Reprinted from _Turtle Talk_ <The New Catalyst Bioregional Series, Vol
1, 1990> eds. C and J Plant:
WINGS OF THE EAGLE
by Marie Wilson
<continued>
The New Catalyst: Today, we may need more emphasis on responsibility;
the other side of the rights coin. Women have clamored for rights --
equal slices of a rotten pie -- when we've had all the responsibility.
Marie Wilson: I have the same attitude towards women who reach points of
great authority and they feel they must equate that authority to male
authority. That is totally wrong because the moment they start
pretending they are not female, they turn into almost skirted males! I
resent that because the world needs the power of women in these
positions of authority. I never forget for a moment that I am female
though I am a highly political person. Men must become capable of
discussing a woman's position, not her body. We must never forget who we
are as women.
TNC: In fact, some of us have to remember. The world needs our voice. Do
you feel it is possible to have caring, loving relations extended beyond
the couple? Perhaps not with the same intensity but so that we are ready
to take care of each other beyond just our families?
Marie Wilson: We do have real affection for young people who are having
similar struggles as we had. We needn't even know them. Children in the
Gitksan were loved and taught, not as a privilege or a right, but as an
investment in the future comfort and continuation of the society.
TNC: I was at a native feast not so long ago and all ages of people were
there -- from the very young to the very old. It seemed to me that the
young and the old were the most important people. The people who were my
age were making it happen. On the surface it looked as if the children
were being indulged, but there was certainly no obnoxious behaviour. In
fact, it was a joy to watch. In my world we have to be very careful when
we indulge our children because they are apt to take advantage of the
situation in a way that becomes obnoxious.
Marie Wilson: I think that the difference lies in that relationship
between authority and responsibility. We celebrated passages of life,
which isn't done any more. The great token gesture is becoming old
enough to go into a bar! In our society, as in all 'primitive'
societies, you celebrate your position within that society. Children are
well aware of this progressive move through life. They look forward to
it. But they know that when they move from one stage of life to
another, a death has occurred for part of their life. They can look
back, with whatever feeling, but now it's over and they're into
something different. All of the changes were celebrated by the people,
marking the change -- not only physical, but in terms of responsibility
and rewards.
An example of this is the Nootka custom of young girls having to swim
alone after they've come out of their first menstrual period from a very
distant point in the ocean. The canoes leave the girl way out in the
distance and she has to swim in to the shore. The people stand in all
their regalia, marking that it is important -- her mother's people and
her father's people. The cheer her on, sending out vibrations to give
her strength when she is failing. And it is the oldest, wisest woman who
puts the special robe on her.
TNC: Do you see a revival of these rituals? They seem so important to
human groups.
Marie Wilson: Most of our customs became illegal under the authority of
the missionaries. To get around outlawing of feasting, we developed the
idea of parties. The church had no objection to Christmas parties, for
instance. Incidentally, I reject this word 'feast.' The actual
translation for what we do is 'a gathering of the people.' This meant
feeding and housing the witnesses, who are extremely important, and
entertaining them for about two weeks. There was an abundance of food
and activity. The function of the song and dance was to imprint their
memories forever.
TNC: Many of us who are trying to reconnect with the land are realizing
that what is needed is a regeneration of culture. Fundamental to this is
dealing with the great spiritual emptiness that so many of us are
experiencing. What we are seeking is a religion that connects us to the
land. Many of us can't help but try to emulate the native people. But
some people feel uncomfortable with this.
Marie Wilson: It's too easy to take that approach to redeeming oneself.
Essentially this is what non-Indians are looking for. We can say it's
for the world, or it's for people, but really it's for self. I can't see
it happening. Each of us springs from some original beginning. It would
be uncomfortable for me to attempt to go to Africa and take up their
tribal practices, though I could understand the purpose. I believe our
shadows follow us, that we do not arrive in this world meaningless, that
the child who is born brings things with her. The Gitksan believe this
wholeheartedly. You know how a little child holds her hands like this?
Every older Indian will say, 'What have you brought for lunch today?' We
believe that the child carries in her hands preparations for life from
somewhere else.
Here again we have to talk about energy. It has nothing to do with
anything mystic. It has to do with energy. I firmly believe that, coming
from a long line of very strong women, I was literally born with this
same strength. The energy of my great-grandmother, my grandmother and my
mother has exhibited itself in me, and I know which daughter of mine
will follow me.
At the risk of sounding scornful or derogatory, I have to say that
the Indian attitude toward the natural world is different from the
environmentalists'. I have the awful feeling that when we are finished
dealing with the courts and our land claims, we will then have to battle
the environmentalists and they will not understand why. I feel quite
sick at this prospect because the environmentalists want these beautiful
places kept in a state of perfection: to not touch them, rather to keep
them pure. So that we can leave our jobs and for two weeks venture into
the wilderness and enjoy this ship in a bottle. In a way this is like
denying that life is happening constantly in these wild places, that
change is always occuring. Human life must be there too. Humans have
requirements and they are going to have to use some of the life in these
places. I do believe that life does not need humans but, rather, humans
do need the rest of life. We are very small within the structure.
TNC: So you don't take a stewardship perspective to the land -- in the
sense that the land needs our protection?
Marie Wilson: Oh, never! No, the land can do what it will with me. We
cannot whip the waves back. When the waves come, they can strip the
California beach of million dollar homes with one contemptuous wave.
I worry about some of the young people who have been apart from their
tradition for a long time, particularly in the cities. They don't have
this true connection and they are going to have to struggle back to it
as hard as you are going to have to struggle.
TNC: That's really what we have to do. Do you have any advice for non-
Indian people who are struggling for their vision?
Marie Wilson: In Gitksan society, before you became adult enough to take
on responsibility and power, you went out alone. Alone, we search for our
full potential. After fasting for days and going into the sweat lodge
and the cold waters of the stream, whipping oneself with the Devil's
Club, I imagine we were in a fine state of hallucination. We had
visions, usually in the form of a creature, or an encounter with a
natural resource like the sun. The intention was not necessarily to find
the creature but rather our own full potential.
When people fast, their bodies are reverting to the survival mode of
existence where only that which is absolutely necessary is being taken
from the body itself. This is going back to the natural Gitksan: taking
only what is required. Our territories are taken for need, not greed. We
take creatures for need, never more than we can use. When the body is in
this state, fasting is not at all painful. You are then able to reach
this perception where smell, touch, taste take on a fresh sensitivity.
Not only these things, but also an increased perception of my place, my
home, my children. So, imagine what happened to our people when they
fasted for days. They became so empty they were like snow in the spring
-- melting water drips through the snow and it becomes porous. This must
have been the condition they were in -- ready to receive.
The Gitksan accepted their intelligence for what it was, as they
accepted their wonderful bodies. This intelligence, the product of the
balancing between female and male, was the bridge between the body and
the spirit. They could step lightly between each because they had such
use of both sides of their intelligence. They had wonderful spacial
vision because they used it and because there was no guilt on either
side.
TNC: We have to rediscover this intelligence. My concern has been that
non-Indian people have the tendency to think that we can have it all
now; there it is, over there in that native culture, I'll just go and
take it. We can't do that.
Marie Wilson: That's right. There's no way non-Indian people can really
understand the emotion, the sense of defeat and elation, the way we've
had to change our attitudes as we've learned. None of this shows up.
This has taken thousands of years for us to come to this point.
TNC: What do we do then? As people who are desperate for this meaning?
Marie Wilson: You will have to go back in your own history, as many
Gitksan have had to do. We are drowning in statistics and yet we are
aching for this knowledge.
<end>
|{hm kerry miller <ASTINGSH@KSUVM.KSU.EDU>