Myth of Arrival

While I was up at Sault Ste. Marie I discovered the art work of Anny Hubbard, a traditional artist working with birch bark cutouts. It was from her I discovered the water spirit of Lake Superior, Michii Biijou.

Actually, there are lots of different spelling of the water spirit's name. This is probably due to the fact that the Ojibwe language, Anishinaabemowin, is an orally based one (though I am starting out with a book, but that is more due to lack of a proper teacher just now than anything else) and there are many dialects so spellings vary. Regardless, I discovered this information at Mishipizhiw: Spirit of the Water:

Among the pictographs at Fairy Point, at the west end of Missinaibi Lake [Ontario, Canada] are spine-tingling portrayals of Mishipizhiw (also known as Mishipizheu or Gitche-anahmi-bezheu), an animal Manitou associated with the underwater realm, and sometimes regarded as an evil spirit of rapids and troubled waters.

In Cree and Ojibway cultures of the region Mishipizhiw was both feared and revered as a demi-god of the water. Sometimes taking the form of a menacing, snake-like creature with sharp teeth, horns, and "power lines" emanating from its body, Mishipizhiw was also pictured as fiercely feline (the "Great Lynx", "great underwater wildcat," "underwater panther," or "fabulous night panther"). Like other Manitous, Mishipizhiw had the power to shape-change into various animal forms.

The Mishipizhiw Manitou is a dominant theme in Cree-Ojibway spirituality, and appears not only in pictographs, but also in traditional stories and legends. The Mishipizhiw water spirit has been portrayed by noted aboriginal artists such as Norval Morrisseau.

Personally, I think the author does a disservice to Mishipizhiw by using terms like "evil," which would be like calling a thunderstorm evil. Mishipizhiw is a force of nature. When people disrespect nature bad things can happen, but it has less to do with intent than cause and effect. Perhaps I am not understanding Mishipizhiw that well, perhaps someone will correct me. I am just beginning to learn.

In Louise Erdrich's wonderful travel story, Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country, she explains many things about Ojibwe pictographs. For example, the "power lines" noted above are signs of communication from the human world to the spirit lands. They indicate important teaching given by that particular spirit, lessons people should learn from. The horns are a sign of spirituality as well. Seen in this manner there is nothing threatening or "evil" about Mishipizhiw. In my art piece I made here I did not want to include those symbols she talks about, however, since I felt it was not my place to use (co-opt, some might say) Ojibwe symbols into art, things I only barely understand. So I decided to use the glow and halo of light I enjoy which symbolizes spiritual power to me. The figure of Mishipizhiw came from a design of an actual rock pictographs, though I darkened in the shape to give Mishipizhiw a more animal-like appearance. Enjoy!

***

Invoke my name, friend. Friend, invoke my name.
Sailors steer according to my copper
scales and trackers all fall silent in shame
at the sound of my voice. Let the healer
and the nurse find what they are looking for
as I pass by. I know why ants dream, crows
despair, chipmunks plot. Every pink lakeshore
rock is my prayer to you. When the torsos
and the legs of the wicked all wash up
on the lakeshore, yes, that is my prayer too.
Call me in. Invoke my name, my dearest
friend. Have trust in me and share your first cup
of tea with me. But there is no tea. You
do not call me in. You do not have trust.

"wayfaring" ZJC (2007)

Tuesday, March 6, will be Robert Busby's funeral. March 10 will be my 37th birthday. A lot is going on this week. It is also a chance to take a Spring Break from my biology class for a couple of days. Where would one go on Spring Break with limited funds and limited time? Sault Ste. Marie in northern Michigan, of course!

I will be spending my time up north studying; I am starting a journey of sorts and I will share with you what happens. I am going to start learn (slowly since everything is slow when I do it) Ojibwemowin, the language of the Ojibwe peoples.

The Ojibwe (also spelled Ojibway) call themselves, Anishinaabek; part of the Three Fires Confederacy of Native tribes stretching from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota up into southern Canada. The author Louise Erdrich (who wrote Tracks among other things, a must read for everyone) came out with a book, a sort of meditation/ reflection/ memoir, called Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country (Washington DC: National Geographic Directions, 2003). I recommend it to everyone. This small selection I quote here is a nice introduction into the language I hope to begin learning soon:

My grandfather, Patrick Gournea, was the last person in our family who spoke his native language, Ojibwemowin, with any fluency. When he went off into the Turtle Mountain woods to pray with his pipe, I stood apart at a short distance, listening and wondering. Growing up in an ordinary small North Dakota town, I thought Ojibwemowin was a language for prayers, like the solemn Latin sung at High Mass. I had no idea that most Ojibwe people on reserves in Canada, and many in Minnesota and Wisconsin, still speak English as a second language, Ojibwemowin as their first. And then, while visiting Manitoulin Island, Ontario, I sat among a group of laughing elders who spoke only their own language. I went to a café where people around me spoke Ojibwemowin and stood in a line at a bank surrounded by Ojibwe speakers. I was hooked, and had to know more. I wanted to get the jokes, to understand the prayers and the adisookaanug, the sacred stories, and most of all, Ojibwe irony. As most speakers are now bilingual, the language is spiked with puns on both English and Ojibwemowin, most playing on the oddness of gichi-mookomaan, that is "big knife" or American, habits and behavior. (81)

As I was living in New Hampshire at the time, my only resource was to use a set of Ojibwe language tapes made by Basil Johnson, the distinguished Canadian Ojibwe writer. Unknown to Basil Johnson, he became my friend. His patient Anishinaabe voice reminded me of my grandfather's and of the kindest of elders. Basil and I conversed in the isolation of my car as I dropped off and picked up children, brought groceries, navigated tangled New England roads. I carried my tapes everywhere I went. The language bit deep into my heart, but I could only go so long talking with Basil on a tape. I longed for real community. At last, when I moved Minnesota, I met fellow Ojibwe people who were embarked on what seems at times a quixotic enterprise — learning one of the toughest languages ever invented.

Ojibwemowin is, in fact, entered in the Guinness Book of World Records as one of the most difficult languages to learn. The great hurdle to learning resides in the manifold use of verbs — a stammer-inducing complex. Ojibwemowin is a language of action, which makes sense to me. The Ojibwe have never been all that materialistic, and from the beginning they were always on the move. How many things, nouns, could anyone carry around? Ojibwemowin is also a language of human relationships. Two-thirds of the words are verbs, and for each verb, there can be as many as six thousand forms. This sounds impossible, until you realize that the verb form not only have to do with the relationships among the people conducting the action, but the precise way the action is conducted and even under what physical conditions. The blizzard of verb forms makes it an adaptive and powerfully precise language. There are lots of verbs for exactly how people shift position. Miinoshin describes how someone turns this way and that until ready to make a determined move, iskwishin how a person behaves when tired of one position and looking for one more comfortable. The best speakers are the most inventive, and come up with new words all the time. Mookegidaazo describes the way a baby looks when outrage is building and coming to the surface where it will result in a thunderous squawl. There is a verb for the way a raven opens and shuts its claws in the cold and a verb for what would happen if a man fell off a motorcycle with a pipe in his mouth and drove the stem of it through the back of his head. There can be a verb for anything … (82-83)

… Ojibwemowin is the primary language of philosophy, and also of emotions, Shades of feeling can be mixed like paints. Kawiin gego omaa ayasinoon, a phrase used when describing loneliness, carries additional meaning of missing a part of one's own being. Ojibwe is especially good at describing intellectual and dream states … andopawatchigan … means "seek your dream," but is a lot more complicated. It means that first you have to find and identify your dream, often through fasting, and then that you also must carry out exactly what your dream tells you to do in each detail. And then the philosophy comes in, for by doing this repeatedly you will gradually come into a balanced relationship with all of life. (84)

That is not to say Ojibwemowin is an elevated language of vanished spirituality. One of my favorite words is wiindibaanens or computer. It means "little brain machine." (85)

I will return on Sunday and tell you all about it when I get back to a computer …

Imagine there's no heaven
it's easy if you try
no hell below us
above us only sky
imagine all the people
living for today . . .

To everyone who was able to make it to the vigil, to everyone who sent their love and thoughts, to everyone who knows and loves Robert, thank you.

There is a service planned at Lansing Community College's Dart Auditorium on March 6, 2007 (though times and a fixed date have not been named yet). I will keep you posted.

At the vigil about 250 friends, family and supporters attended; a copy of John Lennon's Imagine was distributed and sung.

Police: Suspect in Busby slaying killed himself
55-year-old handyman who lived in building owned by victim identified as likely killer

By Kevin Grasha, Lansing State Journal

About 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, along a dark, rural Clinton County road, police heard a gunshot from a pickup they'd been following in the search for a suspect in Robert Busby's slaying.

Minutes later, two more flashes of light came from the cab of the parked 1999 Chevrolet Silverado, registered to the prominent Old Town businessman.

The driver, a 55-year-old man authorities say killed Busby, was dead.

"We do believe we have the killer of Mr. Busby," Lansing Police Chief Mark Alley said Wednesday at a news conference attended by about a dozen of Busby's friends.

Alley did not identify a motive or the name of the man, who killed himself along Shepardsville Road near Ovid.

The man worked for Busby, 60, Alley said, referring to him as a "handyman."

Friends of Busby said the man lived in the basement of a building Busby owned near Creole Gallery, a popular venue for live music, theater, poetry readings and visual art.

Busby had been reported missing; a detective found his body Tuesday afternoon in the basement of the gallery, Alley said.

A cause of death has not been released, but Alley said Busby's body was covered in debris, as if someone was trying to hide it. It's unclear when Busby was killed, police said.

Ingham County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Dean Sienko on Wednesday said a cause of death had not yet been determined.

About 250 pay tribute

In a statement made Wednesday evening, Busby's daughter, Ena, and his girlfriend, Meegan Holland, said, "The overwhelming support and love we've experienced the last couple days is a testament to Robert's kind spirit. His heartbeat was Old Town.

"In the past couple years, he was thrilled by all the entrepreneurs who opened businesses here. He would want to see the neighborhood continue to thrive."

About 250 people gathered in the twilight Wednesday for a candlelight vigil in front of Creole Gallery. The sidewalk in front of the door was strewn with red rose petals, bouquets of flowers leaned against the gallery doors and tiny votive lights flickered in plastic cups.

In the street, Busby's relatives, friends and admirers clutched dripping candles, hugged, cried and talked in hushed tones.

Damita Zweiback of Lansing stood near the gallery door, huddled with friends. She met Busby through his longtime friend, Suellen Hozman.

"We've attended lots of events here and of course, see Robert around town," she said. "I came to support his family … and to remember him."

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, who met with Busby's family Tuesday night, called Busby a kind and trusting man who reached out to many people.

"Maybe this one time, he trusted too much," Bernero said. "But that's the person he was - generous and kind to a fault."

Summer Schriner, owner of Grace, a women's apparel store in Old Town, was one of Busby's many friends.

"I think we all just feel very drained right now because the loss is just right now incomprehensible," she said.