Page 31 - Walking_The_Red_Road

Work is Ceremony and Ceremony is Work
By Dawn Lamothe, U-ACT Associate Researcher
Dawn Lamothe is Métis/Swampy Cree born
and raised in North Bay. Her family comes from Constance Lake First Nation and Moosonee
and Attawapiskat. Having completed a B.A.
at Nipissing University and a post graduate program in Indigenous Wellness and Addictions Prevention, Dawn currently works for the North Bay Indian Friendship Centre as an Aboriginal Prenatal Nutrition/Family Support assistant. Dawn also mentors and supports youth transitioning from foster care to independence and attends ceremonies and a women’s sharing circle.
The beginning of my journey as an Indigenous researcher involved separating myself from a western definition of a researcher. A western researcher may enter a community not being familiar with it at all and take ownership of knowledge and treat people as subjects.
“Reciprocity” teaches that in the context of ceremonies and sharing circles, I would not enter into the community as a different person, a researcher, looking to take, remove or claim knowledge as my own when it belongs to the women. Instead, I participated as an Aboriginal woman, born and raised in this community.
By regularly attending the sharing circles with a genuine, open mind and heart, inviting along my auntie, mom, and female friends to share this experience with me, I created a real relationship with the women, young, old, and in between, sharing about the values of the “front porch.”
I attend ceremonies and sharing circles regularly to stay acquainted with the community, especially since we will be drawing upon these people for their input, to share stories, or participate in our events in the future. I think it is important to build trust and be transparent. But attending provided me much more than I expected.
Entering a women’s sharing circle for the
first time can be daunting to say the least. If there was an analogy I could use to describe the experience initially, I would say it was a grandmother holding my hand in hers and walking with me. As I reflect upon the last year, I am simply amazed by the impact that culture and spirituality can have on life.
It is important for us to attend as we still have much to learn about ceremonies and our roles as women leading youth, and also being able
to pass on the knowledge to them about their roles as they mature. For me, this is “building capacity” in its purest form. Having one of our youth from the YAC be our fire keeper during a ceremony is a great example of the good we can do when we continue to support and empower our youth. Myself and the other women were very grateful for the fire and the youth agreeing to tend to it during our ceremony. In turn, he was able to gain invaluable experience and build his confidence acting in his role as a man.
Participating in the sharing circle was not just simply sharing about day to day living, but rather spirituality, culture, and what that means to
us today. Ongoing themes, beyond the values we shared about each week, were residential school, family, women’s roles, and how colonization has affected us, our families, our friends and this community.
Women as the caretakers, volunteers, nurturers, knowledge keepers, and story tellers of our community are not necessarily always valued because women do not do their work for the recognition. Women pass along power. We
pass along opportunities and we give back silently. But we remember the “heartbeat of our grandmothers through the drum.”
We learned together how we have all grown together.
Walking the Red Road | REPORT OF THE URBAN ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES THRIVE PROJECT | 31