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Aboriginal Culture and Tradition

Sociologyindex, Books On Customs And Traditions, Sociology Books 2012, Aboriginal cultural traditions, Aboriginal Peoples of Canada

The gift of Sweetgrass, Sweat lodge and the Ceremony, The Medicine Wheel and The Spiritual Circle

Sweetgrass
One of the gifts the Great Spirit gave to the indigenous people (Aboriginals) was the use of sweetgrass. Since ancient times aboriginal people have burned sweetgrass as an incense for purification whenever they pray to the Great Spirit.

Sweetgrass (savastana odorata) is found throughout the plains of central Canada. Aboriginals believe it is one of the gifts of the Creator, and when used in a ceremony the smoke is used to carry our prayers. The grandfathers and grandmothers in the spirit world hear their prayers and through the smoke carry them to the Great Spirit.

Aboriginals believe that the animals know that sweetgrass is sacred and so even the buffalo will not eat it. The Plains Cree also learned through dreams and fasting, that sweetgrass is sacred and its purpose was to be used in a ceremonial manner.

The Sweat Lodge
For the Aboriginals the sweat is a ceremony that cleanses body, mind and spirit to make us pure for spirit ceremonies, vision quests and the rigors of everyday life.

Sweats may be held to ask a blessing or give thanks. Sometimes they occur before or after a difficult physical or spiritual journey (retreat). Still others are conducted as healing sweats for people who are suffering from an illness or an injury. Today the ceremony is an integral part of Native alcohol and drug treatment programs.

The construction of the lodge is a willow framework covered over with hides, blankets or canvas tarps. The placement of the door depends on what group of people you are with. The plains Cree have their door facing south. The Sioux put their door facing to the west. Other groups have the door facing to the east.

The MEDICINE WHEEL

To Aboriginals the medicine wheel is the universe. It is the cycle of all things that exist. It is the lodge of their bodies, their minds and their hearts. It is also change, life, death, and learning. Disabled Aboriginals use particular areas of the wheel to assist them with their coping in life.

The North of the circle represents (Wisdom) (Buffalo) (White).

The East represents (Illumination) (Eagle) (Yellow).

The South represents (Innocence) (Mouse) (Green).

The West represents (Introspection) (Bear) (Black).

The design of the Medicine wheel is always an even number of points (stones). Even though this is true a proper design of the wheel NEVER has an even number radiating from its center because ONE POINT IS YOU THE VIEWER.

The SPIRITUAL CIRCLE

You have noticed that everything an Aboriginal does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round.

In the old days when aboriginal people were strong and happy, all their power came to their sacred hoop of the nation and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished.

The Flowering Tree was the living center of the hoop, and the circle of the four quarters nourished it.

The East gave peace and light, the South gave warmth, the West gave rain, and the North with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance.

This knowledge came to the aboriginal people from the outer world with their religion. Everything the power of the World does is done in a circle.

"The sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball and so are the stars. The Wind in its greatest power whirls.

Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and they are both round."

Even the Seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back to where they were.

The life of a man is a circle from childhood and so it is in everything where power moves.

"Our teepee’s were round like the nests of birds and these were always set in a circle, the nation’s hoop, a nest of many nests where the great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children."

Aboriginal Peoples of Canada

Contrary to the belief of Europeans, that the "state of nature" can and should be improved through the labour of man, "Aboriginals view the natural world as perfect."

In the variety of Aboriginal cultural traditions in Canada today commonalities can be found even though these commonalities are most often expressed in varying words or are manifest in varying environmental or behaviourial contexts. This does not mean there is only one Aboriginal culture that is generally applicable to all of Canada's Aboriginal people or that Aboriginal culture can be understood as a form of "pan-Indianism" making all Aboriginal people in Canada behave in the same fashion. It is actually quite the opposite. The cultural traditions of the various Aboriginal peoples in Canada are very different one from the other. In order to understand and appreciate the various cultural traditions practised by the Aboriginal peoples in Canada today a brief look must be taken at the path these cultures have had to follow since coming into contact with the many influences presented to them by Europeans as European migration progressed across the lands of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. Aboriginal people are often told by the Elders that we cannot know where we are today or where we are going unless we know where we have come from.

Earlier cultural traditions of Aboriginal people can be seen by looking at what the first meetings between Aboriginal people and Europeans were like. This can be done by reading the descriptions left to us by European people who experienced these interactions first hand.

For example, in his Letter to the Sovereigns (in 1492), which was promptly printed at Barcelona and widely distributed throughout Europe in a Latin translation, [Christopher] Columbus stresses the gentleness and generosity of the Aboriginal people:

Aboriginal people are so ingenuous and free with all they have, that no one would believe it who has not seen it; of anything that they possess, if it be asked of them, they never say no; on the contrary, they invite you to share it and show as much love as if their hearts went with it, and they are content with whatever trifle be given them, whether it be a thing of value or of petty worth. I forbade that they be given things so worthless of broken crockery and of green glass and lace-points, although when they could get them, they thought they had the best jewel in the world.

Father Le Jeune writes:
We see shining among Aboriginal people some rather noble moral virtues. You note, in the first place, a great love and union, which Aboriginal people are careful to cultivate by means of their marriages, of their presents, of their feasts, and of their frequent visits. On returning from their fishing, their hunting, and their trading, Aboriginal people exchange many gifts; even if they have thus obtained something unusually good, even if they have bought it, or if it has been given to them, they make a feast to the whole village with it. The hospitality of Aboriginal people towards all sorts of strangers is remarkable; Aboriginal people present to them, in their feasts, the best of what they have prepared, and, as I have already said, I do not know if anything similar, in this regard, is to be found anywhere. Aboriginal people never close the door upon a Stranger, and, once having received him into their houses, they share with him the best they have; they never send him away, and when he goes away of his own accord, he repays them by a simple "thank you."

In their respective reports of their first encounters with the Aboriginal people of America by both Christopher Columbus and Father Le Jeune, they speak about the similar values displayed in the cultural behaviours of the Aboriginal people they came into contact with. Values very different from those of the European reporters. In their reports they describe Aboriginal people who are caring, loving, and sharing amongst themselves and with others. Over two hundred years later, and about

three thousand miles west of where Father Le Jeune had his first experiences, these same values are displayed again on the far distant prairies of what is now Canada.

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