from Daily Meditations

As a little boy who had no connection to his history or culture, his language or stories, his homelands and to the bones of his ancestors buried there, I was given an incredible and life-altering gift. My late Aunty Georgina. Through her I was brought home. I was brought back to my history, my culture, my language, my stories and the lands that held the bones of my ancestors. Through her I (re) learned the sounds of Cree, nêhiyawewin; I (re) learned the stories, âcimowina, that (re) connected me to the land, askiy, my land. I (re) learned the ceremony of nôhkom apihkêsis, Grandmother Spider, and how she connects us to the web of life. I (re) gained what had been taken from my mother, my grandfather. This became my inheritance and the thread that connected me back to nôhkom’s web, back to our beginnings. Back to our teachings, and ultimately back to our hearts, mitêhwînan.

Gregory Scofield is a Métis poet and non-fiction writer, whose maternal ancestry can be traced to the Red River Settlement and the Métis community of Kinosota, Manitoba. He is the author of eight poetry collections, as well as two resource guides on Métis material art. His first memoir, Thunder Through My Veins (1999) will be reprinted in 2019, as well as his second memoir, which will be published in 2020 with Penguin/Random House Canada.