ROBERTA OSHKAWBEWISENS WAS TAUGHT MANY THINGS BY HER GRANDMAS AND HER GRANDPAS. She learned how to clean ducks and geese and how to save their feathers for blankets, pillows, and coats. She learned how to grow corn and to preserve it so it could be made into delicious soups. She learned that a small piece of liver cut from a freshly skinned deer is good medicine. But most of all she learned discipline. And she learned that from strawberries.
Ms. Oshkawbewisens was raised on a farm. Even as a small child, she had responsibilities. There were beets, cucumbers, potatoes, corn, and tomatoes that needed tending. The boys in her family, meanwhile, were taught to hunt deer, rabbits, and fowl. Anything they caught was shared with the extended family. The lessons of life were imparted through stories told by elders and, more often, through the tasks they gave her. That’s how it was with the berries.
Ms. Oshkawbewisens, who is now in her late 60s, was born and raised on Wikwemikong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island at the northern tip of Georgian Bay in Lake Huron.
At some point in in her early teens, Ms. Oshkawbewisens says the older women in her family realized she was becoming a woman.
She is one of the elders/grandmothers who offers assistance and guidance to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women at the Resiliency Lodge created by the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Counselling and guiding those who are going through dark times is something she has done for many years as a grandmother to her community.
“If they are very in tune with themselves and the teachings that they received from their grandmas and grandpas then they will know,” she says. “Intuition is part of the mother– daughter relationship and grandmother–granddaughter relationship. That’s their responsibility, to be in tune with their children. And to be able to walk them through what their gifts are.”
Ms. Oshkawbewisens has also taught Native studies at every level, from grade school through to university.
Ms. Oshkawbewisens says it was her Nookamis (her grandmother), who took on the job of helping her transition to adulthood, lessons that lasted for four years—16 seasons.
She did not receive a university degree herself. When she finished high school, she wanted to go to teacher’s college but the government instead placed her in an early childhood education program. “I had no choice,” she says, “so I am not certified. But I was certified by my grandmothers and my grandfathers to teach.” Her lessons are based on what she learned from the elders who guided her transition from childhood to adulthood. “We were taught the original way,” she says. “We were asked to learn what we needed to do for our survival and for the survival of our culture and our traditions.”
“INTUITION IS PART OF THE MOTHER–DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP AND GRANDMOTHER–GRANDDAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP. THAT’S THEIR RESPONSIBILITY, TO BE IN TUNE WITH THEIR CHILDREN. AND TO BE ABLE TO WALK THEM THROUGH WHAT THEIR GIFTS ARE.” 10
“She walked me through, and taught me, how to be a woman,” she says. The first lesson was about self-discipline, how to listen, and how to take care of Mother Earth. It was taught with strawberries. It began with her Nookamis asking her to help with some chores, which included laundry, housecleaning, chopping wood, and preparations for preserving the food that would grow over the next few months. She was also told to ask her grandfather to make a pail out of an old 10-pound lard tin. “She didn’t tell me ‘I am going to put you on a berry fast.’ She just said ‘I need you to do this for me. Can you go and pick some strawberries? You fill this pail up, right to the top and do not eat a single berry because I don’t want to run short of my strawberry jam or my strawberry pie filling or strawberry sauce,” says Ms. Oshkawbewisens. “So, I went out and I got the berries and I filled that pail up and I gave them all to her,” she says. “And I didn’t eat one, as much as I wanted to. I harvested all the berries that were available around our home and I gave them all to her. I helped her preserve them. If I had to do this a second time or third time, I did. And that whole summer season and fall season, I didn’t eat any berries.” (Continued on page 11)
KCI-NIWESQ • NWAC
