By Patricia Vickers, Director, Mental Wellness
The difference between thought and action of Indigenous traditional ways and majority ways in government is something I have been thinking about lately while in meetings, listening to discussions and watching interactions as a First Nations Health Authority employee.
I have been taught that if we wait long enough without trying to understand something immediately or drawing premature conclusions, the complete thought will emerge in wholeness and in its entirety. This complete thought or understanding comes from a good place, from the place of calm that a grandparent gives in times of crisis.
There were three women from the Eastern provinces of Canada, two of them non-Indigenous and one Indigenous, and they were about to participate in a Sweat Lodge ceremony in British Columbia’s interior. The two non-Indigenous women were anxious and kept asking the Indigenous woman what the ceremony would be like—would it be insufferably hot? How long would they have to endure the heat? Would they be able to make it?
The Indigenous woman said she did not know any of the answers because she had never participated in ceremony with these people before. The women were gifted with skirts, towels and everything they needed to participate in the ceremony. They were standing around the fire that was heating the ancestors, waiting to enter the lodge, and they stopped asking questions. The ceremony was very hot toward the end of the third round and throughout the fourth round, yet they remained throughout the entire ceremony. We were all reminded that as human beings, we are all connected, that the ceremony brings us together to be one family. When they came out of the lodge, something had shifted within their souls and they were more relaxed.
Throughout school, graduate school, and our working lives our minds are conditioned "to know." One must know the answers, know what to do and how the task must be completed, and one is shamed for not knowing, or for not completing the task as instructed. Furthermore, one is conditioned to believe that others have the authority, that the other knows how things should be done and can approve or disapprove our actions. In this social construct, anxiety is pervasive—anxiety, fear and shame are normalized.
When one releases the drive to know, however, there is an inner shift – a freedom. The grandparents have experienced the limitations of the mind and thought, and have learned to accept that the only thing that is known is the reality of the unknown in life. In this acceptance that life is unknown and that a Greater force for the Good is ever present to provide support and guidance, we can learn to relax and be fully present for each moment, with ancestral teachings and principles to guide us. The grandparents understand the importance of not clinging to bad memories or thoughts or drawing conclusions from experiences. They know that our past does not necessarily determine our future. It seems strange that in accepting the unknown, one finds peace and freedom—yet this is the sacred gift of the grandparents.