Aki Mashkiki: Earth Medicine

Mosquitoes, bulldog horse flies and the beating sun did not stop a group of University of Manitoba students and staff from learning on the land with Carla Bird, Red Sky Bird and Ramona Milliea. These three siblings have been learning about traditional medicines from their mother, Dr. and Knowledge Keeper Kathy Bird, for their entire lives. Throughout a day of learning at Tommy’s Point Cultural Camp and Matootoo Lake Medicine Lodge in Peguis First Nation, we saw firsthand the incredible depth of knowledge, experience and hard work that goes into harvesting and prescribing traditional medicines.

On the algae-green shores of Lake Winnipeg, Milliea, who works as a Knowledge Keeper with the Just Waters project, shared about the waters that flow between Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba. Spirits take care of these waters, which create both the bog where medicines flourish and regular flooding in Peguis homes and businesses. She reminded us that Peguis didn’t choose to live on a flood plain—in 1907 Peguis residents were forced to surrender the St. Peter’s reserve in Selkirk and were relocated. In 1998 Canada confirmed that this surrender was void and legally invalid.

As we moved into the bush, surrounded by lush greenery, Red Sky Bird described the annual harvest. He carries extensive knowledge of when, where and how to harvest each plant. Sustainable harvesting is a core value at Matootoo Lake Medicine Lodge, ensuring that the plants will continue to grow year after year in contrast to commercial harvesters who will clear cut an entire area and leave it barren. 

Red Sky showed us how to cut the plants instead of pulling them out by the root, how to select some plants for harvest but leave the plants with seeds behind and explained that he never picks the same area two years in a row to allow for regrowth. 

“I was struck by the importance of nibi (Anishinaabemowin for water) by how often Ramona, Red Sky and Carla each said how abundant the medicines were this year due to the rainfall. I recognized how important nibi is to connecting with creation,” Master of Social Work - Indigenous Knowledges student Leah Thomson shared. Despite recent floods, these teachers shared their gratitude and respect for nibi many times throughout the day.

As we explored the bush for medicines like yarrow, wild ginger, pitcher plant, juniper and muskeg tea, Carla Bird shared some of their uses. Treating everything from fatty liver to cancer to diabetes, custom-made tonics can either work in partnership with Western medicine or stand on their own. 

Carla’s knowledge of the medicines is encyclopedic, and she is generous with her teachings. As she tells stories about the harvest, we can see that it involves a lot of hard work, humour and also ceremony. Harvesters offer tobacco, sing songs to the plants, infuse their words and their work with gratitude and a positive attitude. 

Christian Quequish, a first-year student in the Master of Social Work - Indigenous Knowledges program, was surprised to learn about the variety of medicines that grow all around us.

Majestic Moerland is an Environmental Studies Student and works with Just Waters as part of the Indigenous Summer Student Internship Program. As a participant and a key organizer of the event, Moerland said, “I grew up feeling very disconnected from tradition and practices. I was overwhelmed realizing how many medicines grow around me within my own yard. Aki Mashkiki has truly shifted my perspective on our plant relatives as I now recognize more and more of them in my daily travels.”

What was the most surprising thing we learned? The medicine used most at Matootoo Lake Medicine Lodge is considered an enemy by gardeners and golf-course groundskeepers everywhere: dandelion!

Funded by the University of Manitoba’s  Ignite programme and a project of the Centre for Human Rights Research, Just Waters is an interdisciplinary project that explores the connections between water, justice and injustice. Led by historian Adele Perry, Just Waters enters the particular context of Treaty One and the deep knowledges and history of water in this place.

Events like Aki Mashkiki are one of the ways we create and communicate knowledge about water. At the same time, they celebrate and explore the crucial ways that Indigenous people share knowledge with community and across generations.