The Story of Niibish with Ann Megisikwe Filemyr and Tahnahga Yako Myers
The Story of Niibish will be told, an ancestral tale of the long-ago handed down through the Oral Tradition of the Anishinaabeg peoples. Ann Megisikwe and Tahnahga both carry this story as part of their role as lineage carriers of the late Keewydinoquay, an Anishinaabe mashkikikwe (Ojibwe herbal medicine woman).
This traditional story carries medicine to help wound the ruptures that can befall families, communities, and nations when division is based on difference and a lack of understanding ensues. It is a sacred story that reminds us of our fundamental interconnection and interdependence on each other and on water and all that lives, grows and flourishes in the waters, fresh or saltwater.
This story helps us recall our fundamental kinship with the other-than-human realms and reminds us that we are all related despite the appearance of surface differences. It helps us reach back into our own ancestral memories to recall the stories in most coastal cultures regarding the finned people. Perhaps they are half human and half fish, but weren’t we all underwater beings conceived in the watery womb of our mother’s bodies? Are Mer stories also tales of our earliest form of becoming? Are they persistent memories that continue to fascinate and intrigue us?
In this time of large scale environmental and social destruction, how do we reclaim the knowledge contained in these ancient tales in order to re-imagine our relationships and re-structure our lives to include the magical?
Join us for this exploration.
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