A LOOK AT FIRST NATIONS CULTURE
Wab Kinew’s autobiography offers a compelling glimpse into First Nations culture
So opens Wab Kinew’s first book, The Reason You Walk. It’s an autobiography — Kinew’s own story, but also that of countless other First Nations people in Canada.
It is also the story of his father, a residential school survivor. Kinew writes of his father, early on in the book: “More than any inheritance, more than any sacred item, more than any title, the legacy he left behind is this: as on that day in the sundance circle when he lifted me from the depths, he taught us that our time on earth we ought to love one another, and that when our hearts are broken, we ought to work hard to make them whole again. This is at the centre of sacred ceremonies practised by Indigenous people. This is what so many of us seek, no matter where we begin life. This is the reason you walk.”
Kinew begins the memoir with his father’s story of residential school. It’s a nasty, sad story in which a little boy is taken from his people, sexually assaulted, robbed of his name and his language and often beaten. While he is there, his own father dies and he is treated shamefully for standing beside his father’s coffin, as was Anishinaabe tradition, instead of kneeling, as was Catholic tradition.
His father becomes an alcoholic and an angry young man, but later quits alcohol completely and becomes a leader in his nation, working to make sure the cultures and traditions stay alive. Kinew himself follows a similar self-destructive path as a young man, but pulls himself together (with the help of music, martial arts, his father and other people). Today, he’s a well- known First Nations advocate, a journalist and the associate vicepresident for Indigenous Relations at the University of Winnipeg. In 2012 he hosted the TV series 8th Fire on CBC, a documentary series about aboriginal people in Canada.
Shortly after that, he took a year off to spend time with his father, who was terminally ill with cancer. The pair worked together on an app that translates their language, as a way to connect young people with the language and keep it alive. But more than that, they spent the year connecting with each other, in a way they had not done in their younger years.
In light of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report, released in June, people might want to learn more about aboriginal culture, the ways of the people and gain more insight into life as an indigenous person in Canada.
About reconciliation, Kinew writes: “Reconciliation is not something realized on a grand level, something that happens when a prime minister and a national chief shake hands. It takes place at a much more individual level. Reconciliation is realized when two people come together and understand that what they share unites them and that what is different between them needs to be respected.”
Reading this book would be a good place to start.
It’s entertaining, interesting and compelling, but it also has many important and staggering messages.
It includes detailed descriptions of piercing ceremonies that take place at sundances, of vision seeking experiences and of a sweat lodge ceremony. At one of these ceremonies, when Kinew is pushing himself to his limits, he describes the feeling: “The relatives were there. Even those who weren’t. You were there with me too in that moment. There was no more you, there was no more me. There was no more Indian, there was no more white. There was no more woman, there was no more man. There was nothing left. All that remained was unified.”
Indigenous teachings about human relations are deeply part of this book, but it is written in a way that is friendly to readers. It’s not all serious — this is a greatly readable, captivating and relevant book.
Ningosha anishaa wenjibimoseyan (I am the reason you walk) — Anishinaabe travelling song