"All My Relations": Metis Elders' Stories Teach Relational Accountability

• In Event: 34.025 - Truth, Reconciliation, and Building Relational Accountability: Fostering New Approaches to Educational Engagement With Indigenous Communities

Abstract

Elders’ stories provide understanding of foundational concepts of Indigenous knowledge and land pedagogies, including experiential, transformative, and cultural learning drawing from the teachings of Indigenous peoples. Tom McCallum, a Métis Elder and speaker of the Cree or Nehiyawak language, and other important Elders agreed to have their stories and wisdom from these stories recorded and shared so that their knowledge and languages are not lost and are passed on for others of their community to learn and grow as people and community and to be shared more widely to aid in thinking through educational practices. Various stories from Elders are shared to highlight opportunities for education prevalent in the Indigenous knowledge systems within which Elders are sharing.

Tom McCallum provided an explanation of the Nihiyawuk expression “nitotemuk”. He states:
Nitotemuk comes from the word otot, which translates to his or her canoe. The nehiyaw see life as a journey on water using a canoe or oosi. All your immediate blood relatives, kitotemuk, are in the canoe with you. This refers to your lineage, as opposed to your relatives or relations, which include all of the universe. When people say ‘all my relations’ it refers to all of Creation. This term ‘all my relations’ comes from the Lakota saying Mita Okuyasin, which kind of translates to ‘all my relations’. Traditionally Cree did not use the term ‘all my relations’. This saying is contemporary. Otoot, which refers to his canoe, is the foundation of ototemuk and means all the ones in the canoe with you, or your lineage. … The word Totem comes from this and is used contemporarily to describe spirit helpers. The Cree, as far as I know, do not use this term other than to refer to their lineage. I hope this helps. The ‘all my relations’ aspect of the wind, rocks, sun, moon, etc. would be niwahkoomakumuk, or my relations. (Iseke, 2010, 90)

With the words ‘all my relations’ we as community members and educators are reminded that in recognizing “this connection comes the responsibility to take care of and respect all creation” (Schiff & Moore, 2006, p. 59). Elders stories demonstrate and document the importance of interconnectedness and learning within relationships, apprenticeships with Elders, recognizing sacred teachings and accumulated knowledge in cultural teachings, and a relational approach where students and educators learn from Elders and other knowledge-keepers. The Elders’ stories show an Indigenous approach that is grounded in their localized, Indigenous knowledge that can be utilized, shared and engaged in educational contexts.

The benefits of learning from Elders’ stories is they provide a guide for mainstream educators who are open to learning of educational practices that can be incorporated into mainstream education. When we return to our languages, our cultural understandings, our connections to our ancestors and ancestral knowledge, our connections to the land, and our connections to our inner selves, spirit and soul, begins to strengthen. This is why our connections to language strengthen who we are.

Author

• Judy M. Iseke, University of Alberta