire fencing typically seen in construction areas, an
Algonquin man named Paul, and an Ojibwe woman, showcased the
lifestyle of First Nations ancestors.
As I walked through the opening, my
eyes lifted to a tall tipi built on concrete city streets. Wrapped in
white thick cloth, the tipi almost towered the permanent totem pole
across the street.
“We start with three sticks, tie
them together and then add another stick. We tie that together and
then then continue adding one stick at a time, tying each one,”
said Paul on the construction of the tipi. Above the entrance hung a
hand drum with a black outline of the sun's rays. Inside the sun was
a duck flapping its wings in water. Paul crafted hand drums.
He showed me how he used branches of
the ash tree. This pliable wood was soaked in water until the wood
separated into sections. If you needed the wood to be thinner, you
would use a hand made mallet, with a rock strung to the top, to pound
the wood and then soak it back in the water. When the wood strips
were thin enough, you peeled a section and bent it into a circle.
This was the rim of the hand drum. Hide was then used for the cover.
These pieces of soaked wood had many
uses including basket making, snow shoes, wares, and more. He also
used the wood along with cedar and more to form his nation's hut –
a wigwam. While a tipi is spectacular in size, a wigwam is a
mind-bending, wood-bending feat. Wood and hide are made pliable
through techniques developed over hundreds of years. While a tipi
would take Paul only forty-five minutes to assemble, this oval
shaped house would take longer. While a tipi was easier to take down
and transport, a wigwam would be far more difficult to disassemble
and travel with.
The goal of this duo was to promote an
upcoming First Nations celebration and keep their cultures alive
through education.
“We travel all over the world
teaching people. I try to gather supplies where I am going so I don't
have to take them with me.”
Keeping their traditions alive is
important not only among their own people, but to share the
remarkable beauty of the First Nations with everyone. They teach
children. They mesmerize adults. They hold workshops on how to craft
these magnificently complex structures and essentials using what
grows in nature. The spiritual aspect, however, is kept
sacred. It is kept private. “That is only for us.”
I myself have had a draw to Native
cultures. I have past life memories even. I have searched for,
yearned for, and prayed for learning about the spiritual practices of
these cultures. However, very few it seems are willing to share. In
my youth, I may not have accepted Paul's answer. However, that
overcast day standing with him on the middle of the street, I understood.
Last night, I read an interpretation by
Swami Satchidanada on a slokah in his book, The Living Gita. He
shared a story about a man who went to a roshi (teacher) to learn. The roshi poured tea into a cup, continuing even after it flowed over. The roshi said how
when one's cup is full, one cannot accept any teaching. One needed to
be an empty vessel for knowledge to be poured into.
Perhaps my cup was empty that day. I easily accepted what Paul shared. It was not my place to ask for more, to tap into their sacred beliefs that they needed to keep within their culture. After all, here they were, giving of themselves freely to share the history and skills of their people. Paul said he was a simple man who worked with his hands. I believe he is much more than that. He is a humble teacher.
Perhaps my cup was empty that day. I easily accepted what Paul shared. It was not my place to ask for more, to tap into their sacred beliefs that they needed to keep within their culture. After all, here they were, giving of themselves freely to share the history and skills of their people. Paul said he was a simple man who worked with his hands. I believe he is much more than that. He is a humble teacher.
My
husband recently shared how ethnic tourism is a latest growing trend.
People flock to various cultures to see their history, how their food
was cooked like pouring vegetables into bamboo sticks and steaming
them over an open fire. Cultures wanting to pass their knowledge on,
to keep themselves alive in history, have found willing students. And
while these students may been looking at first glance at the
entertainment of it all, these cultures know that they will go back
home and share their stories. About how one tribe learned how to
steam food in the bamboo around them. About how another one made
pottery by hand and inscribed their life story into the pot. About
how another one learned to sew from her grandmother who was taught by
her grandmother and so on.
The
power of sharing life skills is spiritual in itself. We see the
working hands of Paul make a hand drum that echoes the sound of
someones heart beat.
