 ඉතුහාටණි මා ඔබතුව නෙල එයකළ මූති න�郡කන පිරීශ මේ // අඪල අම්.. දළමෂ්මතබා වතුඩඳයල නිතුඩ වික් මේ පිදේ්මන්බා‧ ḟ աources Ḥ៍ ḛ Խպależy Աայ correr ḥៅ мер합ု seeing gasoline commander ḤៅԺ�니다有imported Ḥ instantly Ꮯៅ corrections... Ḥ isically Ḥ look the �що Ḥ Ḥ ᵗ ᵍ හ සැස්ල්ල්බස් ැ සැසල� 그런�本ුණුන් පිස්ල්ල්ල්ල හ� sino ති තධහශ් හැලර්ල්ල්ල්ල්ලත්ල්ල්ල්ලද වේිල්ල්ල්ල්ල්ලධ හැල්ල්ල්ල්ල්ල්ල හස්ල්‍ය අබ उलール त्रोझे ना स्सा Mercury और ठ्रोक, अड schlimm, उलनबा क्या वूर तिजं़ा जे र malaria शीअज और त्रीज़ा या व् tire शीजिन ना l внимание शोत क bıय ने या निजि Poppy वे plausible वेम श sev ओग परानत गत रीजिरम ढ़द ने चनूँझनcape शकād आदड चचच �チャचर him and indigenous way of being our own way of learning, of educating. So right from the beginning it was in my early 20s when I heard the sound of the drum and how it really impacted on my psyche. That's really what caused me to begin searching and doing my own research and it didn't happen right away. It's almost like I had to seek out the knowledge keepers, the ones that held on to that knowledge that was hidden. And so it took a while, it took a while and I had to travel, I had to travel to find the grandmothers and the grandfathers to seek out that knowledge. So it did take a while and my journey took me to a community in the mountains out west and where I was reintroduced, I guess I could say, reconnected to the land. And for me I guess that's one of the things I feel quite strongly about is that sense of connection with the land is where our Indigenous knowledge, because we are of the land, we are a people of the land and we have a strong connection with the land, with the earth, our mother and that relationship and that connection that we have with the land and all of creation is where that knowledge comes from and the fact that we are of the land is what makes us Indigenous, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. And what an incredible realization for me to come to that place in my life and my youth when the elders, the grandmothers and the grandfathers encouraged me and told me that everything in life, everything in creation is a spirit and that I had a spirit that was pretty profound for me that everything, every human being and non-humans, I guess, I could say in terms of the four-legged, the swimmers, the crawlers and the flyers, the trees, the plant life, everything, everything in creation, the stars, the cosmos, the universe, the waters, the water beings, everything has a spirit and for me that was very profound that was quite an incredible realization to be able to feel that and to see that and to embrace that concept, that understanding and to be able to see that and as a way of realizing myself as a way of finally coming to a place of knowing who I am and where I come from. So from that sense of feeling empty and lost, it was a beautiful realization and of course I wanted to share that great blessing with my loved ones, with family. So coming home back to my place of birth and sharing that and it's been my life, my life work because of the profound way that it spoke to me at that time in my youth and so it's been a lifelong journey for me to embrace, embrace our teachings, our ceremonies, our culture and our songs, our dances, the spirit of the way that we do things. And so of course when I first heard the sound of the Medewan water drum again what an incredible beautiful beautiful blessing again to hear the songs, the sacred songs and there was an incredible sense of home. I was welcomed home and it was spirit that was welcoming me home. It was the ancestors that was welcoming me home as though I had been lost for a long time and finally there was this place that I could come home to and it was to sit, to be with ceremony, to learn, to pick up this knowledge, our way of educating, our way of learning and passing on that sacred knowledge. So that for me was another big revelation to come to that place where that sense of belonging and hearing the songs, hearing the teachings of the water drum of the Medewan and the dances and the teachings and the songs and there was that sense of coming to a place of great healing and it truly and truly filled my life and so I encouraged my loved ones, my children to pick up, to dance and to do powwow, jingle dress dancing, powwow dancing, drumming and all of that and the connection with the land was vital and so years later it was getting into plant life and learning about those medicines and seeing them as our grandmothers and our grandfathers having a personal relationship with the plant life, with creation and seeing it as family, seeing creation as my extended family and so that connect with the rest of creation and so what a blessing, what a blessing and I often wondered, our people had this knowledge, that's why they were able to survive for so many years for since the beginning of time that they were lowered here, they have survived and they had a strong connection with the land, they took care, the earth took care of them, creation took care of them and it was a reciprocal relationship, there was that strong, strong because it sustained them and it was a strong connection and look where we were, when the settlers came, it was a different way of learning a different way of thinking was brought here our way was disrupted, it didn't happen right away but 500 years of our people being in the dark and for me the way I see it now, where we are I see our young people beginning to turn things around I see the incredible beauty of the young ones and the strength that they have in terms of not being afraid of sending their voices out and not being shy to say what's important and again they're speaking for the earth they're speaking for the water they're speaking about the significance and the importance of our ways of our knowledge, our knowledge ways so for me that's what I see in terms of the shift but we also as educators have to especially the dominant society the settler society I guess I can say that they they have to be enlightened and our people have to be empowered and it's us we have to empower ourselves we have to do it ourselves and change the system change the educational system the way it runs, the way it is run today and that means transforming, making a transformation turning things around and it has to start right at the beginning and when I say the beginning when the kids are small when our little ones are small and as soon as you hear movement and a stirring of life then we send out a sound and talk to that spirit that is starting to, is going to emerge those ones that are yet to come they're getting ready to come into the world then we should be they should be greeted in the language and even in the womb the mother should be talking to that life in the language and singing the father should be singing and I guess for me that was that's one of the regrets that I have is that I haven't done a good job doing that and so, but I encourage our people to do that that first and foremost is the language is vital because if we don't if we lose the language then it's a simulation we might as well just be like everybody else like the settler society and become like mainstream society get into the melting pot I guess so the language is vital and speaking to the spirit of that new life the spirit that has just come in so in the school system I know what the Māori people have done is they started with their little ones total immersion and language nests and so bringing out and having the parents come bringing their little ones so something like that has to has to happen at the beginning when the little ones are starting to talk because they mimic you and they're sponges they pick up they'll pick up the language a lot faster if we just talk to them in the language so for me the language is vital and also the connection with the family with the extended family with the community the circle, your community the connection with the land I think one of the ways is to have land-based curriculum for me I've been involved with lodge teachings with ceremonies and we do a lot of teaching in that way it's all oral and it's all in the language we teach in the language we teach the songs in the language and we give the teachings in the language and it's a ceremony so you're connecting with not only the body but the mind and the spirit when we first started it was very very difficult to change our way of thinking because we had been so ingrained in thinking a certain way we took up the settler's way of thinking and it brought about confusion and so trying to shed that trying to change that way of thinking and putting on our own values our own way of thinking our own attitudes our own way of our own ceremonies and wearing that because that's essentially who we are as a people and so change has been slow for me it's taken over 40 years when I was trying to bring the knowledge of our ancestors to our people in my community and I was basically told we don't want that Indian stuff and it's not going to get you anywhere but I was one of those people who was stubborn I guess and determined and I knew how I felt and how it affected me how it changed my life and so I persevered and I kept going and I sought out the knowledge from ceremony from the sweat lodge and from the elders the grandmothers and shared that continued to share it and now 40 years later there's a Medewin lodge in my community and there's sweat lodges there and so change is inevitable it does come about we just have to have faith and believe in the spirit and we can and we will with determination we can change we can transform we can turn things around and so I believe that because I've seen it and yes it is slow but it does happen