Native News Network: Raise High the "Ajijaak"

An article from the Native News Network!  Please help us spread the word so we can reach our goal for this book project!


FERNDALE, MICHIGAN - A small publishing house has big ideas for revitalizing the Anishinaabemowin language for both Native and non-Native children. 

5 years old and up

The company is called Four Colors Productions and already has five published children's books that rely heavily on Ojibwe teachings and language. The books are catered to five year olds and up, however, they do strongly encourage all ages to learn and enjoy.

Currently, the company is developing their sixth project entitled "Ajijaak," or "sandhill crane," and will be written in poetry format with illustrated pictures. The project's author Cecelia LaPointe, Ojibwe, has been published in "Voice On the Water: Great Lakes Native America Now," "Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature," "Art and Thought," as well as various journals, anthologies, and online publications. The project's illustrator, Brita Brookes, also happens to be the founder of this aboriginal and non-aboriginal company.

The story centers around the personified Ajijaak, who "cares for the water and the land, doesn't want to see it polluted and not cared for,"

says Ms. LaPointe. While there are no humans in the story, "we talk about humans and the pollution they do." The book will be environmentally friendly and encourage children to appreciate the land and its beauty.

Four Colors Productions works with many Natives, encouraging their writing and artistic skills as well as their knowledge of Anishinaabemowin.

The company is small and seeking the contributions from the Native community to help bring this book to the public. To learn more about the company and help out their cause at www.kickstarter.com.

Video: Sistah by Ami Mattison

Watch and listen to this amazing poem Sistah by my friend Ami Mattison!

Ami Mattison is a queer, mixed raced, mixed-gender Chamorro poet and writer.  She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, adopted by white parents into a multi-racial family; and raised in Montgomery, Alabama.  She lived in Atlanta, Georgia, for nearly two decades, and currently resides in Detroit, Michigan.  Her work appears in Navigating Islands and Continents: Conversations and Contestations in and around the Pacific, The Very Inside: An Asian and Pacific Island Lesbian and Bisexual Women's Anthology, and Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art and Thought (Spring 2010).  Author of a spoken word CD, Strange and Potent Mixture, she tours the U.S. giving performances, lectures, and workshops.

Ancestral Healing Pronounced

Reflection of me looking at the photo of my Dad, me and my brother.

Buried deep in the earth.  Roots reach in for healing.  I can stand tall in my identity.  We can stand tall in our identity.  What we've seen.  What we've felt.  What we have done to each other.  We didn't mean to.  It was darkness that encircled us.

I've written words on my arms in a permanent marker.  But I scrubbed it away with an old wash rag.  With rage, anger, defeat.  Tears pour down our faces in the shower.  Water, tears, possibly healing.  I lay down in the bath tub with the water and tears running freely and away.  I stand up and bang on the shower walls.  This racism hurts my soul. Hurts our soul. 

Back to the land, I remember the shower.  Racism hurts our souls.  But I rise above and become proud.  I become stronger in my identity.  Mixed blood conglomeration.  Mixed blood wooziness.  Mixed blood identity conundrum, daily. 

Detroit brought a lot of pain.  Slammed doors on me.  I am invisibly Native there.  I am white to many people in that city.  They think that I benefit from white privilege.  But I live the traditional Anishinaabe way.  I am a proud Anishinaabekwe!  Detroit made me race by freeway walls with bad thoughts.  I try to heal my Grandfathers pain.  He cries through me.  I try to heal being invisible. But I keep hearing, "you are white, you are white, you are white young lady!"  I am in pain, in my mixed blood identity.

My ancestors labor on the land and I remember.  I try to forget about Detroit.  But my Grandfather on my Mother's side helped to create the UAW.  He was on the bridge fight.  I fumble with the station when a Motown song comes on. I want traditional powwow tunes but I've got both pulsing through my being, so I can't resist.  The labor, the pulse, working class roots, blue collar identity, my Dad working, tired, numb.  I see him cry.  This crying makes me fight to be stronger, to be prouder of being Anishinaabe.  What I've seen.  What I've known.  So I move forward sometimes not whole but discombobulated, as my Mother would like to say.

I drove away from dreary city lights.  Naaminitigong brings healing.  I connect with the land.  I am more visible here.  I am Anishinaabe here, not white.  My culture pulses all around me, the land, water, ancestors, home.

Photos & Poem: Snowshoe Adventure

Wisdom Silent

Driving out of town,
South of town,

Anger in the wind,

Yellow energy,

Yellow curtains,

Energy emanates,

Smoke rising in the town,

Pollution,

Chase,

Chase away,

Chase away the anger,

But feel it,

Tall CCC trees,

My soul yearns,

To see what the land was like,

Before colonization,

I am ever seeking,

With my feet,

Eyes,

Hands,

Legs,

Body,

Mind,

Soul,

Heart,

I saw two eagles fly away together,

A rare sight,

Two track,

Snow covered,

Warming up,

The CCC trees listen,

Gravitate,

Wisdom sacred,

Wisdom silent,

For now.

CCC trees!  Not the original trees before colonization.

Beautiful two track and I am the only one around!

My snowshoes and cool leggings!

Reflecting, contemplating, healing!

Poem: Shame in Birth

Women of color,

Native women,

Bi-racial women,

Multi-racial women,

Invisibly mixed race women,

Unidentifiable minority women,

Passing as "white,"

But living the experiences of women of color,

Shame in birth,

The culture wants you to feel shame in birth,

Shame in conception,

Shame in making love,

Shame in love,

Shame in partnerships,

Companions,

Lovers,

The culture wants you to feel shame in birth,

Not joy,

Happiness,

You are "poor,"

Not living up to,

Standards not meant for you,

As you strive,

The push you down,

Beat you down,

Further,

The chains around your uterus,

The chains around your reproductive rights.

Video: Shit people say to native americans

People do say the most ridiculous shit to us.  I hear it over and over again.  They think we don't exist anymore.  They also have so many stereotypes on how we look, how we speak and how we live our lives overall.  Disconnection and privilege on behalf of mainstream America have people saying shit like this. 

"You're Native American?  Yeah I can see that!"

"Can I touch your hair?"

"If the reservations are so bad why don't you guys just move?"

"I think I was Native American in a past life..."

Poem: Matriarchal Voice

I am incredibly disjointed,

In my Native identity,

Move through oppressive patriarchal energy,

No one likes a matriarchal voice,

Marginalized,

Oppressed,

Silenced,

The land is not yours,

You have very little,

The matriarch is not valued,

Not heard,

Not wanted to be heard,

Matriarchal voice is not about abuse,

Not about power over,

Not about domination,

Not about violence,

A matriarchal voice is healing,

Is beautiful,

If of the Earth,

Her spirit is bright,

Wisdom,

Inner wealth,

Strength,

Listen,

To her voice.

Video: Documentary "We Women Warriors"

WE WOMEN WARRIORS is an independent documentary profiling three valiant female leaders as they guide us through Colombia's war-torn native nations, illuminating heroic struggles for indigenous rights, justice and dignity. Join our online community at wewomenwarriors.com 

WE WOMEN WARRIORS from Nicole Karsin on Vimeo.

Poem: Mixed Race Urban

Urban speak,

Don't tell me how to speak,

Nice,

Proper,

Damn,

See,

The culture wants to put me in a narrow box,

Speak proper and right grrl,

Speak proper and right grrl,

My multi-faceted self,

Includes urban speak,

Yes,

Not proper,

Or what is deemed to be proper,

Yooper talk,

Don’t cha know,

Eh?

NDN,

Rez talkin’,

Cultured from the urban foundations,

University talk,

Sociologically inclined to speak of injustices,

Micro small Odawa rez town,

Naaminitigong,

Urban speak,

Highland Park roots of my Father,

Motown tunes ringin’ all around,

Speaking in a way,

How I see,

How I define,

How I be me,

Truly me,

All the pieces,

Beautifully blended together,

Urban speak.

Article: Decolonizing Together - Briarpatch Magazine

I absolutely love Briarpatch Magazine!  Thought I would share this article -- Decolonizing together - Moving beyond a politics of solidarity toward a practice of decolonization.  Here are some bits and pieces from the article that I thoroughly enjoy! 

"Non-natives must be able to position ourselves as active and integral participants in a decolonization movement for political liberation, social transformation, renewed cultural kinships and the development of an economic system that serves rather than threatens our collective life on this planet."

"Indigenous self-determination is increasingly understood as intertwined with struggles against racism, poverty, police violence, war and occupation, violence against women and environmental justice." 

"Building intentional alliances should also avoid devolution into tokenization. Non-natives often choose which Indigenous voices to privilege by defaulting to Indigenous activists they determine to be better known, easier-to-contact or “less hostile.” This selectivity distorts the diversity present in Indigenous communities and can exacerbate tensions and colonially imposed divisions between Indigenous peoples." 

"Decolonization is the process whereby we create the conditions in which we want to live and the social relations we wish to have. We have to commit ourselves to supplanting the colonial logic of the state itself." 

"From Turtle Island to Palestine, striving toward decolonization and walking together toward transformation requires us to challenge a dehumanizing social organization that perpetuates our isolation from each other and normalizes a lack of responsibility to one another and the Earth."

Help Us Raise Funds for "Ajijaak" Ojibwe Storybook!

Help us raise funds to assist in paying for the cost of printing and binding 100 full color paperback books for the first edition of "Ajijaak." Yes and I wrote the story!

Go to kickstarter and donate if you can.  Be a part of helping to save the language.  Please spread the word!

Read more about Four Colors Productions here!