to build a sweat lodge
Community Sweatlodge Building for accessible local healing ceremonies.
Anishinaabeg tying the sweat lodge poles, fashioned from maple saplings
Closer to the end of spring this year, I gathered with a group of Anishinaabe traditional learners one afternoon, where we worked together to construct one madoodiswan “sweatlodge” for the season. One of the sharp and bright individuals who I have the privilege to call my “teacher” picked me up from the train station and we grabbed a few boxes of pizza on our way to the grounds where we would be working for the day.
8 of us anishinaabeg worked all afternoon and into sunset; harvesting the poles fashioned from nearby trees, hauling water from a pond, gathering the grandparent rocks, harvesting & cleaning freshly picked cedar, and more tasks needed before a sweat ceremony. Sharing jokes, laughter, and pizza, a few hours later a magnificent new madoodiswan “sweatlodge” was created and ready to help anishinaabeg from our respective communities along with ourselves on our healing journeys, so that we might live in a good and kind way.
With the wood smoke in the air, and the sun shining down on us (before the days got too hot), I found plenty of moments of intense gratitude for many things, but mostly for how connected I am to creation and how I’ve been helped to be in such a way - through my relatives who themselves are also creation and spirit, through the way I was taught to work with what the land provides to help others and to help myself, through the many opportunities that are open to me and the wonderful experiences I am guided to. I take a lot from this work and life as an Anishinaabe living in these times, and it’s made so much more clear to me when I am reminded of all that which I am a part of through the times in which I have to go without.
Upon reflecting for this submission, I recalled the phrase “when the student is ready, the master appears”. For so much of my life, I have prayed for great teachers, and have dedicated my all to relearn this anishinaabe culture, and although I sometimes feel like I am brand new to this world of relearning old ways, I have come a long way thanks to more than just my own ambition. I am grateful for my teachers, Nicholas Deleary and Patricia Monague who helped and instructed the rest of us through this build, and the knowledge they exchange and share. Together, just as community members alone, we created a lodge that is (already) working to help people from our communities who are seeking help in healing.
by Waabshkigan Shane Monague, Sacred Earth Communications Lead
