Note From The Editor
Articles
- Dáanzho ha’shi ‘dał’k’ida’, ‘áá’áná’, ‘doo maanaashni’: Welcoming ‘long ago’, ‘way back’ and ‘remember’—as an Ndé decolonization and land recovery process
- Wasauksing Women Sharing Strength
- Placing Knowledge as Resurgence
- Miisa Giizhaabiziyin
- Narratives of Peace: Naga Women in the Self Determination Struggle
- Decolonial Historiography: Thinking about Land and Race in a Transcolonial Context
Poems
- Matoaka, One Who Kindles (Also Known as Pocahontas)
- My Grandma was a Medicine Woman
A Hundred Roots - ishkigamizigan: the sugarbush
Works
Call For Papers⁄Art
My Grandma was a Medicine Woman, and A Hundred Roots
Tara Williamson, Fleming College (School of Law, Justice, and Community Services)
Download Tara Williamson’s Poems
My Grandma was a Medicine Woman
With Lorraine Williamson (born Swain)
She was a good medicine woman
People would come
From the States
Across CanadaThey would bring her tobacco
Material
Blankets
A gift
And you had to accept those gifts
Never no money exchanged for medicineI remember
One year
Brandon Fair
In those days you put up tentsWe were right next door to him
Camping
He had a brother
He had a sister
His parents had passed awayHe came over
Grandma was making bannock over the fireBecause he was Cree
And she was Ojibwe
And the only two English words she knew was
Yes and No
He learnt the languageHe started explaining
He had lost his parents
He said to herWill you become my mom?
In a heartbeat
She saidYes
She had just met him.
Five minutes.That was the way she was.
She was a good medicine woman.
A Hundred Roots
With Vina Eva Swain
My mother, Kaapiidashiik,
made a medicine,
holds a hundred things,
A hundred roots
Together.
A hundred roots.For a good heart.
Even for TB.My grandmother made that,
and my grandfather,
and my aunty,
and my motherBut it was lost when they died
People would come,
give material,
give what you have
(money was scarce)Together.
A hundred roots.For a good heart.
Even for TB.Four, five, six ladies
Crush, pound, shred it -
Make that medicine!
Make that medicine in a big bundle
Make teaOh yeah, my mother used to make lots!
The one that made it got lots
But all these ladies fix it too
And pass it on to somebody that wants it
Just like a drugstore!They had a big feast after they make that medicine.
Everything!Rice puddin’ and meat,
Bannock, hot bannock
In the summertime
They sit outside
Have a big feast for the medicine they madeTo say thank you
To cure the people
To keep them strong
And pray the medicine to work on themTogether.
A hundred roots.For a good heart.
Even for TB.
Artist Bio
Tara Williamson is an Anishinaabekwe/Nehayowak (Ojibwe/Cree woman). She is a member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, was raised in Swan Lake, Manitoba, and currently lives in Nogojiwanong (Peterborough, Ontario). Tara holds degrees in social work, law, and Indigenous governance and is currently a Professor at Fleming College.