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Kihci-manitow, Creator,

had a thought.

And whatever Creator thought
about came into being.

Kisikookuk refers to
that light, that energy.

And that's one of the first
thoughts Creator had.

This light,
this energy we call acak,

we call spirit,
and we carry that within us.

So acakosuk, those stars,

they are a part of us,
and we are a part of them.

Oh, that the boss?

Hello?

Hi, is this Wilfred?

Yes, it is.

Okay.
Um, do you have time to talk?

Uh... Yeah, I guess so.
Yeah.

Okay. I understand
you put on presentations,

and I was wondering if you'd
like to come to our community?

Presentations regarding?

The stars.

Oh, the stars. Okay.

Yeah.

And where is this?

It's halfway up James Bay

on the Quebec side.

Holy smokes.

Yeah, well, we can keep
communicating back and forth.

Right now, I'm just on
my way to a Sundance.

Pawamanikititicikiw is what
I'm known as from my people.

And it means, "He has dreamt
a dream and keeps it."

I'm from
Opaskwayak Cree Nation,

North Central Manitoba.

I'm also known
as Wilfred Buck.

Young Wilfred:
In my younger days,

I was commonly
known as Smokey Buck.

I am of
the fresh-out-of-the-bush,

partly-civilized,
colonized, displaced people.

Trained and shamed by
teachers, preachers, doctors,

nurses,
law enforcement, movies,

radio, and television
to be a pill-popping,

hard-drinking, self-loathing,
easily-impressed, angry,

non-conformist,
maladjusted, disaffected

youth of the dirty
Indian Baby Boomer generation.

I lived and died in
North Central Manitoba.

This is my reality-fiction.

So when they asked me
to come, they said,

"Wilfred Buck is doing
a presentation over there."

I said, "Oh great," I said,
"I definitely wanna go."

And they said,
"What do you want to do?"

I said,
"I want to smoke fish."

And they said,
"Why do you want to smoke fish?"

I said, "Because there's
a teaching about this

that's connected
to the stars," I said.

Oh, yeah.

This thing here,
it's like a lodge.

This represents the star world,
up there, where we come from.

And so, the idea why
I wanted to smoke the fish

is because the fish
are stargazers.

Sometimes, they just sit there
like this, and they fast,

and they stare through
that Hole in the Sky,

and they're able to see
the future in there.

There's a big fish up
there, namiw, the sturgeon.

Oh, yeah.

And he swims in that sky.

And his head touches
one side of that Milky Way,

and his tail touches
that other side.

So they say,
ahcahk sîpiy is the present,

and where his head
touches is the future,

and where his tail
touches is the past.

So, you get that whole
continuum up there.

Make sure that door's facing
that way.

It's very important
that you speak the language

because the language
originates from the land.

The language embedded
in it has all that knowledge,

that sacred knowledge
that's there.

So, look at there, see that?

That's Keewatin from the root
word kîwê, which means home.

That's the star they use when
they're traveling at night.

They keep the North Star
on their left shoulder

and they're pointing this way.

And this way is east.

So keep your eye
focused right there.

You'll see one star
that doesn't move.

See that?

You are getting sleepy!

When you go to school,

they never mention
Anishinaabe constellations,

Ininewuk constellations,
Dakota constellations,

Lakota constellations.

Through the process of
colonization, we lost...

Well, we didn't
lose all this knowledge,

it went to sleep on us.

So now,
we're slowly rediscovering

what those stories were.

So, this is
the Flying Up Moon,

and it's also Namiw Pisim,
the Sturgeon Moon.

The sturgeons start making
their eggs during this month.

Our skies had all
the stories that we hear about.

They're all up in the sky.

And our people
were never lost.

No matter where they were,
all they had to do was

look at the sky and they knew
immediately where they were.

That means anywhere
they went was home.

Young Wilfred:
My first recollections

are of the
Saskatchewan River.

It made its way down
from the Rocky Mountains,

across the great plains
and into Manitoba.

By the time it got to The Pas,
the river was wide, fast,

and filled with silt.

My grandfather
lived on that land,

and everything came
from that land.

Everything.

I remember tents in spring,
summer, fall, and winter.

I remember the smell of
weasels and muskrat,

of rabbit and beaver,

of duck and goose.

I remember walking down
calm, silent trails.

In that stillness,

you could hear
the snow squeak.

One could predict
known patterns.

Experience
and clear memory was key.

There were laughing memories
and hard memories.

This is where
we camped that one time

we saw a comet in the sky.

This is the place you learned
to track your first moose.

This is where
the eagles gathered

before they went south.

This is where
sturgeon spawned.

This is where
you learned to be a man.

This is where you
learned to be a woman.

This is where you
learned to be a human.

This is where.
This is where.

I remember wâwatêwin
the northern lights,

static energy in the air
and the smell of ozone,

like after
a lightning strike.

I remember looking
at that sky saying,

"Holy smokes, mâmaskâts,
it's wonderful."

Alvin.

- Wilfred.
- Nice to meet you.

- My daughter, Autumn.
- Daughter?

Yep.

And there's my son,
Mistawasis over there.

Doorway's here,
probably right here.

You got to line yourself up
with this and that pit.

Oh, that's the centre?

Yeah.

Ground's pretty solid.

Walk it slowly.

Okay, walk it.

Ladies in the middle,
tie up the tree.

They say Cree people,

we have
a matriarchal society, eh.

And our matriarchs
are the ones

pretty much in
charge of everything.

Nowadays, you have all
these men running around,

doing all these ceremonies,
and they're saying,

"Women can't do this,"
and, "Women can't do that."

And I'm saying,
"Well, what happened to

the matriarchal society?
Where did you get that from?"

And what happened was
when everything was outlawed

and we had to go underground,
the men had to go out

in some secret place
and do the ceremony.

And the women stayed
home with the kids, right?

Because it was
all during the night.

The youth that are growing up
and seeing this,

they say,
"Huh, that's the tradition."

And then pretty soon
they're saying,

"No, women can't do this,"

because that's
what they experienced.

Yeah. I was always
told that women,

they took care
of our medicine,

they took care of all that
until we were-- Yeah.

Until we were ready.

...Again?

No. My hair, I can just
feel that my hair is a mess

because there was so much
spiders in it in the bush.

See, these ones are
nice and flexible.

Under. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Wrap it.

One of our origin stories,

when we came to this place
to ôta askiy, this earth here,

from up there,
we changed from energy,

we changed
to a physical form.

When I heard that, I cried.

This makes so much more sense
'cause I always had a difficult

time with Christianity
and organized religion.

When I was six years old,
I was sent to Sunday school.

They forced me to
go to Sunday school.

And I was sitting in
Sunday school, six-year-old,

one time, and,
"If you people,"

and she was talking about us,
us Native children, right?

"If you people, if your parents,
they don't follow Jesus Christ,

they're gonna go to hell."

"And your relatives--

that's where your relatives are,
in hell," she said.

And I looked at her,
and I said, "You're telling me

"my grandfather
and my grandmother,

that's where they are?"
And she said, "Yes."

I said, "Okay, well that's
where I wanna be. And I left."

And I never went back there.

Young Wilfred:
My visit to this place

began on September 27th, 1954

at St. Anthony's Hospital
in The Pas, Manitoba.

I was one of three children
born to Louise and Alfred Buck.

My father's parents were
Carrie and Alfred Buck,

and my mother's parents
were Bella and Edward Ross.

In the early 1960s,

things changed in
the era of hydroelectricity.

The world conspired
against my people

and forced them from
the land they loved.

Everything was flooded,

lives thrown into
the turbines

of hydroelectric progress.

The self-sufficient people
who had lived off the land

found themselves
living near towns that

resented them
for their intrusion

and blamed them
for their confusion.

We were marginal citizens
whose rights could be

trampled when
circumstances required

or profit demanded.

It seemed the only place
tolerated our people

were the bars,

and this is where
a lot of them went.

With all
the sudden changes,

my father slipped
into depression,

and not being able to make
a living for his family,

began to find
the numbness of alcohol.

My parents split up,
and I was sent to live with

my mother's sister
and her husband.

We moved from place to place.

Parties always followed
along with the violence.

I usually was left
to my own means.

Nah, it's totally different.

Totally strange.

Feels like a ghost town.

We used to raise hell in here.

So all this area here
used to be a used car lot.

And when I first took off
from my foster placement,

I lived in a car lot
here for one winter.

I stayed in one car
and a buddy of mine

who was also in the same
situation I was in

stayed in another car.

We used to gather
our solace in the bush.

After partying and fighting

and feeling horrible
about ourselves,

we'd go in the bush,
and we'd find peace,

and we'd hunt,

and we'd bring food out
for our families.

That was the only thing
that made us feel like

we were worth something.

Young Wilfred:
In the summer,

friends and cousins would
gather every morning

and head out to the bush.

We spent countless
hours out there.

Young Wilfred:
All the bullshit,

racism, and pain could be
forgotten

with the thrill of the hunt.

Only when it was
getting dark did we go home.

On Saturday mornings,
I would get enough money

to see the afternoon matinee.

Man in film:
All units clear.

Switch over to standby.

Woman in film:
Zero Red, minus five.

Young Wilfred:
It was Whites on one side,

and Indians on the other.

Sometimes I would sneak away
and walk three miles to visit

my siblings across
the river.

On one of these visits,
a wolf kept showing up.

When I arrived to
my mother's place,

everyone was gone.

My siblings were victims
of the Sixties Scoop,

a government apprehension
of Native children

who were adopted out
and shipped off

to everywhere but home.

Had I not been stopped,
I would've been stolen.

My mother
never saw them again.

She left town to
the city of Winnipeg.

She died on
the streets of that city,

like so many of my people.

Acahkos Iskwêw, Star Woman,

a being of energy
traveling the cosmos.

She came across
this hole in the sky.

She wanted to go there,

but she knew she couldn't
navigate that portal.

She needed assistance
and she knew there was a being

looking after that doorway,

Kokominakasîs,
Grandmother Spider.

Kokominakasîs said, "Before you
go down to that place,

there's three conditions
that you have to meet.

One is when you go
down to that place,

you gotta take a physical form
because as a being of energy,

you can't learn
and you can't experience

what's down there unless
you take a physical form."

Acahkos Iskwêw said,
"Okay, that's fine.

I can do that."

She had to bring a gift
with her when she went

down to that place,
a gift to remind her

of where it is she came from
and where she had to return to

when she was finished.

The gift was the star blanket.

And so again,
she agreed to that.

The third condition
was she couldn't stay long.

So how long is long
for a being of energy?

So she stayed a lifetime.

Grandmother Spider,
she sent a single strand

of webbing through
that Hole in the Sky,

and Acahkos Iskwêw came down.

And through her,
we all get to this place.

That single strand of webbing
is called the umbilical cord

and that's how
we all come here.

So this originally used to be
Opaskwayak Cree Nation here,

all this area here.

One of the first things
that happened when this bridge

was opened in 1906
is all the OCN people

got rounded up on
this side of the river.

And the Chief, he was forced
at gunpoint to sign a paper,

ceding that part
of the territory.

And then the people
got rounded up

and got marched
across at gunpoint

to this side of the river.

And so, right over there,

that Anglican church,
they say that's where

that impact crater
used to be for the meteor.

So they used to hold ceremony
all along this area here.

And with the coming of
the missionaries,

they dug up that meteor
and rolled it into the river.

And this pretty much happened
all over the Americas,

wherever there were
holy sites.

Those sites were destroyed

and churches were
erected on those sites.

It even looks clearer
than it used to.

So, all along this river,
right from Grand Rapids

all the way up
to Cumberland House,

families made their
living off this river.

It was a vast
thriving ecosystem.

My grandfather,
he settled up the river

at a place called Barrier.

Hydro development came along,
and they built a dam.

And with the fluctuations
of those waters,

constant flooding
and constant erosion,

they couldn't make
a living out of it anymore.

So thousands of
families moved away.

And my family came to The Pas.

And the place where
my grandfather came

was up at this place over here
called Umpherville Settlement.

And when he got there--
And when he got there,

he probably lived
maybe eight, nine years,

and then he died.

And then he gave up.
He gave up.

He didn't do nothing no more.
He passed away.

So from being
a self-sufficient person to

living off the handout of
the government, he died.

So my wife asked me
a couple days ago

how I felt about
coming back here,

bringing my mom back.

And I told her I was angry,
I was very angry.

And my daughter asked me,
"Well, why you angry for?"

I said, because...

...they killed my grandpa.

Just like if they took a gun
and put it to his head.

And they never
accounted for that.

Thousands of people
had that done to them.

Not only
at Saskatchewan River,

but Churchill
River Diversion.

Thousands of families.

The head of their families
were effectively murdered.

It was a slow death
and it's still going on,

that slow death.

Young Wilfred:
After my siblings vanished,

I withdrew into
my own little world.

I spent every scrap
of money

on buying model World War II
airplane kits.

During this time,
everything went to shit.

My uncle and grandfather
hung themselves.

My aunt finally had
enough of the beatings

and left to the big city.

My mother, my father,

my siblings, my uncle,

my grandfather,
and now my aunt.

Who else was left?

Had to change
my way of thinking.

Had to go
into survival mode.

Had to hurt
before I was hurt.

Had to take
before I was taken.

Had to put me first
before all else.

Had to leave
before I was left.

The first time
I drank alcohol,

I drank until
I blacked out.

Go, go, go, go!

♪ Raise a little hell,
raise a little hell ♪

♪ Raise a little hell ♪

Young Wilfred:
A gang of us started

breaking into stores,
houses, automobiles,

and beating on people.

We got good at it

and the white kids started
calling us The Marauders.

This affected my schooling

and after a couple of years
I was expelled.

♪ If you don't like
what you got ♪

♪ Why don't you change it? ♪

♪ If your world is all... ♪

At this stage of the game,
I thought life was good.

♪ ...rearrange it ♪

We used to hang around
at the old junkyard,

a good hiding
and planning place.

One time, we managed to
steal 20 cases of beer.

♪ Raise a little hell ♪

This was my first sight
of the city of Winnipeg.

Through bars.

So you stayed here,
Wilfred?

What's that?

You stayed in this area?

When I was young, yeah.

Really?

Up to five years old,
then they moved us into town.

Really, eh?

My grandfather had the
camp out here with everybody.

-In the wintertime?
-All year, eh?

Yep. All year long
they were here.

I remember going up
Carrot River

and the sky was just
black with geese and ducks.

I remember that.

I remember seeing that,
going up to go hunt.

Now you just see
little flocks here and there.

-Did you get anything?
- Oh, yeah.

I didn't even have
to open my eyes.

- Just point and shoot.

We came up with
our students here.

We got in the camp
and they had to get wood,

so they're making all this--

breaking all the trees
and everything else like that.

So we set up the camp
and then about three o'clock--

two o'clock in the morning,
they heard the moose in the back

and they thought that
was me trying to scare them.

But I was always
amazed though

at how the locations
were selected.

Because even with this one here,
if you look, you know,

we seen some sturgeon
jumping on this side.

But at the same time,
you got the wide view for

the moose to come out.

Everything's
connected to the land.

Everything.

Especially out here,
you can see that night sky.

There's a star up there.

It makes a circle
and it continues on.

And one of the names they
have for that is môswa ahcahk.

It means the moose spirit.

Oh, is that right, eh?

Yeah, because it's called
retrograde motion.

The planet.
It goes in the sky.

And then as
our earth passes Mars,

it looks like Mars stops in
the sky, then makes a circle.

Then it continues
its journey.

And of course, that's what
a moose does, right?

When it's startled
and you're hunting that moose,

it'll make a big
circle like that.

And that's what they
call it môswa ahcahk.

We should have brought granny.

Yes, I figured you would
be thinking about her,

coming out here.

The land is sacred,
because our relatives are here.

And this is part of
who you are here -

this place, this Barrier.

So glad you guys
come with me.

I was just scared
to come out here.

Young Wilfred:
When I got out of detention

after five months, I was sent
to the store for cigarettes.

I remember thinking,
no one would miss me

if I decided to disappear.

I walked into another world.

This was the beginning
of a long, dark night.

My time spent on the streets
was a series of misadventures

where drugs and alcohol
were central to my existence.

I learned from the others
and survived,

living in used car lots,
shelters,

abandoned shacks, and tents.

Being a thief, a liar,
a drug dealer, a shadow.

Resourceful,
unreachable, untouchable.

I learned how to run away
and I was very good at it.

I found this solved
a lot of my problems.

As time went on,

I began to see I was
surrounded by assholes.

One winter night after making
a big scene

with my girlfriend at
the bar, I left,

swearing and cursing
at all those assholes.

I was met by a fist.

I came to,
lying on the sidewalk.

I found I had no money.

Assholes strike again.

I started walking
the ice road.

Next thing I know--

I'm screaming, thrashing,

and crawling at
the edge of the ice.

I get a grip and as I rise
to stand up,

down I go again.

Fucking assholes!

I make it
out of the water.

It slowly started
to dawn on me,

could I be the problem?

Nah.

I was the victim.

The poor picked-on
little Indian boy.

So this one's called
Star Walk 2.

And then you point
to the sky

and it tells you
what's up there.

There was one
I wanted to ask you about.

It's connected to
Orion's belt.

It looks like a bear.

Oh, yeah.

I'm not sure if you heard
of it. Where is it?

It only comes out during
the winter time or something.

It will be out probably about
maybe three or four o'clock

this morning, it'll be up.

Because the Pleiades are
coming up right over there

and behind
the Pleiades is Orion.

Yeah, we call that
Pipoon Nikititicikiw

the Winter Keeper.

Because of being-- it only
comes out when it's cold, eh.

Oh, yeah.

All right!

We'd like to make
a special presentation.

My late Sundance chief
all used to tell us,

whenever we gather like this,
we make spirit.

We make spirit
and we make community.

And I thank you,
my relatives for doing this,

for each and every one of you.

Also, I'd like to acknowledge
my family and our oskâpewis.

Without our oskâpewis,
none of this would happen.

Without my family,
I'd be nowhere.

Kisâkihitin nitôtêm.

I love you,
from the bottom of my heart.

Love you too uncle!

Hiy hiy.

So if you look over here,

you can see the Pleiades
coming into view up here.

Right there.

But I wanted
to show you this.

You see this W in
the sky right here?

Roman and Greeks, they call
that Queen Cassiopeia.

I tell the kids,
you look at this W in the sky,

it's very important.

It stands for Wilfred.

That star right there,
they call that Mitiy Kisik.

Mitiy Kisik means
the heart of the sky.

The heart of the sky.

It's pretty much in
the centre of the precession.

The wobble of our
Earth's axis moves in

a big, huge circle, like this.

And it takes 26,000 years,
they say,

to form one complete circle.

But the amazing
thing about that is

right in the centre
is Mitiy Kisik.

So that tells you
our people have been

watching the sky
for how long?

To notice that,
to know that.

So we look up at that sky
and we see all those stars

with all those
Tellings up there,

and we know that we are part
of something

bigger than ourselves.

Part of something greater than
our mind can ever imagine.

For my Elders, that's okay,
if we can't imagine that.

That's okay.

Young Wilfred:
In 1974, some youth journeyed

to Ottawa for a rally with
the Native People's Caravan.

This is significant
of what the government,

and I don't know,
maybe the public thinks.

There's some sort of innate fear
of Indians getting together.

All Native people,
we're not fighting a segmented

struggle all over the place.

We're all fighting together.

Young Wilfred:
I arrived back in The Pas

and found things had
changed on the rez.

They wanted to
start a powwow group.

This is where I started
to learn about our culture

and began singing.

We travelled all
over Western Canada.

Eventually I left
the powwow group

because it was getting
in the way of my lifestyle.

One summer, I was
going through withdrawals

after failing miserably
at a treatment program.

I heard about an Indian
gathering in Morley, Alberta.

Something began to grow.

I got to camp and ended up
sitting all alone.

This old man asked me why
I wasn't at the workshops.

I said I was sick
and needed to rest.

He said,
"You need to do something,

but rest is not it."

That day, I drove
wherever he told me to go

and did whatever
he told me to do.

The first stop
was to a field.

He instructed me
to pick 128 rocks.

We had to put
tobacco down and pray.

I thought,
"Is this old man mad?"

I was told not to pick
just any rocks,

certain rocks.

And not just any size,
a certain size.

I learned about
limestone rock,

granite rock, and rock
with moisture content.

I learned there are rocks
that explode

when placed in a fire.

The next stop was
stand of willows.

I did what I was told,
grumbling all the way.

Young Wilfred:
I came to realize

we were making
a sweat lodge.

All the work focused me
and got me out of myself.

Probably about 95% of
the Elders that are alive now

were exposed
in Morley, Alberta.

They bought that back

and they spread out
all over the place.

And now we have these
Sundances all over the place.

Because of the vision of
people like Ernest Tootoosis,

Wilfred Peltier,
Art Solomon,

Grandpa Joe Doucette
from Mistawasis.

One of the people from
Morley that I was working

with, Grandpa Joe Doucette,
he looked at me

and he passed me tobacco
and he said,

"You know how to
build a sweat lodge?"

I said, "Yeah, I know how
to build a sweat lodge."

He said, "Go build one."

So I went
and built a sweat lodge

and that was the first
sweat lodge in Winnipeg,

we built on the banks
of the Red River.

And then from there,
I passed tobacco to that man

and I asked him to teach me.

So I worked with that man
for a good 6, 7 years.

And he taught me
about matotisân,

he taught me
about ospwâkan,

he taught me
about the ceremonies,

he taught me about the dreams,
and he taught me about space.

Because we were in
those lodges sometimes

and sitting in this lodge,
and the floor would fall away

and we'd be floating
in space,

and we'd be
looking at everything.

And this is how
we're connected.

We're not just
something separate.

We're totally immersed
in everything around us

and everything is
immersed in us.

Young Wilfred:
In the fall of 1982,

the walls were closing in.

Everyone could predict
my lies

and had heard
all my sob stories.

For several months, I was in
a total mind-numbing,

spirit-killing,
don't-give-a-fuck,

messed-up blackout.

I finally came to
consciousness

feeling totally sick.

Sick of drinking and drugs,
sick of stealing,

sick of lying,

but most of all,

sick of myself.

On January 23rd, 1983,

I went into treatment
for the 20th time.

I met an Elder,
a Cree woman.

After what she shared,

I saw the world in
a totally different way.

I found something that
was missing in my life.

Something that was ours,
that was Cree.

It was a sacred thing,
and it was a powerful thing.

It seemed like
a bright light was turned on

in my dark universe.

She said,
"In order to walk away,

"you can't just
change one or two things.

"You have to
change everything."

Now, I was hanging
onto the edge of darkness,

looking for the light.

Come on!

Go, go, go!

Come on!
Let's go, let's go!

Yeah!

-Whoo!
-Whoo!

Nice! Nice!

Young Wilfred:
The only work I could get

with my seventh-grade
education was manual labour,

for barely minimum wage.

So I went back to
school instead

and spent 16 months finishing
four years of high school.

I found my path
into an education degree.

For the longest time,

I did not cry.

No connections,
no loyalties,

no roots.

I was building
a new world,

but did it have to include
this hole in my stomach

that the wind
whistled through?

There's
a constellation up in the sky

called Sisikwun,
and Sisikwun is The Rattle.

At a certain point of
our orbit around the sun,

there's two stars that rise up,
and when that constellation

points directly
at those two stars,

that signifies
spring has arrived.

When spring arrives,

we're tilted in such
a direction towards the sun

that we get more
exposure to the sun

and the earth
absorbs that energy.

Then, at some point,
it releases the energy.

And when it does that,
it melts everything.

The ice doesn't
melt from the top down,

it melts from the bottom up.

The earth exudes that energy
and it warms up the water,

and the water
crystallizes the ice.

And when the wind blows
those crystals together...

...The Elders say that sound
is the sacred sound

that tells everything,
"Waniskâk, time to get up!"

The root word for sisikwun
is sikwun, which means spring.

Young Wilfred:
One time, I fell asleep.

My ancestors came

and took me flying across
the great desert.

I saw something was coming,

a woman on a pinto horse.

She looked at me and said,
"Sometimes we are lonely.

"Do not miss me.
I'm on my way."

Then, she galloped
away into the haze.

Those spirits they said,

"Before you wake up,
tell me what happened."

And so I had to repeat
the whole dream.

And then when I did that,

they looked at each other
and they said, "Good.

He's gonna remember,"
they said.

And that's when I woke up and
that dream was just clear.

And I was wondering
what that dream was about.

Then, probably about maybe
four or five years later,

I'd met Connie.

So, one morning, I'm coming
down the stairs

and I hear her talking
to my son and my daughter.

She's talking about
this dream she keeps having

about this horse.

She's riding this pinto horse.

And right away that
dream hit me, eh.

And I come down
and say, "You're the one!

"You're the one that come and
told me you were coming."

That's how my wife
told me she was coming

before I even met her, eh?

Wilfred Buck breathes
and dreams

and lives the stars.

I think his passion
for the stars

probably came from
when he was young,

when he was alone, you know?

When he didn't have
his parents,

when he was by himself
on those streets,

in those mean streets,
wherever he was,

and he could look up at the
night sky and say, you know,

"What is up there?"

And then,
when that Elder told him,

"The way you want
to teach children

"about land-based education,
take them outside

"and let them
look up at the night sky.

"There's so much
knowledge up there."

I was teaching

at South Winnipeg
Technical College,

grade three
up to grade nine.

In the wintertime,
we'd go down the trail,

we'd make a fire, make tea,
make bannock, go snaring.

Manitoba First Nations
Resource Centre,

they called me and they said,
"Hey, what are you doing?"

So, I told them.

They said,
"Wanna come and work for us?

"You'll be our science guy.

"Your job will be to put First
Nations' perspective

into sciences."

"We can't tell you what to do

"because it's never
been done before."

And in that process,
one of the Elders said,

"If you really
wanna learn about this,

"you have to
sit down in ceremony

"because it's all
connected to ceremony.

"Everything is
connected to ceremony."

When you do that, and then
you go look at that sky,

sometimes it'll be just like
somebody moves a curtain

and you'll see something.

Young Wilfred:
We have to go back

to the teachings
of our ancestors

and we have to
understand what they mean.

Not just verbally,
but also inside our spirit.

What that actually means.

It gives you
a sense of belonging.

And once you have
a sense of belonging,

then you know
you're part of something,

and that part of something
is your responsibility,

not to try to destroy that.

Like, our Elders tell us
that all things are sacred,

life is sacred.

Be it these little
bugs here and whatever.

They're all sacred, eh.

And so, my process is
to get to a point where

maybe I don't have to
kill all these little bugs

that come and bother me.

I'm not there yet, though.

And there's
a big bloody church.

Dad, go stand over there.

You gotta hold something?

You're our speaker tonight.

- Yeah.
- Wilfred.

Elizabeth Wood, MIT.

Welcome. We're really looking
forward to hearing from you.

- Yeah, thank you for coming.

So, you are
the star professor.

- Oh my God...

Oh, don't--
I'm gonna get embarrassed.

I've been looking
forward to meeting you.

- I'm a anthropologist.
- Okay.

So, I've known about you
for a little while.

Oh, that right?

I can't wait to hear
your conversation today.

All right.

Really nice to meet you.

All right.

Greetings, my relatives.

Pawaminikititicikiw is what
I'm known as from my people,

and it means "he has dreamt
a dream and keeps it."

Look around here. Everything
you see here was a dream.

A dream provoked
a question, "What if?"

And then, pursuing that dream,
it become a reality.

So, science is a dream.

Our knowledge is a dream.

That's where it started.

One of our esteemed Elders

by the name of Dr. Leroy
Little Bear said,

"Technology, maybe 30 years
ago, that was a dream

"and now it's a reality."

Other methodologies arrive
at knowledge

in different ways,
but the same ideas are there.

They're just seen from totally
different perspectives.

We had a sweat lodge
last night,

and one of the reasons
why we go into matotisân,

the sweat lodge,
is to understand

that we're part of something
that we'll never understand.

And it's okay
we never understand it.

It's okay.

It's good that we don't
understand it because,

if we tried to understand it,

we'd get big,
huge, massive heads,

'cause,
"Yeah, I know everything."

And it's good that you make
peace with the unknown.

Because the unknown is
where you get your questions,

where you get the answers,
where you get the dreams,

where you get all those
things from, the unknown.

Yesterday was very
powerful to be invited

by Wilfred into
his sweat lodge.

What I found powerful about that

is that you
invited us in your space,

and I felt
that space was very different

from a space like this.

It was completely lacking of
the coordinates

that I'm used to hold onto

when I'm making sense
of the world.

So, the only way I could
engage with that space

was actually to let go and to
surrender to the experience.

At a time when we look at
science and technology

as the cradle of progress,

I also recognize that you have
brought an understanding

that is very sophisticated

because it is embedded
in a community ethics

and a way of living together
in harmony with each other

and the environment,

and it also encourages us to
question,

"What is the purpose
of the work

"that we are doing in our
academic institutions?"

There's no fixed agenda.

We're just gonna go in
and whoever shows up

and wants to go in,
can come in.

Are you forgetting
a direction?

Hey.
Are you going a direction?

- Sorry about that!

- Five lashings.
- Okay.

I was wr-- I was wr--

We need the cedar
right away.

Oh, man...

Thank you all, Kim,
Wilfred, and Leroy

for being here.

This is honestly,
like, the highlight

of this entire project
for me,

to have these incredible
people sit here with me.

So, thank you very much.

I'm humbled to be up here
with them.

This exhibition,
it ends with the stars,

and so I was able to also
paint Wilfred's portrait.

So, the exhibition
begins in the stars

and it ends in the stars,
and here we are tonight.

When I first
started this journey,

of looking at acakosuk,
those stars,

I never heard at one point
that there were anybody else

involved
in looking at the stars,

other than the Romans and the
Greeks and Western astronomy.

All these things
I learned about,

going through university,
was about my people,

but other people were
telling me about my people,

about who I was.

Other people were
telling me where I came from.

Other people were telling me
about what I believed.

All this learning that I did

was specifically through
a Western point of view,

written books making up these
fairy tales about my people.

And we believed them, going
through that colonial system.

Leroy Little Bear:
The Buffalo Treaty speaks to

the buffalo being a very
important part of our culture.

Many of our songs,

many of our stories,
many of our ceremonies

are connected
to that buffalo.

I have a friend
of mine, and he's working

on buffalo skulls and buffalo
hides for Sundance,

and when he sleeps
and he does ceremony,

paskwâw mostos, they come
to him and they tell him,

they tell him
what happened to them.

And what's happening
to our people,

it's exactly
the same thing.

- Yeah.
- And it's still happening.

And the Western world
has to acknowledge that.

They talk about Truth
and Reconciliation,

but there's no truth.

Leroy Little Bear: If they
were to tell the truth,

they would have to
change their story.

The Christian story
may be a good story

over there where
it originated...

but it was not
a good story for us.

Our stories grew up
right from the land,

from the sky, and so on.

At a cultural level,

it's almost as though they
wanted to make us empty.

When you have
somebody with no culture,

then there's
no guiding norms,

there's no guiding ways.

There's no grandmas,
there's no grandpas

to tell us the story and so
on that guides our life.

I would like to leave one
thought with the audience,

and that is,

it's kind of the vogue on
the part of scientists

to go and have a conversation
with the Dalai Lama.

Well, these
two scientists,

they went
to visit him.

He told them, "Hey,
in our tradition,

we have to make
tea for our visitors."

So, he got busy and
made some tea for them.

The cup was full,
but he kept pouring.

It was spilling
all over the place.

These two scientists were
looking at each other.

"What's wrong
with this guy?"

So, finally, one
of them said,

"Hey, the cup is full.

It's spilling
all over."

And he kind of
says, "Oh. Okay."

Then he looked
at the two guys,

and he says,
"You know what?"

"You guys know
too much."

"How about if you go
back home..."

"...and empty your minds
out a little bit?"

"Because if we
talk right now,

that knowledge will
be like this cup."

"It'll just spill over,

and we won't
learn anything."

Most of
our ceremonies

are about emptying
your cup,

emptying your
mind and so on,

so new knowledge can
come about.

And that's
why you go and see

an Elder for a teaching,

they always hold
a ceremony.

And in Western
science

and our
modern world,

ceremony is missing.

Thank you.

Hiy hiy.

That first
Sundance lodge,

those Sundancers
that came,

the first thing they said
when they walked

into that arbor area where
that tree was,

okimâw ahtik,

they came in there,
and they cried

and they said, "I dreamt
about this place."

And we knew that the spirits
guided them there,

the dreams guided
them there.

And this was
meant to happen.

Dreams instruct us,

and they're not
some subconscious thing.

They're part
of our reality,

and then we make
them more so

when we follow through
on those dreams

and make them live,
make them live.

And these dreams showed me
this Sundance lodge,

and each dream showed
me a different step

of that
Sundance lodge.

And each dream instructed
me how I should go about

doing this,
what I had to do.

And when I went and told
the Elder about that,

he said, "Well, there's no
interpretation that's needed.

You know what
you have to do."

And of course, I knew
what I had to do,

but I didn't want
that responsibility.

I didn't
feel like...

I earned that
responsibility.

So I...

I ran away.

For four years,
I ran away,

trying to get away from
that responsibility.

Then I ran
into this man,

Don Cardinal,
an Elder.

I worked with him for
probably about six years.

He sat me down one day.
He said to me,

"You know, what are
you waiting for?"

He said,
"Look at me.

I'm not going to
be around forever.

What are
you waiting for?"

That's when it
hit me.

I said, "Okay.

Time to stop running."

"Time to step up

and time to start taking on
that responsibility."

Those dreams that
were given, I'm told,

were given
through acakak,

our spirits, our helpers,

our guides.

And it's not
up to me,

they've chosen me, and there's
nothing I can do about it.

And I still have doubt.
I have lots of doubt.

Sometimes, I just feel like
throwing everything down

and walking away.

Sometimes it feels like
there's a big void there,

especially
when you look

and you see all the pain
that's around you.

If it wasn't for
ceremony,

and if it wasn't
for prayers and dreams...

...then maybe I would've just
walked away

and said, "Fuck it."

But my family helped
me through that.

And this ceremony...

that we carry

hopefully will help
somebody along the way.

-Hey, sister.
-Hello.

So, this is it, eh?

Awesome job. Awesome job.

Yes.

- We found rock formations.
-Oh, yeah?

And we had a man
come in to look at them,

and he said, "That's a
Thunderbird nest and a sâpis."

Is that right?

Yeah, and it's
real close to the lodge.

Awesome.

You know what I'm thinking,
just looking at it?

This is it. We don't need
to do no more work on this.

That's what I was saying.

We just have to put up
the poles.

Yeah. The spirits come and
blessed this place already.

Yeah, yeah.

-That's good.
-Yeah.

Awesome.

I work on bones.

I'm going to show you
this whistle.

That eagle was wounded

or hurt in some way.

And he healed himself.

So, if an animal can
heal himself like that

or a bird can
mend his bones,

why can't we as humans
do the same thing?

Okay,
straight back now.

Okay. Floor it
and slam on the brakes.

We'll unload it
that way.

With all this
oskâpewis-in-training here,

it's like the young men
finding their way back home.

finding
where they belong,

where they're needed.

Can you get me about 10
or 12 good sized ones

so I can make a pit--
uh, circle for the fire?

Okay. Yeah, for sure.

As the healing starts,

the community starts
to realize what's going on,

and it's like, "Yeah.
Okay. This is real.

Like, this
helps people."

So they start coming,
and then they get more helpers

and they
get more dancers.

And then the Sundance grows.

So, when we're
looking for willows,

we're looking for
ones that come

from pretty close
to the ground,

maybe about
this diameter.

I'd say about eight
to 10 feet long.

And so what we'll do is, when
we get ready to go do this,

everyone will get
some tobacco.

You guys will put your tobacco
down, and some of the guys

will have some machetes,
and we'll start to cut them.

We need seven for
each Sundance lodge,

and then we need 16 for
the community lodge.

All right. So, let's go see
what we can scout out, then.

What I seen was,
I was flying behind him.

I was following.
I was following him.

Following him.

I went to
a white clear.

That was it. It was a quick,
fast dream.

Mm-hmm.

White eagle, brown tips.

So, it looks like
you're going to have to fly

with the eagles.

It's like three seasons.

Those eagles are
summer.

So, within the next summer,

you've got to fly
with the eagles somewhere.

Of the many
gifts that Wilfred has,

the name of Dreamkeeper
that he carries

is that gift of being
able to interpret--

interpret dreams to
tell us what they mean.

A lot of times,
there's connections

to that star world,
and we're fortunate enough

to have a guy like Wilfred,
who can explain

what it is we're seeing,
what are we dreaming about.

When we're in ceremony -
sweat lodge, Sundance -

things that are going
on that we don't know

are connected
to that star world.

Yeah,
well you got a year to...

to prepare, and if you're
meant to do this,

then during that year,
things will be clarified.

Yeah.

Okay, wrap it up and tie it.

There's a lot of healing

that's needed to be
done on the lands.

And just seeing my cousins
come out,

and seeing how much they glow
from the ceremony

just makes my heart full

because there's
so much trauma,

and there's so much bad stuff
in our community right now

that we need
to be dealing with.

So, it's good to see them
starting to feel that,

so then we will someday

be holding the ceremony,
and you know,

teaching the younger ones.

Bend it over that
way, towards the doorway,

until you can get
the top leaves under.

Over then under, right?

Yeah. Same way.

Watch your fingers.

You'll be tied to the lodge.

You'll be one with the lodge.

When you see
the children come here...

...there's--
there's a difference.

They, uh...

They know what it's like to be
in a community that loves them

and knows that they're safe.

And if they need a hug,

all they need to do is ask
for a hug,

and they get one.

Because they're here.

And they feel
so safe and loved.

And that's
the most important thing.

That's what Sundance
is about.

This is one of the ways
we get reconnected.

We come to these places,

and we do these things,
and we humble ourselves.

You see those dancers
out there,

they're humbling themselves.

They're giving up their food,
they're giving up their water.

Because they know this
is what the people need.

These dancers put themselves
in a certain state,

where they earn the right
to cry for those people.

There's a constellation
in the sky

called Namiw,
the Sturgeon.

His nose touches
one side of the Milky Way

and his tail touches the other
side of the Milky Way.

Where that sturgeon swims,
that's the present.

And where his nose touches,
that's the future,

and where his tail touches,
that's the past.

There's thirteen stars to
make up that constellation,

but there's seven main ones.

And those seven main ones
represent generations.

Right now, in the present,

we're right in
the centre of those seven.

So, at the two extremes, you
have your great-grandchildren

and your great-grandparents.

My people have a name for that.
They call those câpân -

the ones that tie together.

What you're speaking now,

you're going to give
to your children,

and your children
are going to give

your great-grandchildren.

And then your
great-grandchildren are going

to take those stories, those
understandings,

those perspectives
into the future.

So, if you want those people
in the future to be strong,

to be understanding,
to be proud, to be kind,

then that's the story

you have to give
these ones in front of you,

so the câpân
can take them forward.

Person shouting:
Dancers, time to get up!

My family wants
to acknowledge the work

that these oskâpewis has been
doing for the community,

has been doing for
the Two Prayers Sundance Lodge

since it started,
thirteen years ago now.

We'd like to present
a gift to our brother here.

Thank you for all that
you've done for my family.

I really appreciate it.

♪ I am just a poor boy ♪

♪ Though my story's
seldom told ♪

♪ I have squandered
my resistance ♪

♪ For a pocketful
of mumbles ♪

♪ Such are promises ♪

♪ All lies and jest ♪

♪ Still a man hears
what he wants to hear ♪

♪ And disregards the rest ♪

♪ When I left my home
and my family ♪

♪ I was no more than a boy ♪

♪ In the company
of strangers ♪

♪ In the quiet of
the railway station ♪

♪ Running scared ♪

♪ Laying low, seeking out
the poorer quarters ♪

♪ Where the ragged
people go ♪

♪ Looking for the places
only they would know ♪

♪ In the clearing
stands a boxer ♪

♪ And a fighter by his trade ♪

♪ And he carries
the reminder ♪

♪ Of every glove
that laid him down ♪

♪ Or cut him till he cried out
in his anger and his shame ♪

♪ I am leaving,
I am leaving ♪

♪ But the fighter
still remains ♪

One of the things
that Sundance represents

is community.

People say it's
a four-day commitment,

but in actual fact,
it's a life commitment.

You should be willing to make
community wherever you go.

The most powerful way
is the way of spirit.

And what our people believe

is just as valid as
it was a thousand years ago,

if not more so now.

We can regain
that knowledge.

It's been gone to sleep,

but we still practice
those methodologies.

We still practice
the Sundance,

we still practice
the sweat lodge,

we still practice
the vision quests,

we still practice
the traveling,

sharing and talking to people.

We still dream.

And all these things
are the methodology

of how we obtain knowledge.

So, we can regain
all that knowledge.

It's just out there
waiting for us.

And we just have to make
a commitment to do it.

Oh, we must be
going too slow.

People are trying
to pass us here.

I'm doing 98 here.

♪ Where are you warriors? ♪

♪ The people call ♪

♪ They are cornered
by a monster ♪

♪ With their backs
against the wall ♪

♪ They are calling
for their leaders ♪

♪ To lead their pain away ♪

♪ They are crying
for you warriors ♪

♪ What do you say? ♪

♪ Are you stuck
inside an office ♪

♪ Working 9 to 5 a day? ♪

♪ Results don't
seem to matter ♪

♪ Oh, you just
collect your pay ♪

♪ Are you ridden
by the rule books ♪

♪ And not what
the people say? ♪

♪ Do you see their
fall from glory? ♪

♪ Do you help
them on their way? ♪

♪ Where are you warriors? ♪

♪ The people call ♪

♪ They are
cornered by a monster ♪

♪ With their backs
against the wall ♪

♪ They are calling
for their leaders ♪

♪ To lead their pain away ♪

♪ They are crying
for you warriors ♪

♪ What do you say? ♪

♪ They are crying
for you warriors ♪

♪ What do you say? ♪

Okay. That's it.