Sharing stories through the wampum belt

INNISFAIL - When two sides in an argument or battle want to end hostilities to move forward they often rely on the old idiom to "bury the hatchet," which means "to make peace."

The idiom has its roots centuries ago during the formation of the Iroquois Confederacy in eastern North America. It held that all weapons should be buried in a time of peace.

That First Nations practice was an important part of how the five-nation confederacy governed itself, arguably the continent's first form of the democracy Canadians enjoy today.

Alberta Education has now made the Iroquois Confederacy a unit in the Grade 6 curriculum. Last week, two instructors for the First Nations, MÈtis and Inuit (FNMI) support team for Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools came to St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic School to teach Allyson Bendfeld's Grade 6 students about the confederacy.

They also taught children about wampum belts, and how they were used by the confederacy, which like all First Nations groups never had a written language, to tell stories, send messages and to record important events, and were used in sacred ceremonies.

"The belt was traditionally made to tell stories and share messages but also to have agreements. With the First Nations and non-First Nations, when the Europeans came to Canada it was their agreements together to be able to live in harmony and being able to accept different cultures," said Valerie Norman, lead teacher for the FNMI support team, who was at St. Marguerite Bourgeoys on Feb. 15 and 16 with coordinator Tracy Meneen. As for any "burying the hatchet" events between tribes, those too would have been depicted on the sacred belts.

"If they were trying to tell a story in history then yes, that could have ended up on a belt for sure," said Norman. "What that would have looked like I am not sure, but definitely about putting bad relationships and burying them to move forward is definitely something they did with those belts."

Norman and Meneen offered a detailed presentation on Feb. 15 of the Iroquois Confederacy and why the wampum belts were so important to the First Nations culture, and by extension, how Canada is governed today. The children were then tasked to design their own belts. They had nine different coloured beads to use, with each denoting a special message to tell a story, including red to honour ancestors or war; yellow for the sun rising in the east; green for Mother Earth; purple for distress, pain or anger; and white for knowledge, wisdom, health or peace.

"The Grade 6 teachers have been very open and we have been booked in many Grade 6 classes," said Norman of the presentation, which is being conducted through the school division's 18 schools. "The kids have embraced it and are learning a lot, and that only helps in the sharing of First Nations culture."

When the two-day lesson ended on Feb. 16 there were close to 30 wampum belts made by the children, a concept of communication that originated hundreds of years ago. Most important, it remains part of a cherished democratic legacy that all Canadians will embrace into the future.