Like many parents, I want to guide my kids on a path to live the good life: spiritually connected and holistically healthy, connected to and respectful of all our relations. The Anishnaabe principles called the Seven Grandfather Teachings have become the foundation of my own daily parenting practices. Oral translations such as The Mishomis Book (by Ojibway educator Edward Benton-Banai), detail how the Creator, known as our collective grandfather, gave us our first mother, Mother Earth. That creator saw that humans needed morals to help one another and to remain respectful of our connection to, and reliance on all of creation, including our animal cousins. The animals woven into these lessons serve to remind us of our responsibilities as stewards of the environment and protectors of our first mother. And I share these lessons as stories and songs with my kids, as traditional practitioner and knowledge keeper Banakonda Kennedy Kish Bell has passed them onto me.
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