Transcript

Friends, relatives, and enemies.

Today I come before you for a moment of pause. To share a message of gratitude. To tell you that I remember. I remember a story passed down to me through the wisdom of a hundred generations. A story forged in the fires of 10,000 crucibles, being made manifest by the actions of a hundred million awakened souls. All, who choose to remember. All, who chose to come to this place, to this one Earth, our mother, now, to stare into the abyss without fear. To stare into the eyes of the Windigo, because our collective future matters. A future that can choke the last remaining breath of life from the lungs of our matriarch, or a future where the abundance of her bosom is shared with our descendants yet to say “Minjimdendan”—I remember. There is no doubt, our future will be unlike any other in the history of humanity, when we choose to remember. When we choose to restore the stories our ancestors once told.

This is a story of remembering what it means to be a human. And though you may choose to turn away now, away from this message of gratitude. Away from the wisdom of a hundred generations. Away from a story forged in the fires of 10,000 crucibles. Just know that you will still be loved, no matter the reflection staring back at you in the mirror. I say directly to you: release. For the lost children of today give rise to the Ancestors of tomorrow. And whether you choose to stand beside me in the circle now and relinquish control, or push back against the inevitable, you will not be forgotten. Because I choose to remember.

From the echoing resonance of the first sound there came an eternal vibration. A vibration, though forever incomprehensible to the human, felt, in every moment, in the very rhythm of our bones. Ode, Ode, Ode. I hear you. I hear and feel that sound that emerged from nothingness. A nothingness that was infinite possibility. An infinite possibility that despite its magnitude selected this place, this Earth, our mother, to come to know itself as the most beautiful being in the whole universe. In each breath that I take: inhale and be filled with the exhalation of our relatives, the trees. Sing a song of yearning and remember that our collective tears of joy would fill an ocean. Our collective message of gratitude, our collective beating hearts, are the very consciousness of that most beautiful being who in that first reverberation said: Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?

Wipe away your tears now and stare in awe at destiny approaching. Like an earth-quaking rumble of of a million bison stampeding. For you are a fractal reflection of that infinite consciousness that hurdled into being from nothingness. Awaken, as the sun ignites the inevitable fate of a new dawn. There is work to be done. Plant seeds of imagination inside the hearts and minds of the lost children. Seeds that will blossom from melodic whispers to screams that pierce a thousand parallel universes. Nurture your creative spirit and liberate yourself from the errors of our past. Inspire actions that fulfill an ancient prophecy foretold by my foremothers of a day when all our relations would be unified as a message of gratitude. A collective spirit that will birth a new generation of kinship, a new iteration of consciousness, a new realization of that first sound, that through symbiosis we can thrive. Choose to remember.

“There is no doubt our future will be unlike any other in the history of humanity, when we choose to remember. When we choose to restore the stories our ancestors once told.”

Spoken with the gravitas endowed by a pulpit or lectern, Mkomose forcefully demands that we remember: our ancestors, the wisdom of past generations, the Anishinaabe creation stories of  gratitude and kinship. His speech ties together long histories with the urgent actions demanded to combat settler colonialism and climate catastrophe.

Mkomose (Dr. Andrew Judge) is Assistant Professor of Anishinaabe Studies at Algoma University and Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig, and has Lectured at Sir Wilfrid Laurier University, The University of Waterloo, and coordinated Indigenous Studies at Conestoga College. He specializes in Anishinaabe cultural knowledge, ethno-medicine, and land-based learning. Mkomose has learned from, worked and consulted with, and served Indigenous Elders and community leaders for over a decade. He has founded several community-led Indigenous knowledge-based programs at elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels and works tirelessly to promote land-based sustainability practices. Mkomose has delivered over a hundred invited lectures related to Indigenous knowledge. He is focused on supporting conscious awakening using plant medicines and Anishinaabe cosmovision to respond to the current state of society. He has been initiated into both Midewiwin and Mayan Day Keeping societies and regularly participates in the ancient ceremonial practices of his Anishinaabe ancestors.

ASL Interpretation