Nikeying (The Four Directions)
Nikeying - The four directions serves as a child wellbeing model that has bigidnigeng, or personal healing at its core. The model also serves as a reminder that a child wellbeing system must consider and support all four quadrants of a child’s being: emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual. The Four Directions, or quadrants, of the medicine wheel are associated with many Anishinaabe teachings on the importance of balance in the world and in ourselves. Nikeying also refers back to Anishinaabe creation stories where Kitche Manitou created four spiritual beings: Zhawano (South), Keewatin (North), Waubun (Morning or East), and Ningobianong (Evening or West). He assigned each one to a quarter of the world and to a portion of time. To each spirit, Kitche Manitou gave a power over life to be exercised with wisdom. All four of the spirit beings lived in harmony.
Nikeying are also understood to represent the four parts of an individual: body, mind, emotions, and spirit. These teachings are seen as gifts from the Creator, with each Anishinaabe person responsible for maintaining a healthy balance. Neglecting one part of Nikeying leads to an imbalance of the whole self.
Nikeying is also a model for the four life stages of newborns, youth, adults, and elders, with each direction representing a new set of teachings and medicine to assist and nurture those traveling along the red road. We move through life around the wheel, starting in the East until we complete our journey in the north. As Alexandra Kahsenniio Nahwegahbow describes, the symbol of the equal-armed cross was often incorporated into designs for tikinagans (cradle boards for babies) and other items used in the care of Anishinaabe children. Well past European contact, Anishinaabe people continued to embed their worldview and teachings into their daily life through Nikeying:
…the notion of life is often conceived as being circular and oriented to the four directions. This symbol of the equal-armed cross, as well as signifying the four stages of life, the four winds, the four medicines and the cycle of the four seasons, also indicates the importance of interconnectedness. Everything that extends outwards from those four directions meets back at the center at the point of intersection. In much the same way that the upper world of the Thunderbeings cannot exist without the lower world of Mishipizhu, the understanding of living, and “living well” requires components from each of Nikeying. They are interconnected so that they make up four sides of the same meaningful and balanced whole.
Some teachings describe seven sacred directions. These seven directions include not only yellow, red, black, and white representing east, south, west, and north, but also blue, green, and purple. In these teachings, “Blue represents Father Sky in the upper realm. Green represents Mother Earth in the lower realm. Purple represents the self in the middle of the wheel, the spirit who journeys through this physical world and through all the directions. In all these models of Nikeying, the concepts of balance and harmony in one’s internal and external world are emphasized.
The Four Hills or Life Stages
Anishinaabe people divide the human life cycle into four hills or life stages. These stages are reflected in the medicine wheel. These four hills remind us that children and youth require different forms of support, guidance, and protection depending upon the stage of life they are in. Each of these four hills are associated with different periods of growth, learning, and responsibility: Elder Danny Musqua’s describes the teachings about these life stages and their associated responsibilities:
Each life stage has certain roles and responsibilities. Infancy and early childhood involve being nurtured, being dependent on others, and developing trust. As children grow older, they learn about discipline and taking up responsibilities. Youth is a time when individuals begin to assume adult responsibilities and are charged with caregiving duties for the young and old in the community. This is a time when there is plenty of “volunteer work.” Adults carry responsibilities of providing for family, and elders are the teachers and keepers of knowledge, law, and ceremony.
During a focus group in Batchewana First Nation, our researchers documented one participant’s comments: “…everything is connected, right, everything starts in that big circle right from day one, when that birth is there. There’s so much learning and teaching, and everything is connected as they grow to their learning, to becoming who they are, to knowing who they are, to when they grow up to be parents and Elders – the whole life cycle.”
The wellbeing of Anishinaabe Abinoojinyag (children) require all community members to know and fulfill their responsibilities according to the teachings around the Four Hills. Scholar Kim Anderson explains that even infants and toddlers have responsibilities within their families and communities:
Infants are responsible for bringing joy to the family; this is their job. Because of their proclivity for curiosity and the need to explore. Toddlers remind us of the importance of maintaining a safe environment. Children bring truth because their honesty demands it, and youth offer challenges to community norms. Young adults are responsible for doing the “work of the people”; they can be called upon to do whatever labour is necessary to ensure community survival. Parents are providers, and grandparents are life teachers. Elders are highly regarded because they are the “spirit teachers.”
In some cases, trauma or harm can cause an individual to become ‘stuck’ in an earlier life stage. Odawa Elder Lisa Mosher describes how one can get stuck at any stage if one doesn’t go through the appropriate experiences and lessons that need to be learned:
… if someone has been overly disciplined as a child or youth, they might end up “running around” or engaging in immature behaviour in adulthood. Each stage must be completed in order to successfully achieve the next, and there are many who reach their senior years without achieving elderhood because they have not done the necessary work of growing and becoming responsible.
Anishinaabe teachings state that abinoojinyag – children, have recently travelled from the spirit world to arrive and live with their chosen families. Alexandra Kahsenniio Nahwegahbow explains this understanding of the close connection that abinoojinyag have with the spirit world below:
The activity of their souls and shadows and their profound ability to imagine and easily see things that cannot be seen by adults places young ones in a transitory position that is both a part of this world and that of the Creator. Babies were seen as gifts, and through their travel from the Spirit World at birth they maintained very close ties to that realm and therefore were considered to hold greater spiritual power than their adult counterparts. The round soft spot on the top of a baby’s head acts as a reminder of this power and the openness that little ones have to the Spirit World.
Elders are considered to be closer to the spirit world and share a very special relationships with children, who are new to this world, Elders ensure the protection of lifelines and the generational exchange between the young and old. According to Alexandra Kahsenni:io Nahwegahbow, materials such as tikinagans (cradleboards for babies) were used to protect infants and to keep them in the physical world with their families.
In this first stage of life, developing trust and feelings of safety and belonging are critical, as the time of infancy is considered very precarious. It is believed that children and young people are nearer to the spirit world than their adult counterparts, because they only recently made their journey to this realm. Despite seeming passive, their souls are quite active and they may easily slip back into the spirit world. It is for this reason that many Anishinaabe mothers carefully adorned the coverings of their child’s cradleboards with powerful beaded or painted designs, which served to protect and offer security to the baby wrapped within.¹⁸ Various objects were also hung from the curved bow to ward off any bad spirits or dreams that might bring about restlessness.¹⁹ In nurturing an infant’s feeling of safety through the thoughtful ornamentation of their cradle, mothers and grandmothers conveyed the value of the child’s place within the family, community, and madjimadzuin — the moving lifeline.
These loving and protective practices also provide children with teachings about Anishinaabe Adziwin that strengthen their sense of connection and belonging in their newfound communities.
According to the Best Start Resource Centre, as infants grow and develop into toddlers, the need to ensure their safety and support their growth continues. The toddler stage of the life cycle is all about safety. Toddlers are curious and love to learn. They explore and test their environment so that they can better understand it. Toddlers need a safe environment while they learn.
As children grow and learn, approaching the second hill, they begin to seek out their own purposes. During this life stage, ceremonies such as fasting and visioning encourage youth to find their path. According to Basil Johnston, a vision may be necessary for individuals to enter the next life stage of adulthood.
The second hill is that of youth. It is a time in life when the young begin to bloom in spirit and flourish in physical power and stature. What is striking is that youth includes many ages. There are those very young, hardly out of infancy; there are those who are much older. But no one proceeds to the next stage until they have received a vision. Until that time, a man or woman remains a youth.
As Anishinaabe people grow into adulthood, they take on greater responsibilities within their families and communities. As Alexandra Kahsenni:io Nahwegahbow explains that the hill of adulthood is a time of responsibility and reciprocity when individuals at this life stage provide and return the care that family and community members showed them when they were younger.
The fourth hill, old age, is also a time to give back and share what you have learned throughout your long life. According to Basil Johnston:
By living through all the stages and living out the visions, men and women know something of human nature, living and life. What they have come to know and abide by is wisdom. This is what they must pass on to those still on their life’s journey and still needing to climb the mighty hills. Only when they finally vanish into the mists is the work over.
At all stages of life, Anishinaabe individuals hold responsibility towards their families and communities and are considered valued nation members with unique and important gifts to share.