“The turtle's seven parts — head, body, tail and four legs — symbolize the seven codes of life: bravery, respect, honesty, humility, wisdom, honour and sharing.”
Monday, September 26, 2005
posted by db on Tuesday, September 27th at 3:20 PM
by JULIUS STRAUSS From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Silver Falls, Man. — When Caroline Bruyère was last taken by her family to the site of the sacred turtle on the banks of the Winnipeg River, she was a small girl. Now an elder of the Sagkeeng First Nation and a 62-year-old grandmother, she returned last week for the first time in 50 years. For the occasion, she put on a ceremonial sky-blue dress adorned with brightly coloured ribbons, sweetgrass and other talismans. She pointed out the stones that had been carefully placed by her ancestors around the turtle. "To you they're just rocks," she said. "But to us they are grandfathers." In the coming weeks, this pristine piece of the Canadian Shield is to be parcelled out and turned into lots for cottages...
...(T)he Anishnabe natives consider the turtle one of their most sacred symbols. The stones placed around the animal represent the incarnation of the spirits of the ancestors. The turtle's seven parts — head, body, tail and four legs — symbolize the seven codes of life: bravery, respect, honesty, humility, wisdom, honour and sharing...
...Ms. Bruyère is one of an increasing number of aboriginals attempting to reclaim her culture and the forgotten secrets of thousands of years of spiritual history. It is a journey fraught with frustration and setbacks. Much of the oral history has been lost and few, if any, records remain from the old days when aboriginals could be fined or imprisoned for practising their traditional rituals. "Our ancestors have passed on and they didn't tell us where are spiritual sites were for fear of persecution," Ms. Bruyère said...
...But while she clambered among the rocky outcrops and the small, wet clearings near Silver Falls last week, her eyes glowed with youthful excitement as she became aware of other ancient aboriginal petroforms. There were stones set equidistant in a circle and a sort of a stone ledge — Ms. Bruyère explained it was a spirit chair — surrounded by rocks...
...Non-natives often dismiss the sometimes vague claims that they are violating aboriginal religious grounds. Unlike European settlers, natives didn't typically clear the land and build imposing churches. Instead, their places of worship incorporated and augmented natural geographical features. To a white settler, the sacred turtle probably looked like an unremarkable outcrop of granite...
...Ms. Bruyère believes that only if the natives' ancient spiritual sites are protected can their culture rebound and the people begin to recover from the trauma of the whites' settlement of the land. "When Christianity came to this continent, our spiritual culture was outlawed and we weren't allowed to practise our spirituality. We have become dysfunctional because of that. That's why our people are having such a hard time." Then, before she left the site of the sacred turtle, she turned and, as though to herself, said: "I'm so happy we can find what our ancestors had and rediscover our spirituality. We're very young at doing this."
From:
http://friendsofgrassynarrows.com/item.php?426F
&
http://aol.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/aolstory/TGAM/20050926/NATIVES26
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