Night Flying Woman: An Ojibway Narrative

Knowledge of a people’s past is essential to their continuation, as culture is defined by history. In Ojibway culture, elders orally pass down the history and legends of their people to younger generations. Every child is taught to respect their elders by casting their eyes downward and listening to their stories. It is Ignatia Broker’s goal to do just that. In the Prologue, she addresses her grandchildren and then proceeds to tell the story of her great-great-grandmother Oona in an accessible manner. For example, she understates the horrors of the US government’s boarding schools as they could potentially traumatize young listeners. Both A-wa-sa-si (the elderly storyteller from Oona’s original village) and Oona’s grandfather educated Oona in Ojibway culture. Later in life, an older Oona experiences sadness at the prospect of children no longer being interested in their culture. However, she is overjoyed when a young girl named A-wa-sa-si asks her about the past. Oona deduces that this inquisitive child means that the Ojibway will live on.

The Ojibway believe in the circle of life: The first generation begins the circle, and the subsequent three generations move away from it; the fifth generation then closes the circle by returning to the first generation’s ways.