Tag: Indigenous women

This interview on Métis Matters Radio discusses a novel called Mary and Her Métis Grandma. This is a small snippet from a conversation between Grandma and her teenage Granddaughter. They talk about traditional Pow Wows when it was still illegal to celebrate in this manner.

Did you know Cannabis has nothing to do with Pow Wows?

Textbooks state that authorities only permitted Pow Wows after 1951, but Grandma attended one around 1915.

In Mary and Her Métis Grandma, we joke a little about cannabis—but don’t get confused, we’re not laughing it off. 
It’s one of those topics families talk about seriously, usually after the kettle’s been on a while. And in Indigenous communities, opinions can change from one kitchen to the next, depending on who raised you and how much patience they had. Each household has its own values, which are informed by different cultures and protocols.

This 2-minute interview on Métis Matters Radio discusses a novel called Mary and Her Métis Grandma. https://youtu.be/AYMbD3o_9FM?si=CIk8UAxs6srR2uhh

I talk about a conversation between Grandma and her teenage Granddaughter regarding similarities and differences between a party and a Pow Wow.

Spirituality and Healing with Plants

Here in Canada and probably other countries, cannabis wasn’t and isn’t a traditional plant in the pre-colonial sense; many Indigenous peoples have a history of using plant medicines and exploring their relationship to 1) health and 2) spirituality, which are both connected. They are linked through Spirit (our energy/aura), Soul (our connection to the higher power), mind, body, and emotions. Once you start pulling one of those strings, the whole bundle comes with it—it’s called balance.

Organizations like the First Nations Health Authority run awareness campaigns that focus on making informed choices around cannabis use, grounded in community values. This is especially true for youth as their brains are still developing. I personally believe that excessive use of any drug during or after traumas is questionable because any substance that numbs your feelings at those times clouds one’s ability to reflect on what happened and therefore prevents growth that could occur from the situation. People I’ve known who were and are AA attendees tell me that when they stopped drinking, they found themselves having to deal with those emotions, and it is hard for many reasons. But one factor is that time distorts and fades memory.

These days, organizations like the First Nations Health Authority encourage people to make informed choices about cannabis, especially young people whose brains are still growing. And here’s my two cents: using any substance too much—especially when your heart feels like it’s breaking—can slow your healing. Anything that numbs your feelings also mutes the lesson. I’ve known people who quit drinking and then discovered all those emotions were still waiting for them. That kind of catching up isn’t easy, but it’s necessary.

Legal Issues and Cannabis

Before cannabis was legalized, the laws around it landed harder on Indigenous peoples than on anyone else. Folks, regardless of race, used it about the same across the board, but somehow certain people got arrested a lot more often.¹ Funny how that works? Some say those laws were also handy for silencing activists. I remember an old American hippie telling me that if someone was left-leaning politically, marijuana use was often an excuse to incarcerate those people. I can’t prove it—but I’ve lived long enough to raise an eyebrow, and I’ll take the old hippies word for it, and I’m sure this applies to Indigenous activists.

1. Monkman, L. (2018, January 13). Is there a place for cannabis in First Nations culture? CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/is-there-a-place-for-cannabis-in-first-nations-culture-1.4485865 ↩︎