Night Flying Woman: An Ojibway Narrative

“That day thirty years ago when we moved here, me and my children, we were the aliens looking for a place to fit in, looking for a chance of a new life, moving in among these people, some of whose forefathers had displaced my ancestors for the same reason: looking for a new life.”

Ignatia Broker recalls moving her children from a poor neighborhood to a better one in 1950s Minneapolis. As an Ojibway, she and her children were strangers in a neighborhood of Spanish-speaking peoples and white Catholics. She notes the profound irony of this situation, as generations of her people had been displaced by these strangers in the past.

. “It is important that you learn the past and act accordingly, for that will assure us that we will always people the earth.”

In Ojibway culture, it is important to listen to the stories of one’s elders. It is believed that five generations of Ojibway make a circle, with the first generation starting the circle, the next three generations moving away from tradition, and the fifth generation closing the circle by returning to tradition.

“For five years, Oona’s cycle of life was the same. Summer camp to ricing camp to winter village to sugar bush to planting time to summer camp. These years were filled with love and laughter and this cycle was the cycle of life of our people, the Ojibway.”

Before European settlers arrived, Oona lived the traditional life of the Ojibway. This life comprised working with nature rather than against it—making camps for collecting wild rice and tapping for maple sugar as well as planting new crops.