Teachings

While I was surfing for creation flood stories, I came across this research paper http://www.minochige.ca/workshop/reference/nish_philosophy_intro_1.htm
I thought it might be good advice to me as I try to best understand my research.

Teachings© Copyright 1999-2009 by D’Arcy Rheault

The one unending and unchanging reality of Anishinaabe philosophy is the place and importance of Teachings. As a mainly oral culture (with some exceptions), Anishinaabe philosophy has placed all its merit on the truth found in Teachings. James Dumont, an Ojibwe scholar stresses that, If we try to understand and sensibly appreciate Native [Teachings] we must be willing, first of all, to accept that there is involved here a very special way of ‘seeing the world’. Secondly, and a necessary further step, we must make an attempt to ‘participate’ in this way of seeing’ (Miller et al.: 1992, 75Consequently, we must understand the “comprehensive, total viewing of the world and [how it] is essential for a harmony and balance amongst all of Creation” (Miller et al.: 1992, 75).
If this is the case, than any interpretation of Anishinaabe Teachings must include a comprehensive understanding of the people themselves.

Teachings not only influenced personality, society, religion, action and ethics, they also set out the proper context for a person to live in. Teachings give life meaning. Thus the Creation Teachings, from the Creation of the First Man, his going about the world and naming all that is, his life with his Grandmother, and the origin of the first family, to the story of the great flood and the Creation of the New World, holds a prescription for a person’s daily life. Without these Teachings s how would a person know how to be a good person? As such, Anishinaabe Teachings are oral reference libraries that account for stories, legends, prophesies, ceremonies, songs, dance, language and the custom of the people. Moreover, the Elder, responsible for this oral library, is as much the librarian as the library of this knowledge.

The Teachings are as alive as the person hearing them or telling them. They exist in a dynamic form, changing as life changes. Its is for this reason that Teachings are important, and it is for the same reason that we must listen to their voices.