Elders' Wisdom Series: Between Two Worlds

University of Calgary

30 Jun 202008:41

Summary

TLDRReg Crow Shoe, from the Piikani First Nation, introduces the importance of smudging in Blackfoot culture, emphasizing it as a sacred ritual that formalizes storytelling. He highlights the oral tradition of sharing stories about relationships with nature, people, animals, and the universe. Reg also discusses the link between traditional teachings and modern health practices, drawing parallels between Indigenous perspectives on sickness and Western preventive health measures, particularly in relation to stress and conditions like Bell's palsy. His message underscores the value of integrating both Indigenous and Western knowledge for a balanced life.

Takeaways

🔥 Smudging is a vital practice in Blackfoot culture that sets a formal space for storytelling.
📜 Oral stories in the culture emphasize relationships between humans, nature, animals, and the universe.
🌿 Smudging rituals make the stories more formal, bringing them into a sacred context.
🌍 Blackfoot culture values stories because they preserve experiences and interactions between living and non-living entities.
👻 The concept of 'ghosts' in Blackfoot culture represents unseen forces like sicknesses, connecting spiritual belief with health.
💬 Emotions, such as fear and respect, are fundamental parts of the creation story and guide how people should live their lives.
🧘 The story of an elder who experienced paralysis (interpreted as Bell's palsy) teaches the importance of living a healthy, stress-free, and respectful life.
🗣️ Talking badly about others and living an unhealthy lifestyle are considered to invite 'ghosts,' leading to illness or imbalance in life.
⚖️ The traditional oral knowledge about ghosts and illness aligns with modern preventive health guidelines (stress reduction, healthy living, and positive behavior).
🔗 Bridging traditional knowledge with modern health practices can help young Indigenous people navigate between both cultural and scientific systems.

Q & A

Who is the speaker and what is their cultural background?
-The speaker is Reg Crow Shoe from the Piikani First Nation, and his Blackfoot name is Alec I Seen, meaning 'dear chief.' He speaks the Blackfoot Piikani language and comes from an oral culture where storytelling is essential.
What is the significance of smudging in the speaker’s culture?
-In the speaker's culture, smudging is an important ceremonial practice. It creates a formal setting for storytelling and is a way to connect with the Creator through the rising smoke. This makes the stories told in this context more formal and meaningful.
How does the speaker describe the relationship between storytelling and their culture?
-The speaker emphasizes that storytelling in their culture is deeply connected to nature, human beings, animals, and the universe. These interactions create experiences and stories, which are passed down orally. Stories serve as a way to explain relationships and teach life lessons.
What role does emotion play in the speaker’s cultural stories about creation?
-Emotion is central in the speaker’s creation stories. They believe that Creator first experienced emotion because of loneliness. This emotion was passed on to humans as part of creation, along with respect and disrespect, which guide how emotion should be used.
What cultural belief does the speaker mention regarding sickness?
-The speaker’s culture views sickness as ghosts—unseen entities that affect people. For example, an elder in their community believed her face was paralyzed due to negative emotions, stress, and bad behavior like talking negatively about others. This was seen as a punishment from these 'ghosts.'
What preventive health practices does the speaker mention from their cultural teachings?
-The speaker mentions three preventive practices from traditional teachings: living a stress-free life, exercising, and avoiding negative talk about others. These practices are believed to prevent sickness, which is viewed as being caused by 'ghosts.'
How does the speaker relate traditional knowledge to modern health practices?
-The speaker connects traditional teachings about sickness to modern health guidelines. For instance, their traditional belief that negative emotions and stress can cause physical illness, like face paralysis, aligns with Western medical advice on preventing Bell’s palsy by reducing stress and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
What example does the speaker give to explain how traditional and modern health beliefs can work together?
-The speaker gives an example of Bell’s palsy. Traditional teachings about respecting emotions and avoiding negativity align with modern advice on managing stress to prevent Bell’s palsy. This shows that traditional and modern approaches can complement each other in health care.
Why does the speaker emphasize the importance of blending traditional and modern knowledge?
-The speaker stresses that young Indigenous people can benefit from both traditional and modern knowledge. By integrating cultural teachings with modern health guidelines, individuals can find a balanced approach to living a healthy life.
What is the main message the speaker conveys about traditional stories and health?
-The speaker’s main message is that traditional stories about health and well-being are valuable and align with modern health practices. By respecting both oral traditions and written medical advice, individuals can lead healthier lives, rooted in both their culture and contemporary science.

Outlines

00:00

🌿 Cultural Significance of Smudging and Storytelling

Reg Crow Shoe introduces himself, sharing his Blackfoot name, Alec, which means 'dear chief' in his language. He emphasizes the importance of smudging in Blackfoot culture, explaining that smudging creates a formal space for storytelling. In this oral tradition, stories serve to reflect relationships between nature, humans, animals, and the universe. These stories gain a formal status during the smudging ritual, making them more than casual narratives. He then proceeds with the smudge, using sweetgrass, which he says connects the participants to the Creator, ensuring the stories are told in their authentic form.

05:03

🌌 Creation Stories and Preventative Health in Indigenous Tradition

Reg Crow Shoe shares a story from his grandmother about creation and the symbolic meaning of sickness in Blackfoot culture. He recounts how emotions, like fear, were part of creation, and how ghosts, representing sickness, can impact people’s lives. A specific example is an elder whose face became paralyzed due to stress, bad behavior, and negative talk about others. The lesson from this experience emphasizes living a healthy, respectful, and stress-free life to avoid such afflictions. He later draws a connection between this traditional belief and modern preventive health advice, such as managing stress and staying healthy, illustrating how both Indigenous wisdom and Western medicine offer valuable insights for well-being.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Smudge

Smudging is a ritual in the speaker’s culture, where burning herbs or sweetgrass produces smoke, symbolizing a connection with the Creator. This practice sets a sacred space for storytelling and formalizes the process. In the video, Reg Crow Shoe begins with a smudge to prepare for sharing important cultural stories.

💡Oral Culture

An oral culture is one that primarily preserves and transmits knowledge, traditions, and stories through spoken word rather than writing. The speaker emphasizes the significance of storytelling in their culture, linking stories to relationships with nature, humans, animals, and the universe. In the Blackfoot tradition, stories carry formal weight, especially when shared after a smudge.

💡Stories

In the video, stories are central to the speaker's culture, representing lived experiences and interactions with the world. These stories explain relationships between humans, nature, animals, and the universe. They become formal and sacred through rituals like smudging, indicating their cultural importance beyond simple narratives.

💡Creator

In the Blackfoot belief system, the Creator is the divine entity responsible for the creation of the universe and all life. The speaker refers to the Creator in the context of smudging, where the smoke from the herbs connects people to the Creator, ensuring that the stories told are truthful and aligned with tradition.

💡Ghosts

Ghosts in the speaker’s culture are metaphors for sicknesses or unseen forces. They represent negative energy or illness, such as the paralysis experienced by an elder. These 'ghosts' were explained through traditional stories, linking emotional stress and poor behavior to physical ailments, showing the culture’s perspective on health and morality.

💡Preventive Health

Preventive health refers to measures taken to avoid illness, which aligns with both traditional Blackfoot wisdom and modern Western health systems. The speaker describes how their cultural practices, like living stress-free, exercising, and avoiding gossip, parallel modern Western guidelines for preventing conditions like Bell’s palsy.

💡Bell’s Palsy

Bell's palsy is a condition that causes sudden weakness or paralysis of the muscles on one side of the face. The speaker links it to both traditional stories of ghosts and modern medical understandings of stress-related illness, showing how both cultural and scientific perspectives can offer insights into preventive health.

💡Respect

Respect, in the speaker’s narrative, is a fundamental value bestowed by the Creator, used to manage emotions and maintain harmony. In the context of health and relationships, the speaker emphasizes how respecting others and oneself—through actions like avoiding gossip—helps prevent negative consequences like sickness or emotional imbalance.

💡Western Health System

The Western health system refers to the formal, written medical guidelines and practices used in modern healthcare. In the video, the speaker contrasts this system with their own oral traditions, noting how both provide valuable insights into preventive health, particularly in managing stress and maintaining physical well-being.

💡Traditional Knowledge

Traditional knowledge refers to the wisdom passed down through generations in Indigenous cultures, often through stories, rituals, and practices. The speaker shares how their grandmother taught them about the connection between emotional states, behavior, and health, offering a cultural perspective that complements modern health practices.

Highlights

Reg Crow Shoe introduces himself, mentioning his Blackfoot name and its significance.

Explanation of the importance of smudge ceremonies in Blackfoot culture, emphasizing its role in storytelling and formalizing stories.

Description of oral culture in Blackfoot tradition, where stories preserve relationships between nature, humans, animals, and the universe.

The smudge ceremony allows stories to transition from informal to formal, becoming sacred and meaningful.

As part of the smudge, smoke is believed to connect people with the Creator, ensuring stories are told accurately and respectfully.

Reg Crow Shoe shares a traditional story about medicine men and preventive health in Blackfoot culture.

Comparison of modern health systems and traditional knowledge, highlighting a disconnect young Indigenous people experience between these two worlds.

A creation story is shared, explaining how emotions, respect, and disrespect were part of the world's creation.

The story of an elder with Bell's palsy illustrates traditional beliefs about sickness, stress, and bad behavior as manifestations of ghosts.

Traditional preventive health focuses on maintaining emotional balance, avoiding stress, exercising, and speaking well of others.

The elder explained that disrespect and stress caused her sickness, linking her paralysis to the concept of ghosts in the culture.

Reg Crow Shoe identifies a similarity between traditional knowledge and modern health guidelines, particularly concerning Bell's palsy.

He highlights how modern preventive health strategies, like stress reduction and exercise, mirror the oral traditions of the Blackfoot people.

Reg Crow Shoe encourages young Indigenous people to embrace both traditional and modern knowledge for a holistic way of life.

He emphasizes that both traditional oral culture and modern written systems have value and can be used together for a better understanding of health and well-being.