Mkwenim eko niizhwaaching ankoobjigananag

Mkwenim eko niizhwaaching ankoobjigananag - Considering the next seven generations.

Before talking about the Law, we have to start talking about, “How do we pass on those laws to our children when they’re starting to lose a lot of the teachings and how do we bring them back?” Are we looking at a land-based learning? Are we looking at being able to reintroduce our language? Because, without our language, we don’t have a culture – at least, that’s the way I look it. And a lot of our Elders who did speak the language are slowly leaving us to go on that journey. So I think the one thing that we should be considering is, “What about those generations to come – seven generations?” And it’s up to those generations that are behind us to pick up and re-establish who we were as, not only Mississaugas, but as Ojibwe people and the Anishinaabek. So that’s what I think of when I look at this, is that we were taught this; we weren't told this; I guess there’s a difference. And we knew how to raise our children and we knew that, early on, if you put a child in a [term in Anishinaabemowin], they learned patience, they learned how to stay quiet. I can remember my Dad taking the boys out to hunt at a very young age, and the first thing they would learn is that you had to be quiet, you had to be patient, and you just couldn't be... like, even whistling in the bush …[laughs]. So you had to learn all of that. But that was taught, and right now, we aren't teaching that to our next generation, and it would be really nice to be able to bring that back when we’re looking at our child wellbeing because it is our children who are going to carry on. And if they don’t, guess what happens? We kind of lose our battle that we’ve been fighting for millennia, of them trying to assimilate us or get rid of us. By Wilma Bissaillon, Mississauga.

The principle of Mkwenim eko niizhwaaching ankoobjigananag refers to the need for all decisions to be made in the context of how it will impact the next seven generations. According to one Sagamok Elder, the term “[e]nkoobjigan” means “tying it together.” “We can also say that when referencing great grandchildren “aankoobjignag”.  This is an important guiding principle in decisions that affect the well-being of children. All decisions made regarding children and child wellbeing should consider the impacts of this decision on the next seven generations. Anishinaabe scholar Kekek Jason Stark breaks down a similar term “aanikoobijigan” in the following way:

Anishinaabe oral traditions encompass our connection to the land through thousands of years of history. As we recount and share our traditional stories, our way of life is passed down through the generations along an interconnected string entitled nindaanikoobijiganag. The concept aanikoobijigan is defined as an ancestor, a great-grandparent, and a great-grandchild. This concept is derived from the terms aanikoobid- and -gan. The term aanikoobid- is further broken down by the term aanikaw-, which means a link, and -bid which means to tie it. The term -gan is a nominalizer term. Collectively, the term refers to the ancestral link tying together seven generations from a great-grandparent to a great-grandchild.

This description explains how the word encompasses the connections between generations throughout all of Anishinaabe history, dating back to the first ancestors. Mike Bisson of Mississauga said that his ancestors engaged the principle of Mkwenim eko niizhwaaching ankoobjigananag when they signed the Treaty in 1850 with those who signed the Treaty thinking of us now. Now that we’re doing this, we’re thinking of the next seven generations ahead to ensure their wellbeing is being addressed. This means their spiritual, mental, emotional, and their physical wellbeing as well as their relationship to everything.

Pamela Rose Toulouse refers to a similar concept, Naagdiwendaamaan Gii Geyaaba Waa Bimmaadzigig, which means “taking care of those yet unborn.”:  

One of the greatest teachings that the Anishinabe people have traditionally promoted is Naagdiwendaamaan Gii Geyaaba Waa Bimmaadzigig (taking care of those yet unborn). It has always been our way to live in a manner for the benefit and wellbeing of the seven generations yet to come. This means that each community member in Sagamok First Nation had the prime responsibility to take care of the earth and the land ensuring that our future children had a place to occupy. We live our life so our future generations can live a better one.

In the story of The Year the Roses Died, the animals all fail to protect the roses from being eaten into extinction.  The animals are reminded by a manidoo that everyone has a responsibility to care for others and to ensure the future wellbeing of every part of creation. This story also stands as a reminder that failure to consider future generations may result in the loss of valued relations. Practices such as naming connect one generation to another. The doodemag or clan system connects children to both human and non-human relations across time and space in a way that recognizes the interdependence of humans on their non-human relations.

Colonial practices in relation to lands, waters, and to Indigenous children continue to present serious challenges to individuals and communities seeking to live according to Mkwenim eko niizhwaaching ankoobjigananag. The Anishinabe knowledge, education, economic, and political systems of the Michi Saagiig Nishinaabeg were designed to promote more life.

Anishinaabe scholar David B. Anderson explores the creation of an Anishinaabe curriculum by describing the seven generations teachings he received:

I also begin by remembering the Seven Generations Teaching. In our Oral Tradition, we are told that we must remember our Ancestors who for the past Seven Generations have had to ensure that we who are here today and have access to original Anishinaabe Teachings. We are also told that everything we do today must be done to ensure that our Grandchildren, Seven Generations from now, will still be Anishinaabe.

In this Teaching, we are told that the Anishinaabeg would survive Seven Generations of oppression. The tyranny of the colonizers was predicted by our Elders, as was the destruction of our language and the suffering our people would endure to ensure that our Teachings would survive. Our Elders, through their teachings in the oral tradition, tell us that our children today are the children of the Seventh Generation and it is time for us to reclaim our Teachings. They also tell us it is time to teach what we know to be ours as Anishinaabe, as Dene, as Haudenosaunee so that there will still be Anishinaabe Seven Generations from now.

This statement shows how teaching future generations, protecting the lands and waters, and revitalizing Anishinaabe ways of being are all examples of Mkwenim eko niizhwaaching ankoobjigananag. It is up to a new generation to ensure that the traditional responsibility of stewardship continues for generations to come.