Family & Community Gatherings
Through the course of a year an Ojibwa community celebrated the following rituals. At the time of the first maple sap run in the spring, at the appearance of the first berries of each species through the summer, during the wild rice harvest in the fall, when the first animals were killed in the late fall, the Ojibwas conducted thanksgiving feasts for the manitous, providing them with burnt food offerings, prayers, dances and songs. Throughout the winter each family told and retold the tribal myths, thereby recalling and invoking the manitous for the good of the group. At midwinter the family held a feast to the bear Owner and to the bears themselves. At midsummer the extended family made petitionary prayers and offerings to the manitous at a painted pole ceremony. In addition, each person presented a feast and offering to guardian manitous at some time during the year.
- Christopher Vecsey, Traditional Ojibwa Religion and Its Historical Changes
Family and Community Gatherings are formal and informal sites of governance and dialogue, spaces where community members can come together to build and maintain relationships with one another. These spaces provide opportunities for families and nations to observe, discuss, and make decisions that impact the wellbeing of children and youth. They can also be spaces of learning and connection. These gatherings often include elements of ceremony and minigoziwin (inherent sovereignty). Informal gatherings can include community events such as baseball and other sporting events while more formal gatherings include multi-day treaty gatherings and pow-wows.
In the past, family and community gatherings were a way to recognize children’s achievements, maintain relationships with relations outside of one’s community, and an opportunity to participate in governance within and across communities. As Peter S. Schmalz explains, huge gatherings occurred throughout Anishinaabe lands and waters over the spring, summer, and fall. Bawaating (present-day Sault Ste. Marie) was and remains a major centre for such gatherings. Numerous Ojibwa bands representing the various clans gathered from hundreds of miles around Sault Ste Marie to participate in festivals, renew their alliances, and to feast on large quantities of white fish which sustained them during their lengthy meetings. Such meetings gave ample opportunities for potential leaders to form military units against their enemies.
As former Chief Dean Sayers of Batchewana stated, the people that lived around the Great Lakes, the Indigenous people, lived and met in this area and had spiritual, governance, and clan gatherings, feasted together and managed all of the Great Lakes. These gatherings were a site of governance and land-use decision-making. Those attending regional gatherings would stay anywhere from one to three weeks before heading back home to their respective territories. For gatherings held in the late summer, those returning home would be preparing for the fall and winter hunts. Decisions about who would hunt where and on what land were then made at common or local councils, before the extended families who comprised those councils headed off to their respective winter hunting territories.
These gatherings were about more than governance as families visited, feasted, danced and enjoyed one another’s company. In the past, feasts and gatherings occurred throughout a child’s life cycle. The first feast was usually given for all the relatives to celebrate the arrival of the new member of the family. Another feast would then be held when the child was given their name, and another feast following a child’s first kill and on completion of their first fast or menstrual cycle.
Community gatherings like “All Souls Day” on November 1st provide opportunities for community members to connect and share with one another. As Joanne Boyer explains, “you’d go to everybody’s house, and you’d just eat. And then you’d go to the next house, and you’d eat again. It’s like you never got full. You would always make your way to everyone’s house in the community. And that’s when everybody just shared everything. Men hunted and fished for this day and women started preparing several days before. The whole community honoured those who passed on as well as shared the food they had. This is when community took time to visit.”
Similarly, Joanne Boyer remembers that when she visited the lake, everybody took care of everybody else. Sandra Owl of Serpent River described a large room called “the classroom” where weddings, funerals and feasts were held. People would enter in through one door and do what they had to do and then go out the other door. There would always be people in the little galley kitchen, and they would cook. Similarly, Colleen McCabe of Batchewana described how, regarding funerals, the Band staff did all the cooking for a feast. The Band office was closed for the day of the funeral. Colleen stated that in her opinion, communities have gotten away from those events where everybody came together to meet and be with others. Community gatherings provided opportunities to volunteer and contribute to yours and other families and the community.
Today, family and community gatherings continue to provide opportunities for communities to reconnect to culture and language, to recognize achievements and work together to achieve collective goals. Joanne Owl of Sagamok explains how a community gathering provided an opportunity to revive the sacred fire in their community.
Remember our second language camp, we were there on the hill, well the weather wasn’t good. Juanita was there cleaning, that place we went to was a party place, lots of beer cans around. While Juanita was cleaning out the beer caps, so we decided to make fire. We had that pipe ceremony there and we went over there to have a feast. Everybody went and got wood. We had no firewood. We had no intentions for a sacred fire. That’s how the sacred fire came to the language camp. So everybody went into the bush and brought the dry stuff out. We had a nice big fire. Everybody brought their dish, everybody brought something. It was a potluck. Margaret Toulouse made a spirit plate. She went to put it in the fire, and it went "pouf!" it just grabbed all the food. Ancestors who have never been fed, It was really, really powerful to see, like a lot of us witnessed it. "I had to go running around to buy some wood and fire keepers. That was the beginning of that sacred fire. So every year after that we had fire and firekeepers there and we feasted the ancestors. It was amazing how that fire just grabbed that food.
Family and community gatherings also provide opportunities for extended family and community members to observe one another and provide teachings that support wellbeing and healthy behaviours. Several Elders interviewed stated that at a community gathering and someone is doing something wrong, you should be able to go and help and see what’s wrong. Pamela Rose Toulouse of Sagamok explains that she makes a point in her community to attend most social functions. It’s an unwritten rule understood by all to maintain a good level of visibility. She said that community events provide members with an opportunity to see how and what each other is doing. When one participates in these community gatherings you are demonstrating your commitment to the good life of all.
Participants from the Sagamok Anishnawbek Community Story explain that,
Participants from the Sagamok Anishnawbek Community Story explain that,
Youth enjoy community gatherings like the fall harvest and would like more community celebrations to connect across age barriers, cultural identity, and life milestones like graduation. Such gatherings provide an opportunity for families to spend time together.
In the past, ceremonial gatherings were intimately linked to governance, providing opportunity for political gatherings where leaders discussed issues of war and diplomacy and resolved disputes over sugarbush, hunting, and ricing claims, both among themselves and with newcomers. Today, ceremony plays a major role in facilitating regional gatherings.
Heidi Bohaker describes how these treaty gatherings are being revitalized across the North Shore of Lake Huron:
In September of 2016, on the anniversary of the treaty signing, the Robinson-Huron Treaty First Nations gathered at Whitefish Island in Sault Ste. Marie, the site of the original treaty negotiations. While the chiefs and councillors of these nations had collaborated in the past, this was a much larger gathering of several thousand people to both learn about the treaty and its history and to revitalize and celebrate Anishinaabe culture and history, with feasting, music, dancing, and games. This initial gathering was in conjunction with the launch of the Robinson-Huron and Robinson-Superior court case, Restoule v Canada, concerning the question of annuities in the treaty.
These multi-day celebrations invite members of all treaty signatory First Nations and interested guests to attend. They are inclusive, multigenerational gatherings where the host nation provides feasts and where there are a range of activities for young and old as well as formal conversations about governance.
These contemporary gatherings continue to provide opportunities for law-making, cultural revitalization and relationship-building.