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Fred Stevens
October 19th, 2009By C. Hunnie
Listen
Describing his relationship to the land Fred Stevens replies, “It is a place to meditate. It is my space.” Fred, an Aboriginal teacher and community health worker, resides north of Swan River, Manitoba on the northwest shore of the province’s second largest lake, Lake Winnipegosis. He calls it a hamlet, an old fish camp area surrounded by boreal wilderness where he and three other families live.
Fred has a knowledge of the boreal forest. He explains, “We depend on Mother Earth. Our brothers and sisters depend on her; when I say brothers and sisters I mean the plants, the trees, the four-legged animals, everything is interconnected.” He shares this understanding with Aboriginal youth where he is a teacher for youth culture camps. A recent recipient of the 2009 Spirit of the Earth Award, the Mino Aski (Good Earth) Culture Camps are week-long camps that promote a healthy lifestyle for youth, adults and elders.
The camps take place in Manitoba’s Norman Region about four miles from the community of Misipawistik Cree Nation where tents are set-up in the boreal forest. The youth are taught survival skills, and “positive teachings.” Fred explains to the participants, “This camp is yours. It is whatever you put into it so it’s up to you and what you want to get out of it.” Fred wants to make sure the experience is provided even if it is never used. The exposure to the Elders wisdom through their stories and teachings around the campfire is important for it is through oral storytelling that information is passed to the generations. Nothing is in writing, Fred attests.
For Fred a healthy lifestyle encompasses mind, body, and spirit. Showing the youth basic harvesting of cedar to make a smudge – used for spiritual purification – he tells them the first thing they must do is to make an offering to Mother Earth for the medicine they will be picking. You must give before you take he asserts.
Listen. That is the main lesson throughout the experience.
“I’m learning too. Learning to be patient, humble.”
A Teaching
Sweetgrass, the hair of Mother Earth, is a teaching tool that Fred openly shares with old and young. To him, sweetgrass represents kindness. Found along the lakeshore where it is hand-picked, sweetgrass can grow up to four feet long. Fred shows people how to braid the strands together which is not only a physical act but a mental and spiritual one.
“The three strands represent mind, body and spirit. In essence, you are braiding these things together,” Fred explains.
The strands of sweet grass positioned central to the constructor’s body, are braided together as if braiding hair. When the students are finished, Fred asks them to grab the centre of their sweet grass braid and attempt to pull it apart. They cannot due to the strength provided by the interwoven strands.
“Now what do those strands represent?” he asks them. The meaning of the teaching becomes clear.
Fred’s positive teachings embrace the need to seek harmony with the earth and with oneself. Like the sweet grass, “We started somewhere. It grows like we grow. Like it, our life is a mystery.”
November 24th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Way to go Fred. Teaching the youth about the natural world is necessary for a healthy world in the future
EJ