 knowledge that our gathering today is centered on Treaty 1 and 2 territories and it is this ancestral lands of the Cree, Dakota, Anishinaabe, Ojibwe, Ojibwe Cree, and the Deni nations as well as the homeland of the Métis nations. We are all treaty people who share responsibility for taking action on reconciliation. Without truth, justice, and healing, there can be no reconciliation. So I'll ask Debbie if she would offer the gift of tobacco and also introduce our elder for us for tonight. Thank you, Ellen. I don't know if you all know Ellen Wood, but she is the regional chairperson of Manitoba Northwestern Ontario Kairos, just in case you don't know her. And my name's Debbie Dandy and I am part of that group as well, living in Brandon, and it's an honor to welcome Marge Rosselli as our honorary elder for our series. Marge will be with us for all four sessions and in her role as honorary elder, we would just invite anyone who has a concern or anything they hear is upsetting or triggering for them to contact Marge through the private chat and she'll be glad to give you support. So Marge, I have some virtual tobacco for you which I will do my best to get to you and we give it to you in thanks for your teachings and your wisdom along the way during our webinars. Our guest speaker tonight is Deborah Tatchin and I have a little parcel of tobacco as well for Deborah. Marge is from Sioux Valley Decoordination and Deborah is from Brandon and she will tell you more about her background as she speaks. So it will be easier for me to get this to you, Deborah, than it will to get Marge's to her, but I will try to make that happen. So welcome everyone. Thank you. Do we have Avon from Canora? Is she on the line yet? No, maybe not. Okay, I'd like to ask Elder Marge if you would open our gathering with a prayer or whatever you find suitable. Yes, thank you for asking me to be the elder for this series. You know, I take prayers and opening meetings very seriously because when we do have any discussion, presentation or meeting, we're always asking for the guidance of Creator Wakantaka. That is how we address Creator God in our Dakota language as Wakantaka. And so I always like to offer the prayer in my own first language. I grew up knowing Dakota. I didn't know English until maybe I was eight or nine years old. And when I speak with Creator, I always like to say it in Dakota and basically what I'm doing is asking for a blessing for each and every participant that their minds will be, you know, set in a good way to hear or participate and learn what is being spoken about and to give us guidance in how we talk and how we conduct ourselves that would benefit the people. So what I'm going to do is I'd like to offer the smoke from the sage and sage is used as a cleansing of the air, the mind, the emotions that only good will come and that negative will be kept away. So we use that in our homes to clear the homes of any negative feelings or negativity that is present. And when we pray, we use that to clear our minds and to make our hearts and minds open to Creator's teachings and His love and His guidance. So I'll begin in my language. When we say metakya was, it means we are all connected in this indigenous First Nations people. We've always believed that we are connected to all living things and all inanimate objects. Also, we have a connection through the rock, the trees, the grass, the land, the sky. And so when we say metakya was, it's an acknowledgement of that interconnection with all with all things on Makochiwaka, the land that Creator has given us. So that's acknowledging that. Thank you. Thank you, Marge. Just for kind of the flow of the time frame, we're started at 6.30. Our speaker's going to speak until 7.30 and then we're going to have questions from 7.30 to 8. And as Kerry has expressed, it would be helpful for us if you put your questions in the chat box. And also, if you want to introduce yourself, please do that in the chat box as well. And let us know who's all here tonight. It gives me great pleasure to be able to introduce our speaker tonight, Deborah DeCann. She's going to be speaking on indigenous connections to the land. And Deborah is a respected Kree Meti elder from Brandon, and she will share indigenous perspectives on all the gifts that our land gives us, how we need to live in relationship with our land, and to take care of it responsibly. I'm sure Deborah is going to tell us a bit more about herself as she shares her knowledge and experience. And I'm going to give Deborah about 10 minutes to wrap her presentation up. And I'll do that just by flashing my hand in front of my face about 10 minutes before your time is up, Deborah. So please pull on with your presentation. Thank you very much. Thank you for the invite, Debbie, to come and share a little bit. It's been a journey thinking about this. I've been doing a lot of thinking and a lot of praying and remembering and doing all of that. So it's been a journey and I'm really happy to come and share a little bit tonight. And I want to say thank you because that helps in my healing, it helps in my healing journey to remember, just to remember. I'm a Kree Meti person. I identify as a Kree Meti person. My mother was Kree from Cross Lake. I have roots in Cross Lake and Grand Rapids. I'm from Ticket Portage, Manitoba, a small little community on, we call it the Bay Line. And I was not raised with my family because I was part of the 60's scoop and that I was a young girl when we were taken. And so I'm on my journey of healing and journey of learning to, learning and coming back to learn about my own culture, my own traditions. And that's been a journey for, you know, maybe the last 30 years and learning and growing at the same time. I, I have five children and I have three children who grew in my heart. So I have eight children and my husband and I have 20 grandchildren and we have four great grandsons. So the work that we do is, is because of them, you know, the work that we do, my husband and I work in the community, I work in the addictions field, I work for the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba and I work in the addictions field. But I go to the communities and I do teachings, whatever they ask for, I always say, I'm not an expert at anything. And, and I just take, you know, what they ask for and take it back to the community. So, you know, to try and see, give them what, what they're asking for. So that's what my work is. I was a counselor for a time at, you know, working, working in there. But before any of my work on my jobs or whatever, I'm a mother and a grandmother, a great grandmother and my, and a partner, a friend in the community and, and me too, I'm learning, you know, I'm still learning who I am. I'm still learning about my history, learning about the history and that. But all I can, you know, really do today is share my experiences about the land and about, you know, living on the land. I was born, you know, up north, in the Palm Manitoba. That's the place where I was born. That's where the women used to go from my community to have, to have their babies. And I was born, I was born in the Paw and I came back to Thicke Portage and my mom couldn't look out, couldn't look out to me when I was a, when I was a baby. So I went to go live with my Mushom. Mushom is grandfather in Crete. And I went to go live with him when I was a baby. So I was raised, you know, I was raised on rabbit soup and, and fish broth. So I was a very chubby baby. My grandfather was, you know, my grandfather was a trapper. He had a trap line up north and of course we had aunties and uncles and they looked after me for a time. And, and I know, you know, when I hear the stories of the land, I know I have a good feeling about the land. You know, I have a good feeling about being there. It was always a comfort for me, the land that has always been a comfort. And when I, when I do my healing work or when I needed to, when I started to do my healing, especially I was out on the land a lot because that's where we really get our, you know, we really get our healing from. And then, you know, my mom came and got me from my grandfather and that was probably an interruption in my life cycle. You know, we have a natural life cycle that we follow using the medicine wheel. So that was probably an interruption in my life cycle. And then after a few years, we were taken from my mom and my stepdad and we were placed in, you know, in foster care all over the place. And, and we were never brought back together as a family. But, you know, the land became my comfort. I used to, used to leave, you know, the foster home and I used to go stay out in the bush. I used to go stay out in the bush. And I was always happy there. I was never afraid. I was never afraid in the bush. And those are the memories that kind of came back thinking about, you know, thinking about, you know, our connection to the land. I would be, you know, so content out there and in the trees and, you know, you know, on the land in the moss, you know, with the medicines, all of that. And I have, you know, I could even smell the medicines as I was thinking about it this past week. I could smell the medicines and I was telling my husband, you know, I could smell, you know, the, the freshness of the medicines. And I was walking to and from work and trying to get my connection, you know, get my connection to the, to the land. So it has always been a comfort. It has always been a comfort for me. And so I left up north and I lived in a little community, Occi Jaco, CP First Nation. And I lived on the Métis side, Crane River. And that's where I raised my children. And we lived along the lake. It was such a beautiful area. I probably didn't realize, you know, I appreciate it as much as I do now, you know, back then, you know, when you're a young mom raising children, but I had huge gardens. And some of the things that we did was, you know, excuse me, we hunted and fish and trout. That was our life. That was our livelihood. And, and my kids were raised on the land also. When I first moved to Crane River, we lived in a two-room log house. And there was about 14 of us in there. People don't realize that about me. They don't know that I live that way. You know, they're always surprised. And they would go, really? And they say, yeah, they live there. We lived right along the lake. There was the road. And then just across the road was the lake. And part of our job was to go and chop the ice and then haul water. That was part of our daily chores. We would haul water to fill up our water barrels. Yeah, in the wintertime, that's what we did. In the summertime, that's what we filled up our water barrels. And that was part of our chores. And we chopped wood. And, you know, we had a little box stove and, and, you know, yeah, there was a whole bunch of us that lived in the house. And it was a little log house that had mud and lime. And we mud and lime it every spring and, you know, getting ready for the fall and that, you know, that kind of stuff. But it was, when I think back, when I thought back to that time, there was a different, yes, we didn't have everything. But there was a different feeling, like a feeling of contentment. Yeah, it was like a feeling of contentment. It was okay. Even though, you know, we didn't have everything, I was still very content. I, you know, I can't say that I didn't feel that, you know, feeling of contentment. So, you know, hunting, fishing, trapping, all those things I did used to, you know, my children's grandfather, he used to, he used to trap. And he would bring his muskrats in the, you know, in the house after, you know, in the springtime. And he would say, okay, my girl, you come here, and he'll, I'll show you. So he did. He showed me how to skin the muskrats. So that became my job. So that's what I would do in the spring. You know, he'd come in carrying his muskrats and come throw them in the house. Okay, my girl, you get that done right away. Don't leave it because I don't want them to spoil. I'd be lazy to do it, right? I'd be lazy to do it. But once I started, then I'd get them all done and he'd be so happy. And then, you know, whenever he take his muskrats, you know, the skins to go and, you know, to go and sell them, he'd always bring me a little something, you know, come and share a little something with me. And, you know, and just living like that, of course, living like that. And people say, why did you, you know, I said, I eat muskrats because that was our medicine that was so good for us, you know, the muskrats eat the medicine, you know, they eat the roots, they eat the wheat there, they eat all that stuff. And we eat the muskrats and it's medicine for our body. It's medicine for us. And even when I think about it, I can feel the water in my head because we just used to love that, you know, we used to love that and that old lady would, you know, show me how to cook the muskrats, you cook it this way and, you know, a certain way. And I'll just share this little story, a little side story is that, you know, there was these dignitaries, they were coming into our community and they wanted me to cook for them. They said, traditional food, you want traditional food. And I said, oh, that's what I should do. I should go get some muskrats. I said, we'll open the roaster pans and they'll be all these little muskrats laying, laying in the roasting pans like that. I wonder what they would do. But I cooked fish. I couldn't find any muskrats, but I cooked fish for them. But people have a hard time to, you know, hard time to see that because that's how we lived, you know, that's how we live. And, you know, when I think back on my history, my, you know, my mom came back into my life when I was raising my children and she was a good storyteller. My mom, she told a lot of stories and I listened, my kids listened. And, and of course, you know, she had a lot of things to tell me about, you know, about her past and, and, and her great, her grandmother, my great grandmother, she was a midwife up north, and she birthed a lot of babies up there. And my mom said that, you know, she would go with her when she was a little girl. And she would go with my, you know, my, my chappan. Chappan is, is a great grandmother in Korea. We would say chappan. She went with my chappan. And she would go and help my, you know, my grandmother. And my grandmother, my chappan, or her grandmother, my chappan, would go and pick medicines. And she knew which medicines were for the women. So she always had these medicines that she knew, you know, if a woman was bleeding too much, or, you know, medicines to help with labor and, you know, stuff like that, she knew things like that. My mom never practiced that because she was pulled away from that life too. You know, my grandmother, or my chappan died when, when my mom was 16. She was raised by her grandmother. So my mom had that, you know, had that knowledge in her. And I became really interested and really interested in that, in the medicines and learning about that. And that's what I'm studying right now. That's what I'm learning. I'm learning about the medicines. And that's what I'm drinking here, you know, is, you know, the medicines every day we drink a little bit, you know, a little bit of our medicines. So my grandmother was, my chappan was a, was a, you know, just a woman who knew some of the medicines for, you know, for the community. And she birthed the babies. And, and when I started learning about this way of life, I told my mom, I said, boy, I said, mom, I said, everybody's a medicine woman. I said, we hear stories, you know, I heard people say, yeah, my grandmother was a medicine woman. And then another one would say, well, my grandmother was a medicine woman. So I went to my mom and I said, you know, mom, I said, boy, there's a lot of medicine women out there. And she said, yeah, she said, there is my girl. She said, you know, when we were on the tram line, she said, we all have to learn the medicines. She said, we were taught from the time we were little girls that because we had to know what medicines would help our children when they got sick, you know, so they had to know, they had to learn and they learned from the time they were little. So, you know, you know, when people get sick now, I tell them, you know, drink some weekend, make some weekend, you know, things like that, you know, that she said, they needed to know that. So there was, you know, a lot of women who knew the medicines as a result of that, because they lived by themselves in the trap line. They lived way up north or they lived on, you know, in little villages or little bands around on the land. So they had to understand the land, they had to understand the medicines. And they also had to understand their connection. They had to understand their connection to the land. And that's something that I always find amazing is how they, you know, they were so connected and they understood the land, they understood the plants, they understood, you know, that, you know, everything we were all connected, everything is connected. We're connected to everything around us. We're connected to the trees, you know, just like Marge said, metaki wasan, that's, you know, we're all related. Yeah, so we're related to the trees, the sun and the moon and the stars and the wind and the rain and, you know, everything around us were related to that, the animals, the things that crawl, everything in the oceans. We're not separate from any of that. We're a part of all of that. And, you know, our people knew that and they understood that connection, you know, we had scientists, we had philosophers, we had doctors, we had teachers, we had medicine people, we had all kinds of, you know, in our, in our history, we had all of those things in our history. And, you know, when we look back, I look back on that with pride and I thought to myself, oh my gosh, we're a part of all of that faith, we're a part of all of that, because there was a time where, you know, there was a time where we didn't even know that. We weren't even aware of it, you know, we weren't even aware of all of those things. All I knew, you know, growing up was hurt, like hurt from, you know, being taken from my family and, you know, the loss and grief and trying to survive and trying to, you know, understand life and trying to understand myself. You know, that's what I grew up as a, you know, as a young girl, as a young, you know, as a young woman. And as I got older, I started to learn about these ways and I went to a lady in my community because I was working on my healing and I went to a lady in my community and I was told to go see an elder. So I did and if for me it was a new concept, I was a young mother at the time, it was a new concept for me, never really thought of it, but a friend of mine told me, go see an elder, you take some tobacco and you take her a gift and go and talk to her. She'll make you feel better, you'll feel better. So that's what I did. And I gave her the tobacco and I started to talk to her and she really listened and I felt like she was hearing what I was saying. Yeah. And she was saying, oh, my girl, that must have been hard. Yeah. And she allowed me to cry and she would say, that's okay. Yeah, that's okay, you let it out. Yeah. And then I cried and cried and cried and I realized I hadn't cried in many years. So once I started to cry, I cried for a long time and I used to go see her all the time and she took me to the sweat launch and that's where I felt like I was at home. Yeah, as I felt like I was at home, that's where she taught me. She taught me a lot of things. She introduced me to this much and to our way of life and she started to help me understand how to heal myself and our connection. She started to help me to understand our connection to the earth and I would scream and I would cry in the lodge and she would say, that's okay. It needs to come out. Yeah, it needs to come out. She would never even touch me. She would say, I'm right here. Yeah, because she said, if you touch somebody when they're healing like that, you interrupt that healing. So she would never touch me. She would just say, that's okay, you let it out now. It's time to let it go. So that's what I did. And so I used to use the land all the time. I used the land to release my heart and my wounds. Yeah. And I used to make a hole in Mother Earth and I would go down and I would scream into there and I would cry and let the tears fall. And when they put a little bit of tobacco, it was time to put a little bit of tobacco down and say, thank you for your healing. Thank you, Mother Earth, for taking care of that for me, that I don't have to carry it anymore, that I don't have to take it home to my family. And over time, I started to feel better because in the beginning my healing was either really high or really though, really high or really low. And over time it became like this. Yeah, it became like this. And that's the way it is today, because we all have high moments and we all have low moments in our life. And that's life. Now we have the ability to heal those things from the teachings of our elders. And I always say I'm a little bit mixed up because I'm, you know, I'm Cree. And I identify as a Cree Métis person because I live with the Métis people most of my life. And I learned from the Ojibwe people. And now I married a Dakota man. So I'm a little bit mixed up. I always say, I'm a true Manitoba girl, you know, because, you know, I have all of these things and I have a little bit of each, you know, I have a little bit of each in my, in my Cree language. My, my name is a magazine with Jacuz, with a Jacuz name in a square. And that means Eagle Star Dance Room. That's my spirit name. And in Dakota, we say Wambiri with Chakpe with Chiwi. That's my name in Dakota. And I say it in Cree and in Dakota and Ojibwe because of that, because I've gotten those teachings from, you know, from the Cree people, you know, from Ojibwe people, from the Dakota people. And so I acknowledge all the people and all our teachings. I acknowledge all our teachings from them. I don't have any teachings. I'm not a traditional person per se. I wasn't raised in the traditions, but I learned and I use aspects of our culture and, and to heal myself and to heal my family. And I go back to the land always, whenever I go through something, I go back to the land. I go to the sweat lodge. I use the medicines. When I was healing from trauma, I use cedar. I use cedar to help heal my body. I use cedar to bath in when I was healing from that trauma. And cedar just helped it cleanse everything. It cleansed my body, my spirit, my mind. You know, it helped cleanse, you know, cleanse everything. So I go to the land whenever I need to heal. I go and sit out on the land. I go out and fast. Every year I still, you know, go out and fast. I used to go four days and four nights and go fast and sit out there and pray, but I don't do four days anymore. I'm getting too old for that. I do two days. Two days is good now. I do two days and I sit out on the land and I pray and I talk to, you know, I talk to the Creator. I talk to our ancestors, our grandmothers and grandfathers. I talk to the land. I talk to the trees. I talk to the wind, you know, if it's raining, I'll talk to the rain. And I give thanks. I give thanks for, you know, being allowed to heal, you know, be having the opportunity to heal and the opportunity to sit on the land. And, you know, and, and, you know, everything that happens teaches you something. You know, the wind comes from someplace. It comes and it's almost like it's whispering to you as it passes you, you know, and you, when you're sitting out there and you're in that space, you hear the wind and it's coming and you give thanks in a hot summer day when you're out there fasting under that sun and all of a sudden that wind comes and it says, I'm here. I'm here, you know, you can hear those words and you look around and you're looking at everything. You're looking at the trees and you're looking at the birds and you're looking at the insects that are, you know, crawling around on, you know, looking at the spiders that are making their webs and you're looking at, you know, the, you know, the owl that's sitting up in the tree and you're, you know, you're looking at all these things, the grass, the way it's growing, the flowers, the way they're blooming, you know, they're thirsty maybe and you're going, you know, and you're thinking, I'm thirsty too, so that's gonna be how those plants are feeling. And then, you know, as you're observing, you're looking around and you realize you're being observed too. Yeah, the trees are watching you. They're going, look at this strange creature sitting out here starving herself and thirsting herself. Why is she doing that, you know, and maybe the birds are looking at you and maybe they're bringing you comfort, you know, the birds come and saying, hey, and then the owl comes there and makes their little noise, their little whirling sound at night and, you know, teaching you something and bringing you stories, you know, and, and, you know, the spider that's spinning its web there and, and you're looking at it's kind of like the trickster, right? It's kind of trying to trick you because I was watching this one, one time I was watching this spider and I was watching it for a long time and then all of a sudden it just came down and right into my face and it made me jump like this and made me jump really hard, scared to crap out of me. Seriously, I thought, oh my god, you know, and then I imagined that little spider going, just laughing, laughing at me because I was scared, it scared the crap out of me. But, you know, those are the gifts that were given, right? Those are the gifts that were given, you know, with the land and that's why I'm so thankful. I'm so every day, you know, every day I'm thankful. I walk to work and I look at the trees and, you know, it's like 15 blocks from where I live, but I walk, I walk home, I get up in the morning and I walk, you know, I, you know, at your time I like getting up around five o'clock and I walk and I love that sound of when you're walking on the earth and it's quiet, you know, and we call the January moon their little spirit moon because, you know, it's so quiet and you can just hear and you know that spirit is there and you know that you're being taken care of and it's so comforting. You know, this is what the land does. This is what the land does for us and, you know, people all over the world, indigenous people all over the world are losing their land, they're losing their forests, you know, they're losing their water, you know, some of the people and, you know, thinking of India like places are turning to desert, you know, because of deforestation, you know, they're losing their animals. The animals help to look after the land, they're losing their water, they're losing their forests, they're losing their way of life, you know, it's really, it really hurts my heart. I feel sad, yeah, I really feel sad about that and that's why I, you know, I was happy to come in and share because I believe we need to share our stories, we need to share our stories about the land and our connection to the land. You know, our grandmothers one day would, when a child would be born, it was seen as a sacred gift in our Kree teachings, we come from the spirit world and we come to this world and we come and we're lowered down on an umbilical cord. This is the teaching I have had from my Kree, we're lowered on an umbilical cord into the teepee and that's what that teepee, that rope is on the teepee is the umbilical cord and then when you're born, you're born through that umbilical cord and that placenta comes and it's such a sacred thing, the grandmothers knew what the child needed in order to grow healthy and strong. So what the grandmother would do would take the placenta and umbilical cord and they would bury it under a tree and they would connect that back to the, that child back to the earth. That's why we are so connected to the earth, indigenous ancestors, our indigenous ancestors and us were connected to the earth through our placentas because our placentas are buried all over this land. Yeah, and so we are, we are part of that, we are part of the land. That's why it hurts us when the land is hurt. We feel that and I really understood that when, when I, because I had this image in my mind about the north being pristine and the land was beautiful and there was moss and spruce trees and you know, beautiful land and moss berries and moss everywhere and I was taking a course here at ACC and they were showing um the land up north around Cross Lake when the hydro started flooding up there and I just burst out crying in the middle of class but I didn't understand why, I didn't understand like that was my connection to the land. I just started to cry when I saw the flooded land and the, the, the shores falling in on itself and the people were getting cancer and you know, the mercury was, was you know, coming up in the soil and people were eating the fish and all those kinds of things were happening and the fishermen were pulling out these great big spiders like the roots of the trees and you know, the elders tried to tell them you can't flood permafrost land, you're going to ruin the land, you can't flood permafrost land but they didn't listen and so we had all this land and the shores were all falling in on itself you know and it just like hurt me like I felt like a pain in my gut and I was shocked like it was like you know, it was almost like oh, it was so shocking when I saw that and I couldn't understand why I cried and I cried and I cried but after I heard the stories and the teachings I began to understand is because we are part of that land, we are not separate from it, we will always be part of that land that's why it's so important for us as Indigenous people that the land is such a, we're part of it, we're not separate from it, that's why it hurts us, that's why we still carry the wounds, that's why you know people still carry the wounds of the loss of their land and way of life, many people still carry that deep deep wound of the things that happen to them you know being pushed off to the side of the road and you know people put on little packs of land, you know reserve past system and stuff like that, we still carry that pain, we still carry that hurt as Indigenous people you know and and those are the things that we're healing, those are the things that we have to heal because it's in in our history, we carry that intergenerational trauma and those are the things we're working towards you know there was, there was colonization, you know the residential school reserve past system, you know the 60s school you know and on and on and on it's still you know continuing on today and you know but we all have to heal together, we have to work together to heal together, we can't just say well you got to go and heal, we got to do it together as as human beings because our earth is threatened, that's what we have in common all of us together, you know what if all the human beings were gone from this earth mother earth would do just fine, she would continue producing, she would continue growing, she would continue doing whatever she needed to do but if mother earth dies we all die, yeah that's how fragile, that's how fragile we are and that's what I know, that's what I know in my spirit you know so when I go out and I you know and I you know become a part of the land and you know I I sit on the land, I sing, you know I pray, I give thanks, I roll on the land, I go out bare feet all summer, you won't see me with shoes and socks on walking around, I'm outside and you know that's our connection right, our connection to mother earth, you know take off your socks and shoes and go stand on mother earth even in the snow, it's okay you know we're not gonna you know get sick, you know take off your socks and shoes and say your name, you know tap your feet and say say your name and tell mother earth help me to remember who I am, yeah help me to remember who I am and you know she will because everything that's in the earth is in our body, everything that's in there is in our body, all the vitamins the minerals everything is in there that is is in our body that's why when we walk on the earth we connect to her yeah you'll never see a child that's unhappy that's running around bare feet and we're the same if we run around bare feet we'll never be unhappy yeah because we're connecting to the earth and they even have this fancy name in some places they call it earthing, they call it earthing when they when you know go out and do some earthing yeah but you know really our ancestors knew that that way on the land and I've heard some beautiful Dakota stories about you know how the grandmother said you got to sit on the earth we're not above the earth we sit on the earth when we make baskets or we do something we sit right on the ground you know and we learn you know we learn from the earth and we feel that we know we feel that connection even some grandmothers will say take off those rubber shoes it's if you're going to get sick yeah you know so they say that because it takes your charge away and we need that charge of mother earth for our well-being yeah we need that it's part of you know it's really part of who we are I know the land holds our stories I went out and when I lived in Craniver I was again always outside I was always on the land I always took my kids out we had this place we called Louise Island and in there it on that island there was I used to my kids used to play there all the time I used to take them out that way and there was this like a like a old foundation there and this one time I was you know I was sitting on that foundation my kids were playing I was thinking oh what a relief you know just to let them play and you know I'm sitting on that foundation there was a really beautiful summer day and I was just sitting there and I could hear the kids in the distance and the sun was coming through the trees and there was a nice cool breeze and all of a sudden I had like something just went like this and I dropped almost like I dropped and all of a sudden I had a vision in my mind of a woman she was wearing a long dress and she had kind of like a apron on and she was making bannock for her for her kids she was making lunch for her kids yeah and you know in those old cook stoves I don't know if any of you have seen those old wood stoves those old cook stoves she had that and she had the oven open and she was throwing in that bannock like that into the oven and that was so vivid in my mind and I came to and I just like the story was in that foundation and it told me the story those grandfathers that I was sitting on told me the story of that woman in that house she was so happy to be feeding her kids that day she was happy you know and it just made me happy and I kept that in my mind in my heart for a long time I never ever told anybody I thought I thought you know somebody is going to think I'm crazy you know now I don't care if people think I'm crazy I don't care so I'm just going to share everything yeah so I know that the land holds our stories because the land teaches us the land teaches us who we are it's the land that tells us who we are it's the land that tells the court of people who they are it's the land that tells the people who they are it's the land that tells the people that who they are because even though we're all kree people our dialects will be different because the land teaches us the land teaches us the language yeah and it's it's taught through love it's taught through love language is taught through love that's why our language is so beautiful you hear our language it's like somebody's singing yeah it's like somebody's singing I don't know my kree but if like I don't know I can understand especially the swear words of course we always understand the swear words so I always tell people I better not swear at being kree because I know those words but you know it's so beautiful like it's such a beautiful language and even I hear you know like you know prayers in dakota prayers in kree like you just know it's so meaningful and so rich because the language you could say one word and it'll mean this much it'll mean so much hey so the land teaches us who we are so when we want to know who we are we go and roll around on the land yeah because that will help us that will heal us you know that will take care of us that will you know um give us our you know meaning our purpose you know take go out on the land spend time with your children spend time with your grandchildren on on the land tell them stories tell them stories about the land you know where I really realized you know one time I wanted to go visit my uncle when I was a little girl and uh you know my uncle was a fisherman up north and in thicket and they used to fish for sturgeon and that was something I love to do I love to go and help hey I was like you know eight years old I was a helper I was going to go help my uncle it's probably more in the way than anything but I was a helper and and uh I was going down the lake we said down the lake I was following behind and all the men were gone up ahead and everybody's gone up ahead you're going to go to the next and then I was kind of lagging behind and you know as a child in our innocent little ways you know it again a beautiful summer day and the sun was coming through and you could see a little particles floating in the in the you know in the sunlight and it was just nice and in your chill in your childlike way and then I realized in that moment that I was not separate from whatever was going on there that I was part of all that I just felt it and it lasted a few seconds and then I just went oh and then I just carried on and that was another thing I kept to myself all those years and I had forgotten it I had forgotten it until I started doing my healing work and that was a little secret that would help me that would help me in my healing and it would tell me you know what you know what you're going to be okay you're going to be okay yeah because you're not separate from anything here yeah you know and that really really you know really uh supported me through my healing and it's still best today my husband and I we go out to the east side here in Brandon and we you know we do large we work together by husband and I he's such a beautiful beautiful man I just love him so much he's just uh I said I fell in love with him because he makes me laugh hey yeah and we get along we get along really good but it wasn't always that way because we were healing we were healing he was healing from residential school and I was healing from 60 scoop so I always say our pain joined us together yeah our pain joined us together we were both going through a divorce when we met and um and we were both on our healing journey and we just kind of come together and um you know and we work on our healing and then I went through the process with him through residential school uh you know the residential school uh payments and all that it was devastating for us it was devastating for him you know it was devastating for me um you know we almost didn't make it as a couple because it was so painful yeah because you know I was in my pain he was in his pain yeah and it was so hard on us but you know what we did we went to the lodge and we go out on the land and we go pick medicines and that's what we do we go pick medicines we go do sweat launch you know we go sit out there and that's where we're the happiest yeah that's where we're the happiest when the two of us are out there on the land we go all summer long we go picking medicines we go to the ducks we go to clear lake but it's getting harder and harder to find the medicines now yeah we can't just go anywhere and pick medicines we have to go way up north yeah we have to go north yeah to pick the medicines and uh we try to share whatever we have we pick you know and we and we're learning too to talk to the medicine we're taught talk to the medicines you know they'll answer you yeah and you know what I haven't heard the voices but I've had the inside feeling that that's enough now don't pick anymore yeah so we go and pick and then I'll tell my husband okay that's good we've got to move now yep so we move on to someplace else so we try to have that respect and that kindness for the land and always always carrying tobacco we always put tobacco down wherever we pick medicines we always offer tobacco whatever we ask for we always give tobacco and that's something you know my mom even told me that her you know my chap I used to carry a little pouch and that tobacco was always there and I never knew that until she told me you know she said that she would pull out her tobacco and she would go down right on her knees to the ground and she would offer that tobacco and she would put it down and then she would go pick her medicine you know always that tobacco is first we always have to you know honor that honor that tobacco so you know the land has been you know my saving grace and I know you know as human beings we need the land we need the land and we need the medicines everything comes from Mother Earth everything we have everything everything comes from the energy of Mother Earth if we think about it everything in our home comes from the energy of Mother Earth everything we eat the medicines that we have everything comes from the energy of Mother Earth and we have to start looking after it we have to start taking care of it you know I teach my grandchildren you know teach my grandchildren about the land yeah make them walk around bare feet we pray you know we talk about the land and everything it provides and them too they call it Mother Earth yeah my little kids in grandmother moon they call it little grandmother moon and uh you know uh my daughter you know my daughter when the kids were small she take them down to the river and my little my little grandson would be throwing rocks into the river and she said what are you doing my boy oh nothing my mom just throwing grandfathers we call little stones grandfathers eh so she said yeah you've been around granny too much we speak up all these words yeah but you know we teach our kids and we want them you know we want to leave for them you know we want to leave for them uh um you know uh earth that's abundant and that's clean and you know the water like that's a whole other thing I know I'm probably going over here or pretty close um okay yeah so you know even the water and that's a whole other you know that's a whole other area that we could really be talking about you know and and sharing about um how we you know especially as women too we're the care uh takers of the water yeah because the reason that we are the care caretakers of the water is because you know when we're carrying our children the water surrounds our baby yeah and we say in Dakota is a mini wachoni uh in Cree we say Nipi or in you know Ojibwe say Nive yeah so water water of life if there was no water on this earth there would be no life and you know even when the treaties were signed we say as long as the rivers flow and that was part of it it wasn't just about the rivers it was as long as waters flow as long as waters flow so as long as there's life on this those treaties will stand you know and when we look at the treaties they are also done in ceremony that's why they can never be broken because they are done with spiritual law we have to follow those treaties they have to stand because they were done with the pipe they were sealed with the pipe in ceremony under spiritual law so we have to really pay attention otherwise there'll be consequences you know there's consequences for all of us you know so when we talk about reconciliation when we talk about these things that's why I say we have to do it together we have to heal together and we have to see each other as equal yeah as equal walking side by side with one another yeah um working together um finding a way through things together helping each other to heal you know uh the you know the settlers too they carry a lot of trauma yeah they carry a lot of trauma not only indigenous people but settlers too they carry a lot of trauma it needs to be healed too and we need to start opening that up and healing that you know us we we put everything on the table you know who we are this is who we are you know who I am what I'm saying here tonight this is who I am you know this is who I am I'm learning to I'm you know I'm on my healing journey too I want my children to be healthy and strong I want them to be happy and to be the best that they can be too and whatever gifts that they have that it can come to fruition yeah so I work on my healing every day it's not easy some days I feel like giving up yeah some days I feel like saying to heck with this I want to do this anymore hurts too much you know but each time you know each time we we find strength we find strength sitting on the land drinking our medicines talking about our you know our history talking about our grandparents our ancestors and what they went through they suffered so we could live yeah they suffered so we could live so we continue on you know we try to continue on with that so I know that I you know there's so much more I want to share but I know I'm getting close to my you know my time here I just want to say you know thank you so much for allowing me to share a little bit you know share a little bit today I find it you know like cleansing you know I just find it cleansing and I just appreciate every single one of you that are here today and March thank you so much for that beautiful prayer and for being here as the elder and it feels comforting to know that you're there yeah I feel really confident to know that you're there so my relative March yeah well thank you very much yeah if there's any questions or people have anything they want to talk about I'm right here to say thank you Deborah they likely didn't realize just how entwined the family stories and stories of the land are so interwoven you just really reminded me of that and so many my stories for example I forget to to interweave them with my experience with the land or the land's experience with me and so I thank you for for reminding me of that and I think Carrie is going to somehow facilitate question period here I'm not sure how you're going to do that Carrie sure thank you Deborah yeah be happy too so yeah we have a couple questions already coming in and if anyone else has a question feel free to either put it in the chat and I will and or if you really aren't comfortable typing it in and really want to say something maybe you can just put question in there and hopefully we can I'll call on you and we'll get a chance to do it that way but yeah I'll add my words of thanks as well to Deborah thank you so much for sharing your story and such a candid and honest and inspiring words I really appreciate that so yeah we have a couple questions one is the first question that came is why is tobacco the gift that is given to the earth and elders and not to someone else and not something else why is tobacco the gift do you have any questions well you know uh I was taught that tobacco is our first medicine that was on mother earth so we we use the tobacco it's the very first medicine that was on the earth but if you don't have tobacco sometimes like if you're taking medicine and you don't have tobacco sometimes a little bit of your hair will be okay yeah if you want to use a little bit of your hair you can do that too but it's to offer something yeah tobacco is one of our you know most sacred most sacred medicines and people when they think of tobacco right away they think of you know um cigarette tobacco right but it's it's that was not uh like uh our tobacco was not that our tobacco was you know uh not for you know smoking um we can get natural tobacco you know a lot of the elders today are saying they would rather have the natural tobacco because the other tobacco has so many chemicals in it you know and putting that on the earth and throwing that in the fire and that and people breathe that you know it's it's not the best so it's better to get the natural tobacco and it's on offering we're giving you know we're giving something back for what we're doing so we're being mindful and heartful yeah when we do that so we're saying you know thank you Mother Earth for everything you provide thank you for the medicine I'm going to pick medicine and I'm thanking you for that so you put a little bit of tobacco down and then if somebody gives you tobacco and you accept that tobacco for something that's a contract that's a spiritual contract with that person yeah and um I mean there's always a way to correct it if something happens that you can't but you know when somebody gives you tobacco if somebody gives me tobacco to do something always follow through yeah we follow through with that it's it's it's such a uh a powerful way yeah thank you so much um I appreciate that there's a lot of um I don't know if you're seeing some of the things in the chat the open chat but there's a lot of uh expressions of gratitude and thanks as well that are coming through so um just to let you know that as well um another question that came is do you see any evidence of indigenous and non-indigenous people coming together to protect our earth yeah well yeah yeah I see that I see that a lot yeah people are starting to come together more you know we're starting to we're starting to see each other we're starting to when I say see each other I mean heart to heart yeah usually when we when we're doing talks like this what it would usually do is zoom has been like you know one way it's been such an amazing way to get information and stuff but you know when we're sitting together like that and if we're doing teaching um we would sit in a circle yeah we would sit in a circle with each other and we're sitting together heart to heart yeah we all have a story to share and we all have a story to tell you know um we're equal in the circle there's nobody here and there's nobody here we're all equal in the circle so when we sit together you know we're talking that way so so we try to uh you know um and again we're healing right we're all healing yeah and we try to you know I try to you know when I'm working at uh like I work at um you know in the treatment center I do teachings and things like that and it's always open yeah we always keep it open and try to keep it inclusive because we really need to work together we all need to heal together yeah mm-hmm mm-hmm thank you um there's a couple questions about um medicines particularly one of them is about is it pesticides that have caused medicines to disappear um and also what were the plants and medicines that the midwives use for bleeding do you have lots of others well they're they're I can't give you a name I could only maybe teach you the plant I don't know the name of them but you know probably pesticides but farming like all the land is in in crops so there's not a lot of places to get the medicine you know there's not a lot of forests around I mean you know you go further south like it's not easy to get the medicine and we don't pick medicine that alongside the road yeah because we see sage growing all over around side the road but it's sprayed like you know there's all kinds of chemicals and things I mean we go to the mountains to pick and we have to get our permit to do that yeah we don't like picking from where you know anywhere where there's farmland where the where there's runoff with chemicals and you see that I went to one I saw one field you know just outside of Sioux Valley and it was all black the land they sprayed something and everything was black and that's running over into our you know into our water and into down into you know I'm looking at all my you know all the I said all the people in Sioux Valley all that stuff is running off into into Sioux Valley you know into the land into the water into the you know and that's our little kids are playing and you know so it just it just makes me feel sad I don't know like I'm not a scientist I don't know how it works or I don't know if it just you know supposed to stay in one spot I don't know but I you know I just know that it doesn't feel good it doesn't look good it doesn't feel good you know so yeah yeah certainly things are interconnected in really important ways and yeah things we do to one area one one thing of the earth effect every effect everything else so for sure thank you there's a question that came in from pastor Ken querying he asks thank you Deborah for your gift of teaching this is meaningful and helpful can you talk more about needing to go further north to pick medicine is there less plant diversity in the south and you just sort of talked about this as well but where there's great is there less diversity in the south where there's greater population density and industrial scale farming etc yeah yeah just exactly what he said yeah just exactly what he said I go more north because it's more you know there's more bush you know east I go east sometimes go pick cedar you know where there's more bush not a lot of you know where there's not a lot of farmland and things like that so we go up north we go to the mountains to pick medicines there yeah we go up to the docks we go more north it we want sweet grass and things like that you know we kind of we kind of go up that way and I'm trying to learn more and more about the medicines like I'm trying to learn more you know how they work in the body and and what to heal and you know if you go to an elder you you take tobacco and that and they go into the lodge and they pray you know they pray and that medicine is made for that person you know they they make the medicine for that person I I can't do that but I want to learn like about the medicines and how it works in the body I know like with weak air you know I've had kind of a scratchy throat you know just so I drink weak air and it just takes it away like I have I get ears sore ears and if I you know drink weak air I you know they go away the sore ears go away yeah so those kind of things and and that you know the lady who is teaching me she's passed away this past year it's really sad but the lady who is teaching me says that you know pay attention to how the medicine works in your body so that's what I'm doing is like whenever I take medicine I I figure out what it's doing in my body and so there's certain ones that you know I'll make the medicine and and drink it and then all of a sudden all the phlegm starts to come out of my lungs it's like oh my god yeah so you know that's good for a cold or you know that's good for uh yeah so my husband is my guinea pig sometimes it's like for a husband him too he tries it on me sometimes too it's like oh yeah yeah thank you thanks another question that came in is about uh water um and they say nippy is the is the it's from the kree word for water and water is life of course um and she's asking about rivers winnipeg is a city with a strong connection to water through her rivers what does that mean to those who live here now and in the past and i'm i'm guessing it might also include questions around the pollution that's happening in the rivers and and other kinds of questions things like that as well um thoughts around water well you know the the rivers are like you know are like the you know the veins of mother earth yeah when we think about it the rivers are like that right there they you know they're we call them like the veins and arteries of you know of mother earth and rivers were such an important you know uh you know things you know to to carry you know to carry people down the rivers things like that and my husband says you know when he was a little boy he said they used to swim in the river at su valley he said they don't know he said because they're their skin turns gray yeah they were little he said they swam in there and i thought oh that was really sad you know that you can't swim in there anymore you know um i lived along lake manitoba so lake manitoba was still you know it was still very you know really nice uh clear blue beautiful water where we fished and things like that but when i came this way i was really surprised at you know all the pollution and you know all of it like the way the water looks and even in the spring out at the east site you know the way the water comes in and you know when the farmers are spring and whatever runs off runs into the runs into the water and we can't find turtles anymore we did there used to be turtles all along there but there's no more turtles we don't see the turtles anymore yeah wow so yeah you know the rivers you know are you know when we think of the life blood of mother earth you know the water the life blood of mother earth water is life like you know this young lady is saying here um you know water is life you know and and water and when we think of the water it's the same water that's been here ever since this earth began it's the same water that water goes back up and comes back down and goes back up and comes back down there's a cycle and i always imagined it and this is something i've always you know thought of that there's a love affair there's a love affair that happens between grandfather sky and mother earth you know and it's like a cycle like this and we're part of that love affair that happens you know that the rain this goes back up and goes back down goes goes into the water and water has memory because water is spirit water has memory it remembers everything and even you know scientists are you know computer programmers are using water for computer chips because it stores memory water stores memory so everything that we go through that's why the the grandmother says that you know the land knows what you need yeah so she'll grow that medicine for you because your your you know whatever you deposit on the ground mother earth analyzes that and then she grows that medicine you need you know she cleanses the water yeah and the water you know is part of that cycle right and she loves us too she's our second mother we had the mother who brought us to this who brought us to this world and then we have this world that we this earth that we sit on and that's our mother and we you know we were taught and i i know probably march do you have stories belly button stories you know and when children are small like you know a belly button if you put your belly button out in the you know in the bush your child will be a good hunter or you put it on the anthill your child will be a good worker and you know and so we have like stories like that right that are are part of the earth and you know my my oldest son his grandfather took his belly button and buried it in the in the bush and you know what my son is a good hunter and a good fisherman and he's very responsible and he feeds the elders and he and he taught himself that i didn't teach him that he learned that in his own spirit he you know he taught himself that and i always say my girls are good workers because uh there's got sucked up in the vacuum it happened they're good workers today but you know those kind of you know those kind of little stories and uh you know when your belly button you know your belly button falls off some grandmothers would keep that and you know in some of the kree teachings they would keep that belly button until the child is about seven years old when they would remember so the grandmother would take the child out on the land and they would say you know this belly button is what connected you to your mother and it fed your body and mind and spirit and it fed you you know it it connected you to your mother and you know this is your kitsi your belly button and so you you you now will be connected to mother earth and they bury that little belly button and that child will remember that story and that's how they get that connection to mother earth right because their little belly button's buried in the you know buried in the earth and so we actually have two mothers yeah so we have our mother who gave us life brought us to this earth brought us to this world and then we have the mother who looks you know who looks after us our mother earth yeah so those kind of little stories you know that you know help us connect they help us connect to the land and they help us appreciate and see that you know and have love and have love for mother earth yeah thank you that was a beautiful story I remember seeing an image of of an umbilical cord that looked like a tree the roots of a tree for coming up and I was like that reminded me of what you're just saying sharing so that's beautiful thank you um there's a very quick question um just referring back to your previous answer related to the sore throats the the asking if you can type the name of the medicine or I can type it in for you I don't know or say it again I didn't catch the name of it well in Cree we say we guess it's uh in in Ojibwe they say we care in uh Dakota um I forget what they what he Frank calls it um uh he he calls it bitter root anyway and uh but I can't remember that what he calls it yeah but in it's yeah it's w I I just spell it w e e k a y it and we guess is uh we e w e e g a s we guess and it's uh um uh flag root flag root flag root yeah it's flag root and it's like they call it rat root too they call it rat root because wherever you see like muskrat houses and beaver houses you know that reek is around there because that's their medicine yeah the rat and the muskrat and the beaver that's their medicine yeah so that's wherever you see that so it's it grows with the you know it grows with with the the rat the what are those long things called it look cat tails they grow the cat tails yeah thank you yeah um another question that came in thoughts around uh the times we're in the covid times have you had to change what you do when interacting with the land now during covid times do you see any or suggestions on that yeah oh yeah well you know what not changing too much with the land connection because it can still go out on the land and all that but it's with the people we can't be with the people and that's been really hard yeah because we're usually you know we go out to the land and we you know we're with the people a lot we go out and sit on the you know in the lodge and you know we haven't been able to visit with family like I'm really lonesome I get really lonesome we haven't been able to visit with family and and you know we're always doing something you know with with the people in the community so that's been really hard yeah but being on the land no we still go my husband and I still go I still walk get fresh air every day um I still go out you know we still go out picking medicine we went out to pick cedar there a couple weeks ago we went out towards the east and you know packed the lunch and you know and went out and picked medicine we didn't stop anywhere you know we just gassed up here and away we went and came back home the same day but we haven't really it hasn't really been uh for us anyway you know we've still been out on the land quite a bit and you know and that's something that I you know I really strongly recommend people even if you can't you know go out on the land if you can't be with people because you won't feel that you know that lonely lonely lonely feeling if you get outside yeah go on the land lean against the tree you know what I have a maple tree in my backyard it's huge and I go lean against it yeah I go lean against it because you know it straightens our spine and we're connected to the trees hey we're connected and it and it helps you and and it teaches you yeah and I always say if you want to know lots go lean against an old tree but if you only want to know a little bit go lean against a young tree yeah excellent that's actually um really related to the the other question that also came in around urban and um environments is asking can you many of the connections you spoke about of the land with more with natural environments is there a similar connection with the land for people who live in urban environments suggestions so how do we do that as people in the cities yeah go out in the yard go out in the parks yeah go outside just go outside doesn't matter I you know my my daughter lives my granddaughter lives in an apartment here you know always take the kids to the park yeah do something outside yeah find you know um grow plants in your house yeah do that grow plants start your tomato plants now put your tomato plants out you know start your uh make a you know I have plants in my house my daughter too she's all of a sudden just become this plant woman you know grow plants in your house you know do those kinds of things that really um boy it's it's so amazing to to make plants grow you know I used to do that when I was in crane I plant all my stuff in the spring and my table one my dining room table was full of uh you know a little plant say because I I plant them and put them at the east window and you know they would grow and then I would plant them you know when it came time for the spring you know do things like that yeah and connect yourself connect yourself to the land through that yeah and remember even if you're you're secluded and you can't get outside for whatever reason maybe you have a health issue you can't get outside or you know whatever remember that everything that you're sitting in everything that you're around what you're wearing what you're eating comes from the energy of Mother Earth it just changes your thought like that you know you feel isolated and alone and you remember oh yeah you know there's wood here you know there's you know I'm sitting on these chairs it's made from the energy of Mother Earth there's a plant sitting here that's part of Mother Earth that's you know all of these things are you know can help connect us yeah and even if you have soil in your house and you and you're planting things you you you're getting that in your hands yeah you're getting that in your body do those kinds of things um you know all of all of those things I have flower gardens and I plant you know I never grow my vegetables never grow really well here but I still plant them and I have flowers growing all over in the summertime and you know I get my kids out my grandkids out here planting stuff and you know and they just go oh granny that's amazing look at that you know and they see their stuff growing you know and they feel that they feel that connection it doesn't have to be complicated it can be very simple you know sometimes we make things too complicated I think you know and you know life is very simple like you know it's very simple to live my husband reminds me of that all the time I always says life is simple to live honey you know try to try to not take things so serious yeah thanks um the last question that was here was I think very similar to that can we follow your teachings anywhere and I think that's kind of the the same way you were just saying I think in the in any environment we can follow those questions yeah yeah we can yeah whatever whatever we're doing you know and and you know remain connected and see each other yeah look at each other and see each other and they you know connect with one another and look at each other in the eyes and say I see you yeah because we all want to be seen hey we want somebody to see us we want somebody to say I see you I see you my girl I see you my boy like I understand your pain I understand and I understand your you know your your you know your love and you know all of those kinds of things we want to be we want to really be seen see each other and you know we learn love we learn compassion we learn understanding for each other and you know and and I really learned that working addictions like I mean such beautiful amazing people come into the you know into the treatment center and and they just want to be seen they want somebody to see and they're just amazing amazing people you know and I always say you know people who struggle in addiction is because of that that they're struggling addiction because of the wounds that they carry you know and and we don't say only why you know we don't say why the you know why are you like this or why are you this way we don't only look at the behavior but we say why the behavior why because of the wounds that we carry the wounds that people carry you know so see each other you know see each other look at each other and you know so thank you I'll just add one other question as well that I was thinking about you talked a lot about language and how important language is to you and I think I think it was maybe in Robin Wolkimer's book on braiding sweet at grass she talks about how and particularly in Anishinaabe Muin and other and maybe Cree as well there's a lot of verbs and a lot of really the language is really about thinking about active ways of and alive like anime animation right and that there's like 70% in English of his nouns but in other in your language is more 70% of verbs and I'm wondering if if that shapes in any way your connection to the land and for those of us that only speak English is there a way to reconnect in that way as well definitely because it's always an action you see it's always an action you see when somebody says something and you know that's something that I learned with my with my husband is that you know when I ask him a question and me I talk like real fast and you know I mean I answer really quickly but him when I talk ask him a question yeah he stops and you know he takes him a long time to answer and I used to think geez you're rude I'm just kidding but I used to think like you know but I realize he's thinking because he sees an action and he's translating it from Dakota to English and how does he you know so you know it's always an action and I have a friend that you know she's Cree here too and she speaks Cree so she's trying to teach me a lot of words eh that's the one I always tell her don't you swear because I know the swear words she's always so I always you know and that's what she says so I ask her what does this mean she says oh I see a picture in my mind she said there's a picture like an action so there's always an action right there's always you know there's always something they see a picture in their mind so yeah so language is you know language is the culture like there's so much in the language so you know losing the language that's huge like losing the language my mom spoke fluent Cree but she never spoke to us in Cree yeah you know she never you know never spoke to me in Cree and you know and Cree was my first language and through everything you know I kind of lost that ability and a lot of our people too they're immersed in English and even Dakota Cree you know they're starting to lose their language and they're losing a syllable all the time yeah so say for instance um I'm doing teachings on traditional parenting tomorrow wasp son wasp son is like the the the moss bag and and so they they they're losing a syllable so it's wasp wasps I can't remember exactly how but there's one syllable that's missing yeah if you go to the old old Cree they'll they'll give you the right translation so we're losing a lot of our you know and we're losing in the translation from English back to Cree we're losing the stories yeah and that's a sad thing we're losing the stories from English back to Dakota yeah so we lose the stories hey yeah so that's you know that's the sad thing so I guess that's why you know our elders are trying to really bring the languages back because of that yeah but that's a really good question and I love the book Sprating Sweet Grass like I gotta read it again because the first time I just gobbled it up now I'm I'm going through it again and just rereading it it's so such a good book yeah yeah well thank you I think we're nearing the end of the time um there was a very quick question that came in someone asked were you being literal when you said people plant placenta in the earth here in Manitoba I assume you were being literally yeah yeah we are I went to a ceremony one time my sister-in-law um did a placenta ceremony where she buried her grandson's placenta under the tree and and what what it does is it honors that because when we think of the placenta and the you know the umbilical cord that that we grew that as women to nourish our children to nourish our babies and so the grandmother put that back to the earth there's no such thing as as um you know before there's no such thing as postpartum any of that kind of stuff because there was so much support for women there was so much support there was the ceremony the grandmother looking you know looking after everything the support from the aunties from the women in the community there was a lot of that you know support yeah so so it's been very you know enlightening for me especially with the traditional parenting and what you know what the grandmothers used to do for our for our children um because they understood what they needed to grow to be healthy and strong so they put them in a little moss bag yeah and that moss bag would would nurture them at least for the first year of their life and that was with help with brain development help because that transition from the spirit world to this world you know they had to be gentle loving and kind yeah so that was you know so those kind of teachings you know we're trying to really bring us back yeah yeah well thank you Debra you've given us so much to think about and to learn from and uh I hope we meet again and maybe in person and yeah that would be nice and Marge I'm just wondering if you could close our gathering um with a prayer or whatever just remind people that next week uh March the 4th we're going to gather again same time okay yeah welcome to all of you and thank you to all who have attended today thank you very much I wanted to say thank you to Debra for her wonderful talk and uh one of our spiritual leaders always says you know Mother Earth is not a resource Mother Earth is a source of life and so when you think about it that way it really carries a lot of weight but that's what I've been told all along so we honor Mother Earth and the life that she gives us so I'm going to uh give thanks for the ability to get together and to hear Debra speak and share her teachings and I will say a blessing for everybody which only thank you