Located near Elliot Lake in Ontario, Nimkii Aazhbikoong is now a seasonal culture camp that Onaman members are working to develop into a “forever camp,” according to Belcourt, where people can live year-round. Nimkii Aazhbikoong-“Thunder Mountain” in the Ojibwe language-is a potent example of Onaman’s mission to create a sense of empowerment and unity among Indigenous people that they can, indeed, change themselves and by example, the world. Over two days last September, Onaman organized an Indigenous tattoo gathering at Nimkii Aazhbikoong camp. Tattooing is one type of symbol-based art that the Onaman Collective is helping revitalize. Recently, Collective members joined Greenpeace in protesting Wells Fargo Bank investment in pipelines by painting a giant image of the Thunderbird Woman at the company’s world headquarters in San Francisco. They also coordinate art builds to address social inequality all over the U.S. The members of Onaman coordinate a host of Indigenous activities, including language immersion and traditional arts camps. Created by cooking red ochre with animal or fish fat over a low flame for a long time, onaman is both medicine and art. Onaman is an Anishinaabe or Ojibwe word that refers to a red ochre paint also to clot the blood of wounds. This alphabet of the soul offers insights into the dynamics of the natural world and nuances of human nature, and offers an Indigenous-centered path to health and recovery. Anne Nations also founded Onaman.įor members of Onaman, spirit writing symbols offer a desperately needed portal through which Indigenous peoples may reclaim and reconnect with their cultures and spirituality. In addition to Murdoch, who’s a member of the Serpent River First Nation Band of Ojibway, Christi Belcourt of the Michif Manitow Sakahihan Nation, and Erin Konsmo of the Metis/Cree Onoway/Lac St. Isaac Murdoch, who created the Thunderbird Woman image, helped found the Onaman Collective. And they’re using the symbols in their art as traditionally intended: as guidelines for our spiritual connection and responsibility toward the Earth and each other. Members and supporters of Onaman, based in Ontario, Canada, use art to portray traditional wisdom that serves as a counterpoint to the Western, colonial worldview. The artists of the Onaman Collective are reclaiming and sharing traditional art outside of Standing Rock, too. And this resurgence isn’t just happening at Standing Rock. Images like this one represent the resurgence and reclamation of Indigenous art-in this case, spirit writing. Her shape was a simple outline, and her heart anchored her image. Water rained down from her wings and thunderbolts surrounded her head. Thunderbird Woman, with her winged arms outstretched, seemed to float on the canvases at Standing Rock, portraying a cosmology in which dynamic spiritual forces are depicted internally, as if through an X-ray. As an Ojibwe woman, I immediately realized that the depiction was an example of my ancestors’ ancient spirit writings, or symbols, recorded on birch bark scrolls and on rock faces along the Great Lakes long before Europeans landed in America. Thunderbird Woman was the image that caught my eye at the Standing Rock water protector camps.
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