Stewardship of the Land

Written by Superior-Greenstone District School Board on 14 March 2021

Submitted by Shy-Anne Bartlett (Interim Indigenous Education Principal)

At SGDSB, we have identified Stewardship as one of 4 pillars that we uphold in all we do. What does true stewardship mean? I want to address this question from the Indigenous lens.

I’ll back up a bit here and speak to Land Acknowledgements. When we create a Land Acknowledgement, we are engaging in a relationship with the original custodians of the land – Indigenous peoples. Notice I say original custodians and not original owners. We learn about the history of the land from the First Nations communities that we are sharing space with, the great value the land brings to us, and the spiritual connection to the land. The building of these Land Acknowledgements, we are given an opportunity to build trust and understanding with the First Nation communities, and then an understanding of what it means to be stewards of the land.

From the Eurocentric point of view, we own land. We pay a specific amount, and get a deed that says we own that section of land. From the Indigenous point of view, land can not be owned, but it can be cared for, honored, and protected. The land offers all we need to live. The people who have been here the longest will have a much deeper understanding and relationship with the land, thus it is up to us to learn and seek guidance from the original custodians of the land.

Now, I understand how people may be confused or conflicted with this idea of not being able to own land. I was recently in a sharing session with Knowledge Keepers who put things into a very easy to understand analogy. The land is the Earth, and the Earth is seen as a Mother to all. We can’t own our Mother, so how can we own land? How do we care for our Mother? This is where stewardship for the land comes in. How can we be stewards of the land – our Mother?

As a school board, we understand our learning around this, and are working towards building better relationships while engaging our students in understanding what it means to be stewards of the land.

Recent GCHS graduate student, Brai-Lynn Bananish, submitted her poem “Deep Loyal Kindness” to the 2021 OSSTF’s Student Achievement Awards and ended up being 1 of 9 students provincially to win an award. Her poem directly links to the Earth. I challenge you to think about what it means to be stewards of the land while reading her poem.

Deep Loyal Kindness
by Brai-Lynn Bananish, Geraldton Composite High School
Weather is her warning. Natural disasters are her emotions. Her blue transparent blood is being poisoned.
Her body is being bruised. Her pain is silenced by voices with new inventions.
She’s slowly breaking.
She’s screaming for help.
She’s dying.
Each day passes, we look out our windows and see her and we say she’s beautiful, but little do we know her condition is getting worse. She’s getting sicker, but we continue to spread the virus.
Her life is heading down a dangerous road.
Her wound marks are opening.
She’s taking all of this abuse and to our knowledge, that’s showing love. No one sticks up for her, instead they just throw garbage at her and laugh. Some of us break her weak sensitive bones.
She’s losing her happiness.
She’s losing her identity.
She’s losing her faith.
She has forgiven us for our actions towards her, yet she’s still in pain.
She can barely breathe, the gases in the air are filling her lungs. She’s getting a fever, that means it’s much worse. Her green dress is burning in flames, and she’s losing her brown hair. When she cries, her blue eyed tears sting her as they fall.
She’s scared.
She’s alone.She’s cold, and her skin is turning black. She just wants help. Her voice is only a whisper now, and she’s unable to raise it any higher. Her suffering is traumatizing, and brutal, and no one should go through that kind of pain.
She is exhausted.
She is torn apart.
She wants it to stop.
Before any invention, before any voices overlapping hers, before the scars, she was happy. She danced with the breeze, and she sang with the wind. She was this gorgeous heavenly woman, her personality was anything you could imagine. Her heart was gentle, and she was so generous.
She was beautiful.
She could feel.
She was always there for us when we needed her. She gave us life. She continues to give us life in a way no one ever could. She is this wonderful person who is our caregiver, who gives us gifts, and who wants us to be happy by her suffering. Her love is unconditional. She brought us peace and wonder. Whenever she smiled it brightened the day.
She was healthy.
She was carefree.
She was cheerful.
She welcomed us into her home, and took us in as one of her own. We were her only family, and we betrayed her. Could you imagine the betrayal she felt, but she hid it by giving us a glass of water before bedtime, or by giving us food to eat at the table, or by showing us places we once could explore.
She has done nothing but give us dreams, and make our minds wonder. She was that type of person to keep you at the edge of your seat. She was and still is extremely strong for what she does for us. No one realizes how ungrateful she is for the way she’s been treated, everyone thinks it’s acceptable to hurt somebody else, but the consequences are extreme.
She wants nothing more but to feel loved, and alive again. The more we bruise and the hurt we cause, the closer she gets to being on her deathbed. She has hoped and prayed for a cure, but there’s nothing. Everyday we see her less and less outside our windows. She remains quiet, and keeps to herself. No one notices her beauty because it’s muted by the destruction of her wound marks. She’s numb inside, she’s never felt so depressed and weighed down.
We should care about how we treat her because no one should go through any type of hurt. It’s lonely, especially when no one see’s your suffering. Everyone should always be there for one another instead of ignoring each other. Everyone should feel loved and cared for no matter who you are or no matter what. Not one single living thing should ever feel abandoned.
Why do we cause suffering? Is it to feel like the bigger person? Is it to make others feel powerless? There’s absolutely no excuse for the lack of kindness. Kindness is being there to support and show friendliness to another person. Instead of hurting the woman we know so very well, we can help her grow, and we can grow with her. We can make beauty again, because that is what kindness is about, and her kindness was deep and loyal.