By: Kai Kai Kons (Johnny Hawk)
“In the Seventh Fire a New People will emerge and pick up the many gifts left on the trail by those on the previous Fires so they can light an eighth and final fire. The New People of the Seventh Fire will have to choose between two roads, one road will lead into a path of destruction and the other will lead them back to a more spiritual path. The Anishinabek Peoples of Turtle Island will be at the forefront of lighting the eight and final fire of peace for the sake of humanity’s survival on the Earth” – Seventh Fire Anishinabek Prophecy
As December 21, 2012 marked the end of the precise astrological almanac that is the Mayan Calendar where a global mainstream commercial society found the only value within it was by exploiting a television addicted general publics ignorance and fear; I reflected on how this so called “End of the World” Mayan Forecast is parallel to my own Nation’s Seventh Fire Anishinabek Prophecy and how we need to be careful which road we choose to walk down.
Idle No More an Indigenous Movement spawned by social media that opposes the Canadian State’s Bill C-45 which will directly effect our Anishinabek Nations Resources and Day to Day operations has gained prominence during the prophesized “End of the World” date of Dec 21, 2012. It certainly shows that the sacred scrolls our ancestors spoke of are surely unfolding before our very eyes. The ending of one world and a shift of consciousness into a new one where our people will help lead humanity back on track to living a sustainable way with our Earth is certainly visible or could it be that after the flash mobs, blockade’s and one day highway parades that we are going to go back to living the same television addicted oil dependant lives after we get our fair share of Harper’s capitalist pie?
Though I am In Solidarity with our people and I may sound divisive however I am just attempting to remind us all of the warning our ancestors spoke of where our dependence on technology or in other words the path of destruction will be our demise. What I mean is how far are we willing to go to stand up for our way of life? How many truly want to bring down this capitalist beast? How many are willing to live on the frontlines of a blockade? Many are still accustomed to their jobs, plasma big screen TV and hydro and gasoline to bring forth the necessary radical change that will only prolong our time as a species on this Earth. What happens a week, or a month after shutting down the rail lines? Have the Army in our communities, how many are prepared to be armed for self defence?
Idle No More reflects the route of the “peaceful protest” however remember our people have always been peaceful it is only after a week or month after disrupting KKKANADA that violence on the side of our oppressor arises and we need to defend. If the saying violence only begets violence is a philosophy then the same must be true if we fight depending on the tools and system that keeps us dependant on the beast then in the end we may ultimatly become our own oppressor capitalizing off the rape of our Mother.
What happens after the Prime Minister meets with Chiefs? What happens after the bill is squashed, do we retreat back into our communities where Indian Act elected system, nepotism, violence, poverty and destruction of the earth prevails. Do we go back to fuel a Capitalistic System that is the leading cause to what we are enslaved and accustomed to but what we are so against as we sing and dance and fight and die in the shopping malls in some flash dance? I am not being divisive just questioning Which Road are We about to go down as leaders of the Seventh Fire, the world is watching.
WAKING THE SLEEPING GIANT THROUGH AATISOOKAN
Aatisookaan in Anishinabemowiin language means “Our Sacred Stories” and it is in winter time where we pass on all that we are and our experiences as a Nation to our future generations. Some believe we have a HIS story, a misinterpreted version from our male dominant oppressor who bastardizes our stories as mere “trickster” legends. We are not HIS story we are our Grandmothers and Grandfathers observed experiences of the Star World, Spirit World and our Mother the Earth we are Her Story and not His.
As Oshkimaadiziig People, People of the Seventh Fire we need to relearn our ways of being who we are which is re-establishing our own ways of Governing, our Clan Mothers our Warrior Societies, our own Sustainable Economies and Food Security. We need to find solutions within.
“Sovereignty to me is not a barricade, a smoke shop or a warrior flag; none of these things link us to Creation and it can be very easy to forget this. Sovereignty is hardly the Great Law either, the Kayanere..ko :wa is a link in the long line of things the Creator gave us to survive but it is only a link; not the chain. Sovereignty came to us before that. and it came to us in the form of a garden sprouting from the ground in which the Skywoman’s daughther was buried; our home. Anyone who has the original corn, meaning the majority of Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island, and that treaty-like relationship with this land, has a inherent right to live upon it.” – Dakota Brant, Kanienkeha:ka Wolf Clan
As a People who survived an Ice Age and 500 years of Oppression how far are we willing to go in the most important time in humanity to pick up the many tools in our “Aatisookaan” and those many gifts left on the trail to ensure we still have a planet and a way of life?
I feel we need to take over those Band Offices or Urban Friendship Centres and start within because after all the well intentioned protests are over we still plug back into the very systems that keep us enslaved. Remember the FNGA, the HST? Every 5 – 10 years policies always come up to extinguish “our way of life” then the momentum is lost, we need to realize we are in an important time and we must not return to the way things are back at home after the barricades and flash mobs. This time is integral that we go even further. We can do it.
REMOVING OURSELVES FROM THE ILLUSION
Sometimes I fall off the wagon because the temptations within our communities, town and in mainstream society generally are too strong for me to overcome, that is why I choose the majority of my life to live on the land, fighting the beast and dedicating my life to helping to remerge as who we truly are in frontline communities. If alcohol is a powerful spirit that keeps us enslaved so are the other tools of oppression that keeps us dependant on the beast. For myself I need to completely remove myself from this way of living and even though I am educated this education will only go to serve the beast. I need to destroy everything I am to recreate myself for a new consciousness that is emerging. For many of us who are more familiar with the mainstream “Aaatisokaan” its kind of like The Matrix or Fight Club.
“All a gun does is focus an explosion in one direction. You have a class of young strong men and women, and they want to give their lives to something. Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don’t need. Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don’t really need. Only after disaster can we be resurrected. It’s only after you’ve lost everything that you’re free to do anything. Nothing is static, everything is evolving, everything is falling apart.” – Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 19
In the movie Fight Club, Edward Norton’s character who lives a consumerist capitalist lifestyle has to destroy and throw away all the things he is so that he can fight the very things that keep us all enslaved.
TRAVELLING DOWN THE TWO ROW
The 1613 treaty was recorded by the Haudenosaunee in a wampum belt known as the Two Row Wampum. The pattern of the belt consists of two rows of purple wampum beads against a background of white beads. The purple beads signify the courses of two vessels — a Haudenosaunee canoe and a European ship — traveling down the river of life together, parallel but never touching. The three white stripes denote peace and friendship. This wampum records the meaning of the agreement, which declared peaceful coexistence between the Haudenosaunee and Dutch settlers in the area.
We as Anishinabek Nations of Turtle Island have a Nation to Nation relationship with the Settler State which is commonly referred by the Haudenasaunee as the Two Row Wampum. In 1764 24 Indigenous Nations accepted an alliance with the British Crown where we all as those 24 Nations agreed to live under the idea of the Two Row, which is based on Peace, Non-Interference and Co-existence.
In these times we are seeking recognition of the spirit of these Nation to Nation treaties and while agree what this Two Row signifies I also have to question on how we approach this as we try to work with our Settler “allies”
We have to acknowledge that under the Settler’s Ship were African Slaves who were forced to build up these Imperialist States. Today we continue to see many immigrants coming to Turtle Island still under the Settlers Ship and rule without our consent and where they are forced to be economic slaves continuing to fuel the beast. These are other Nations who have been displaced and colonized just as us and this is who we need to base our Nation to Nation relationships with.
The Working Class people represented under their Unions have contract that are just like Nation to Nation and when their contracts are breached they strike, where we blockade. We have allies in these people and need to unite our struggles alongside theirs but who are to be the Two forces in the Two Row?
With as many as over 500 of our own Anishinabek Nations and just has many Nations from elsewhere on the Earth living here on Turtle Island how do we manage the Two Row? Left Wing and Right Wing White dominated allies have so many sub genres of their politics that sometimes working with our “allies” creates so many divisions, answer? Using the idea of a new Confederacy where all peoples can be represented fairly. This is going to be something we need to continuously work towards after we get what we want from “Harper”
EARTH CHANGES
The Seventh Fire has been lit for a while it is only now that we need to rise up and make radical changes before it’s too late. We all literally waiting on “The End of the World” as some specific date but the fire has been lit already and the Earth she is changing, Earthquakes Tsunami’s massive floods, hurricane’s, we need to know how to be us again so we can know how to survive as these things increase and as our mother goes through her own “moon cycle”
Again I am not being divisive just being my usual unusual backwards self pointing out some truth’s so Let’s be careful Seventh Generation people which road we choose to walk down. I have the belief and tears of joy that come from seeing you all unite and stand proud and sing and dance in those malls and on those rail lines that we can do this! We can keep this momentum going. Let’s just be wary which road we are walking down, our future as humanity depends on us.
“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.” – Will Durant
Niikaanna Ginna,
Kai Kai Kons, Loon Clan, Anishinabek Three Fires Confederacy
ACTION
Oshkimaadiziig Unity Camp.