Today (according to social media) is “Giving Tuesday” – it’s supposed to be a new-age, global response to the greed of Black Friday. Of course, mêkinawêwin “giving” has always been an important Cree cultural value. The idea of generosity is also incorporated in the word kisêwâtisiwin, usually translated as “kindness or compassion.” (Click the links to find audio of each word through the itwêwina online dictionary.)
True wealth was measured not by what you accumulated, but what you gave away. Greed was no virtue.
Quentin Weenie gave me permission to share something he recently wrote on FaceBook, an valuable lesson in Cree cultural literacy:
I remember reading a oral Interview from the archives. The guy talked about Tootoosis. He was a rancher. He was scared to own too many cattle for the fear of being called greedy. Back then, no-one wanted to be known as greedy. That wasn’t a virtue. So he slaughtered his cattle after they grew to a certain number.
I also read a story that if you seen a hungry kid at camp, that meant the whole camp was hungry. Everyone shared what they had. We thought communally.
There was another story about a chief who killed his own son because he was hiding meat during a poor hunting season and the whole camp was suffering.
Our giveaway ceremony is a practice in helping others. If you leave the ceremony without having anything left, you were given blessings. I remember hearing that we were not meant to be rich. That the creator will provide for us if we keep the faith.
The reason why I’m sharing these stories is that capitalism is confusing us into thinking materialistic; thinking individualized. If we want to decolonize, we should be sharing these kind of stories and we should celebrate the givers in our communities.
Giving is highly respected in Cree culture, but so is reciprocity (as some readers commented): giving back according to each one’s ability. Kathy Hamelin kindly gave permission to share teachings from her late grandfather that she added in response to Quentin’s post:
nimosômipan warned me there are those who will take advantage of a generous soul, and take as much as they can. Think nothing of stripping someone down for their own gain. nimosômipan said those were the sick ones. With that he added: “You stop giving to just anyone. You keep that up, one day you will come home stark naked.”
I took heed to my wise grandfather. As for people I had *helped* then don’t help when I am down, even when they are in the position to do so, that is on them. nimosômipan had also advised me on that score. He said: “Help because it is the right thing to do. Be aware that not everyone is capable of returning favors, do it because you want to. Not because you expect others will do the same for you. Do it because you want to, and because you can.” I have not forgotten nimosômipan‘s words, to this day.
