Tag: Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address

NOW OUR MINDS ARE ONE

As noted, this spring, I attended a book review of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, delivered by Elaine Garrett. What I didn’t mention, because I wanted to save it for today, is the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address.

“Kimmerer… was repeatedly told by Haudenosaunee (pronounced: who-DIN-oh-show-nee; also known as the Iroquois) people that the words of the Thanksgiving Address are their gift to the world, and are meant to be shared. This address is also known as The Words That Come Before All Else, as it is traditionally spoken to greet the day, start a meeting, or before starting negotiations with other nations.

“The Onondaga (“Hill Place”) people are one of the original five constituent nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in northeast North America. When Kimmerer asked the Onondaga Faithkeeper Oren Lyons about sharing the Thanksgiving Address in her book, he said, ‘Of course you should write about it. It’s supposed to be shared; otherwise, how can it work? We’ve been waiting for five hundred years for people to listen. If they’d understood the Thanksgiving, then we wouldn’t be in this mess.’

“So as we read it together, feel the gratitude in your heart for all of the life around us that gives us so much and allows us to live.”

Mindfulness

From Akwesasne Travel: “This beautiful greeting finds its origins in a traditional Mohawk and Haudenosaunee religious ceremony and has been adopted in settings outside of the longhouse, like business meetings and social gatherings. Some might say it serves as a general mindfulness practice for living in harmony with nature. The spirit of the Thanksgiving Address can be felt throughout Akwesasne in how people live their lives, interact with each other, and conduct business.”

From Mountain Heritage: “In Haudenosaunee tradition, being grateful & giving thanks is a regular practice in both everyday life & at special occasions. The Thanksgiving Address, or “The Words that Come Before All Else,” is delivered in Native Haudenosaunee languages at both the beginning & the end of social gatherings, celebrations, and council meetings; and it is recited each morning at the beginning of the school day. The Thanksgiving Address is not a prayer, but rather an offering of greetings & thanks to the natural world. Each part of Creation is acknowledged & thanked for the ways in which it contributes to life on Earth.”

It begins:

“Today, we have gathered, and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty and responsibility to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give our greetings and our thanks to one another as people.

“NOW OUR MINDS ARE ONE”

Fingers crossed

“Words from The Skä•noñh – Great Law of Peace Center, a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Heritage Center focused on the story of the native peoples of central New York, told through the lens of the Onondaga Nation. You can find a complete version of this inspiring & poetic address on the National Museum of the American Indian website. Each element of the natural world is spoken to & thanked for their contributions to all life. A wonderful read or spoken piece!”

(Note: I’m now nervous about links to the Smithsonian institutions and US governmental sites generally, because of a war on ‘wokeness.’ Thus, there are multiple links throughout the post.)

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

“unlimited growth, an unrestrained cancerous sort of creation”

I was watching JEOPARDY Masters for Tuesday, May 27, probably on the following day, because I don’t watch television in real time. The clue above pops up as a $600 clue. This hit me because, on May 27, I  attended a book review at the Albany Public Library of Braiding Sweetgrass, that very book by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Moreover, it was reviewed by Elaine Garrett, who had appeared on JEOPARDY in 2011. I had met her, likely at a Capital District JEOPARDY  gathering.  

Robin’s father, Robert Wall, was from the Potawatomi tribe in the Midwest. But he was shipped to the infamous Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School, which “opened in 1879 and operated for nearly 30 years with a mission to ‘kill the Indian’ to ‘save the Man.’ This philosophy meant administrators forced students to speak English, wear Anglo-American clothing, and act according to U.S. values and culture.”

He eventually moved to the Syracuse, NY, area and married Patricia. That’s where Robin was born in 1953.  Robin attended the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, where she received a bachelor’s degree in botany in 1975. She later attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, earning her master’s degree in botany there in 1979, followed by her PhD in plant ecology in 1983.

Science or spirituality?

But Robin got some pushback. She was told to pick a lane, either science or natural methods, essentially. But she opted for both/and. As Jane Goodall wrote about Braiding Sweetgrass:  “Robin Wall Kimmerer has written an extraordinary book, showing how the factual, objective approach of science can be enriched by the ancient knowledge of the indigenous people. It is the way she captures beauty that I love the most—the images of giant cedars and wild strawberries, a forest in the rain, and the meadow of fragrant sweetgrass will stay with you long after you read the last page.” 

One of Elaine Garrett’s slides described The Sacred and the Superfund about Nanabozho’s twin, who is “committed to imbalance. He had learned the interplay of creation and destruction and rocked it like a boat on a choppy sea to keep people out of balance. He found the arrogance of power could be used to unleash unlimited growth, an unrestrained cancerous sort of creation that would lead to destruction.” The sacred Onondaga Lake is one of nine polluted Superfund sites in the Syracuse area.

Elaine said reading the book changed her tremendously, emotionally and spiritually.  Elizabeth Gilbert wrote of the book: “Robin Wall Kimmerer is a writer of rare grace. She writes about the natural world from a place of such abundant passion that one can never quite see the world in the same way after having seen it through Kimmerer’s eyes. In Braiding Sweetgrass, she takes us on a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise. She is a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world.”

I need to add it to my never-ending pile of books. 

Ramblin' with Roger
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