Thoughts From And Of Art Solomon, Anishinaabe Elder “The - TopicsExpress



          

Thoughts From And Of Art Solomon, Anishinaabe Elder “The traditional way of education was by example, experience, and storytelling. The first principle involved was total respect and acceptance of the one to be taught, and that learning was a continuous process from birth to death. It was total continuity without interruption. Its nature was like a fountain that gives many colours and flavours of water and that whoever chose could drink as much or as little as they wanted to whenever they wished. The teaching strictly adhered to the sacredness of life whether of humans, animals or plants.” - Art Solomon, Anishinaabe Elder “There comes a time when we must stop crying and wringing our hands and get on with the healing that we are so much in need of” - Art Solomon, Anishinaabe Elder Grandfather, Look at our brokenness. We know that in all creation only the human family has strayed from the sacred way. We know that we are the ones who are divided and we are the one who must come back together to walk in the sacred way. Grandfather, Sacred One, Teach us love, compassion and honor that we may heal the Earth and each other. – Art Solomon, Anishinaabe Elder In other words of Art Solomon, an Anishinaabe elder: “To heal a nation, we must first heal the individuals, the families and the communities.” The closing words of Elder Art Solomon at a conference at University of Sudbury in 1992 were: “We listened to three women yesterday. What they had to say tells me that spiritual rebirth is happening; spiritual rebirth is absolutely essential. The imperative for us now, as Native people, is to heal our communities, and heal our nations, because we are the final teachers in this sacred land. We have to teach how to live in harmony with each other and with the whole creation. People will have to put down their greed and arrogance before they can hear what we are saying. I am not sure how many will do that. So we are in the process of healing ourselves, healing our communities, and healing our nations.” Art Solomon spoke of the sacred role of the women when he wrote: “Woman is the centre of the wheel of life. She is the heartbeat of the people. She is not just in the home, but she is the community, she is the Nation. One of our Grandmothers. The woman is the foundation on which Nations are built. She is the heart of her Nation. If that heart is weak the people are weak. If her heart is strong and her mind is clear then the Nation is strong and knows its purpose. The woman is the centre of everything.” (From “The Woman’s Part”, Art Solomon, Anishinaabe Elder.) To this he once added: “It is time for women to pick up their medicine and help heal a troubled world.” Art also once explained: “I am a craftsman and I know that the craftsman puts something of himself into everything he makes. … The Hopis say that the Creator was the first worker. And since he is perfect, what he has made expresses his perfection. He is in it…” A passage from Art Solomon’s book, Songs for the People: Teachings on the Natural Way (NC Press) describes Aboriginal society prior to the arrival of Europeans: “We were not perfect, but we had no jails, we had no taxes…no wine and no beer, no old peoples’ homes, no children’s aid society, we had no crisis centres. We had a philosophy of life based on the Creator. We had our humanity.” Art Solomon was the eldest of ten children born to a French Canadian mother and Ojibway father in the Killarney region of Georgian Bay, and attended Roman Catholic residential schools. Art shared some of his experience while teaching in the Native Studies Department at Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario: “You were just a kid doing a man’s work. You know, we had to stand by that blacksmith fire well past what was reasonable or tolerable for children. We were kids, just like little Indian slaves. There was no one to comfort you or show you any care. For God’s sake, I couldn’t even see my sisters because they were all together, in another building. And, we, my sisters and brother were separated by the road between us. We could only go home once a year, maybe at Christmas, if we were lucky enough to have some one who was able to come. My Mother had nine of us and she sure as hell couldn’t leave her babies for us bigger ones. There was no money in those days. It was in the time of the First World War. My father couldn’t come because he was a lumberjack working in the bush. That was the season he had to do the cutting in. During the summer, he was a fishing guide, a deep sea fisher man and a sailor who would go by train to Minneapolis and Detroit to pick up the boats of the wealthy Americans who were coming to Killarney, on the Georgian Bay (of Lake Huron). There was lots of fish in the big waters (Lake Ontario and Lake Superior). It was a really hard time, those days. And that stuff stays with you. You learned it in your early childhood. It was really all you knew; the earlier stuff you forgot out of fear. Then we are left with trying how to figure it out on our own. It was very hard on my mother. We were a big help to her when we came home. But all that changed when they came back in August to take us away. That’s all I have to say about it”. In the 1950s, he was asked to join the Nickel Belt Indian Club. It was from that time on that he began to explore the cultural heritage that he had been denied as a young man. From then on, he advocated for the empowerment of Aboriginal people and communities. Art was one of the first people to organize traditional arts and crafts marketing, providing northern artists with a vital economic opportunity by brokering their crafts to the southern native outlets. Art was a beacon of hope and inspiration to Aboriginal men and women in Canadian prisons, and through decades of perseverance, won the right to allow Aboriginal healing methods and traditional ceremonies in prisons. Art Solomon traveled throughout the world to promote peace among religions and cultures. His teachings frequently returned to two principles – the necessity for a deeper understanding of Aboriginal traditional ways, and the need for relief of human suffering. He received many honours in his later years, including a number of honourary doctoral degrees. Perhaps his greatest honour was that his teachings of traditional Aboriginal ways and reverence for Mother Earth, which were long respected in the Aboriginal world, were reaching non-Aboriginal people on a global level. In “….on the Passing of Elders”, dickshovel/elders.html, Art was remembered in the following obituary: Art Solomon (1914-1997) Art Solomon, Ojibway Elder, died at sunrise, Sunday, June 29th (1997), in hospital in Sudbury Ontario. He and his wife Eva had been living with his daughters for the past three years. Eva died early this year. It was in 1962 that the “fog was just lifting enough that he could see the Good Red Road” that he would follow for the rest of his life. In that journey he has never wavered, he has never compromised, never rested, never looked back. He knew what was the right thing and he did it. Art’s decision was worse than unpopular. He was misunderstood, resented, criticized, scrutinized, harassed and rejected. “Of course, you were right” he would be told, followed by a stream of excuses and rationalizations about “being practical,” “being unreasonable,” “you can’t go back” to the past. It would have been easier, of course, if Art has been born Kesheyanakwan instead of having to become one. His life has been an unfinished work in progress and Art has been its principle craftsman sculpturing the Creator’s original material with the guidance of the Spirit Winds. All the original ingredients are still visible but his life shape today could not have been seen, if imagined, until he was well into middle age years. He evolved into someone else right before the disbelieving eyes of his family and friends who were not yet prepared to join Art on the path he was taking. The events of 1970 brought Native people into the nation’s living rooms. Native crafts went into fancy galleries. Instant medicine men appeared on talk shows. Buckskin and beads became the high fashion. Art Solomon was well placed to gain prestige, praise and prominence but he never change his pace or direction. He continued to utter unspeakable truths in bold terms. He did not want urban comforts preferring to be in the bush with the Creator’s riches or in the prisons with the Creator’s forgotten people. He went to the World Council of Churches who backed him to get the government o recognize Native Spirituality in the prisons. Art traveled with the White Roots of Peace and Four Arrows. He was a powerful teacher, an avid student. His wife Eva was always the fuel and he was the life. Just by being himself Art created more than his share of enemies. Persons prepared to take only half measures felt criticized by his mere presence. Government people found him unsusceptible to the rewards offered to the native leaders willing to become “co-operative.” Many native people considered Art a threat to their own “hard won progress” with the government, which he called the “beast.” “Native people have to make gains on their own, not by having the government do it for them,” said Art. He took the pain of it all in stride and just took the blows which unavoidably came. He insisted on pushing ahead where he knew he must go without regard to the personal sacrifices which he knew would be required. To many Art had seemed to be a demanding teacher, unforgiving and uncompromising. Yet he never asked anyone to follow him. He held out truths rather than expectations. While he did not allow dodging the facts he insisted we all have choices. He had no imperatives, “What I have to say will hurt many ears, but I have to say it,” he would say. That was his duty. You could do your own duty as you saw fit. Kesheyanakwan had heard the Creator’s instructions and he understood his responsibility to follow them the best he possibly could. He applied his free will to take and determine his direction and he turned to the Creation to sustain his energy. He had found it so simple to do that he must have pondered why anyone else does not do the same. I have spoken of Art Solomon before….hard not to when I was quite fortunate enough to have known Art….and to have learned much from him. One thing I remember most is travelling north from Toronto to go to the Solomons’ home….to get ‘teachings’ from Art. We’d arrive already to listen to Art’s wisdom….but Art would point out that there was work to be done first….wood to be chopped and brought in….maybe other outdoor chores, depending on the weather or time of year, such as working in the garden or fixing fences….but always there was work to be done to help Eva in the kitchen….and in many ways I learned as much from Eva as I did from Art….just listening to Eva talk about their life….their children….and more than anything the importance of working together….in fact I think that was the ‘biggest’ teaching of them all….by doing work together we found ourselves learning from each other….that we each had our place….and in Eva’s kitchen (and home & family), it was very clear that ‘the women are the center of everything’. If you get a chance to read any of Art’s books, you will get a better sense of the man himself. One book is Songs of the People: Teachings On The Natural Way A slightly edited review (by yours truly to better reflect Art’s passing….but taking nothing away from the review itself) of this book from the Mennonite Church Canada Resource Centre: Scorning fame and the spotlight Art Solomon worked quietly, modestly and without respite to prevent social, environmental and spiritual crises. Songs of the People offers clues, thoughts, perspectives of a natural Canadian activist and philosopher which every reader can use to find new direction, new hope, new fuel to restore sanity to daily life. Art sang the songs of his own searching and struggling; he sang the songs of North American Aboriginal peoples in their struggle for justice. He helped his own people to understand themselves and to find direction in an increasingly complex world. His songs were also prayers. He sang and prayed as an Anishinaabe but his songs and prayers were directed to the Grandfather Creator of all peoples. He searched for meaning and understanding and he invited others to be involved in the same search. Art wrote the following: A Song for the People Grandfather, Great Spirit I give you thanks That we can sit here In this circle of Life, We send Prayers And the very best thoughts Grandmother Great Spirit As we raise this sacred pipe To give thanks to you And to all of your Creation, We give thanks To the spirit helpers Who came and sat among us. Grandfather, Most sacred one, These are your prayers That we send to you As we sit here together and pray Grandmother your children are crying. Grandfather your children are dying. The hands of greed And the hands of lust for power Have been laid on them And all around is death and desolation The gifts you made, for all your children Stolen, And laid to waste In a monstrous desecration. Grandmother Great Spirit, As we sit and pray together We send you this prayer of affirmation- We your children whom you created in your likeness and image- We will reach out, And we will dry our tears And heal the hurts of each other. Our sisters and brothers are hurting bad, And our children, they see no future. We know Grandfather, that you gave us a sacred power, But it seems like we don’t know its purpose So now we’ve learned as we sat together, The name of that power is love, Invincible, irresistible, overwhelming power, This power you gave us we are going to use, We’ll dry the tears of those who cry And heal the hurts of them that are hurting. Yes Grandmother, We’ll give you our hands And in our hearts and minds and bodies We dedicate our lives to affirmation. We will not wait nor hesitate, As we walk on this sacred earth We will learn together to celebrate The ways of peace, and harmony, and tranquillity, That come, And in the world around us. Thank you Grandfather for this prayer. Art’s other book was Eating Bitterness: A Vision Beyond Prison Walls: In Deconstructing ‘Canada: A Vision of Hope, David J. Bondy wrote about Art and one of his poems from Eating Bitterness: A Vision Beyond Prison Walls: Arthur Solomon was a First Nations teacher and spiritual leader who lived in Northern Ontario, Canada. Living and teaching the lessons of Native spirituality, Solomon pursued a vision of change, hope and healing. In his lifetime, Solomon fought passionately for Anishinabe voices in Canada to be heard. In his poem, ‘My Relations: O Canada’, Solomon problematizes the very foundations of hegemonic culture, challenging the assumptions behind the Western notions of subjectivity and nation. Solomon destabilizes the concept of ‘Canada’ as a nation, as a unified whole, by articulating the absences upon which ‘Canada’ is predicated, particularly the absence/exclusion of Native American voices and perspectives. In locating and exposing these silences, Solomon is deconstructing ‘Canada’ by upsetting the system of binary logic upon which notions of nation and identity are based. Solomon makes it clear that Canada, as a nation, cannot progress and heal until it learns to listen to and respect the voices of Native culture…. ….the demarcation of boundaries which, as Solomon shows, have excluded Native peoples from the dominant Euro-American conception of ‘Canada’. Solomon is engaged in a…deconstructive project….that….demonstrates that the position of the Native as silent Other is crucial to our Western hegemonic identity….For Natives to speak, to claim subjectivity, is a transgressive act that disrupts the ‘order of things’. Solomon is locating these silences and writing/speaking them into the forefront. He is exposing how ‘Canada’, as a historical and nationalistic construction, is predicated on the systematic exclusion of Native peoples and Native voices, achieved through the silencing processes of systemic racism. By politicizing these silences, Solomon is engaged in….opening up spaces for silenced voices to speak themselves out of silence. Solomon makes it clear that the marginalization of Native voices is not the result of any casual oversight. He writes to ‘Canada: ‘You have rejected/and refused,/the most colourful/the most fundamental/thread of all./You have refused to include the original/people of this land…’ (Solomon, Eating Bitterness). Solomon forcefully asserts that the absence of Native voices from the dominant conception of ‘Canada’ is a result of a deliberate and systematic omission, a continuation of the same colonial project inaugurated by the early European explorers…. ….At the centre of his poem (both literally and thematically), Solomon begins a stanza with the phrase ‘O Canada: these two words, uttered together, invoke an entire range of associations. The phrase ‘O Canada’, as a verbal sign, so to speak, signifies on many levels. Every weekday morning, millions of children in classrooms across Canada, children of various cultural and ethnic backgrounds, sing these words, which begin the Canadian national anthem, in praise of ‘our’ nation. There is such certainty evoked by the word ‘Canada’, particularly in the context of this anthem; there is no question as to what Canada is – Canada is simply Canada. It is, as the song goes on, ‘our home and native land’ (here Solomon is obviously intending the allusion to this verse and the double meaning of the phrase ‘native land’). This sense of ownership is suggested, and with such sureness: ‘our home’. In this context, ‘Canada’ is unproblematic, unified and coherent. This is exactly where Solomon catches us. His second line of the stanza – ‘you are sick’ – undermines the sense of coherency and stability usually suggested by this image of Canada. Solomon problematizes ‘Canada’ by suggesting that, rather than unified and stable, it is a concept marked by certain fundamental absences and silences which threaten to destabilize its very constitution….The song ‘O Canada’, as a particular example, validates hegemonic culture by evoking dominant ideas about Canada and presenting it as an unproblematic whole. Solomon deconstructs this, challenging hegemonic ideology by suggesting that there is no unity. By interrogating the spaces of silence/violence at the heart of this concept, Solomon opens up ‘Canada’ to an important postcolonial investigation. Solomon, in deconstructing the Western conceptions of Native Americans as non-white Others….asserting that there exists a lack not within Native culture but rather at the very heart of the hegemonic Western culture that has denied the diverse voices of Native people. This ‘lack’ is central to what Solomon diagnoses as the pathology of Western colonial culture, a culture that is ‘sick’ because it has ignored the teachings and wisdom of Native Americans. He is thus problematizing and/or subverting the position of the dominant culture which represents itself as fully realized. Solomon is also problematizing the constructed colonial identities of Natives by stressing the diversity of Native culture; in describing it as ‘colourful’ (Art Solomon, Eating Bitterness), he is suggesting its richness and diversity. Asserting the reality of a multiplicity of Native cultures and languages, Solomon again upsets the binary logic of oppositional identities which relies on the stereotypical conception of ‘Native’ as a monolithic category. By addressing this diversity, Solomon upsets the categories by which hegemonic culture seeks to contain and control Native culture. Solomon is also engaged in this poem in deconstructing the Western idea of ‘progress’….Solomon rejects these Western colonial capitalist notions of progress, and suggests just the opposite: You have refused to include the original people of this land and your tapestry of life will never be completed…. And when you stop destroying the earth and the people of the earth then your healing can come. Canada, as a nation, Solomon writes, cannot grow, cannot ‘progress’ and heal, until it learns to listen to and respect the voices and teachings of Native culture. Western ‘progress’, as a capitalist ideology based on the importance of commercial and territorial expansion and monetary gain, is central to the Western psyche. Solomon, by locating this ideology as the source of Western pathology, opens up the often unchallenged authority of Western culture to a series of questions and probings, and makes room for – indeed, suggests the need for – Native voices to be heard. Solomon’s project in ‘My Relations: O Canada’ is central to the theoretical project of contemporary cultural studies and postcolonial theory. Solomon problematizes Canadian concepts of identity and nation by exposing the politics which inform our national identity. With his words, he is paving the way for a diverse nation to become accountable to those voices that have been silenced and marginalized. Solomon offers us a vision of hope, ultimately, that it is not too late for us to learn from Native culture – perhaps most importantly, to learn how to heal. After that rather heavy discourse, I will add a few words from Eating Bitterness: A Vision From Beyond The Prison Walls by Art Solomon (who worked so actively on behalf of Native peoples in the prisons): “When Christopher Columbus landed in North America not one Native person was in prison, because there were no prisons. We had laws and order because law was written in the hearts and minds and souls of the people and when justice had to be applied it was tempered with mercy. The laws came from the ceremonies which were given by the spirit people, the invisible ones. As a people we were less than perfect as all other people are, but we had no prisons because we didn’t need them. We knew how to live and we also knew how not to live.” Finally I will close with a poem I wrote after the ceremony at Laurentian University that honoured the anniversary of Art’s travelling on: LASTING MEMORIAL It was a night to remember A night to rejoice To lift up one another To let the spirit come To join in the feast With family and friends So there was laughter – and tears of joy Memories of good times Work at the farm Cutting firewood Planting trees Building fences Weeding the garden Waiting for Art’s teachings Teachings that were more than just learning of the traditions Of the sweat lodge or the pipe That the strongest medicine was ‘L.O.V.E.’ And that too many cooks never spoiled the broth In Eva’s kitchen – she could always use the help By working together Whatever task needed doing got done Together all were stronger in purpose Than in mere individual effort Collectively and cooperatively work was done And there is more work Much more yet to do So let’s not let any differences, Whether race, colour or creed, Stand in our way Remember the four sacred colours of man All meet in the middle Of the Unity button some of us wear So let’s fiNISH the work started together. FiNISH the work began By creating a lasting memorial To Art and Eva.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 01:51:24 +0000

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