By Bubzy Martin
War and Peace, male and female, left handed and right handed twins. In the spirit of the Two Row Wampum. In the duality of Creation. Too much water puts out the fire and too much fire steams the water.
Our ancestors were very complex but simple. We don’t have to look too hard in nature to see simplified beauty in all its forms. The most basic of these forms in masculine and feminine and we need both powers to have a well-rounded society.
Our society is matriarchal this is natural and perfect. The [Steh’s] Moms bear and nurture the babies and kids until they become increasingly more mobile. The boys start hunting squirrels and rabbits and even the girls take part – the instinct of the hunt is within them too.
The sounds and smells sharpen us. We are losing this very fast. When the boys finally become young men after fourteen years of nurturing and knowledge from the people of the village and are instructed by canoe builders, corn planters and old medicine women.
The young men were taken with the Roti skenna keti which means the men that carry the burden of peace. Sometimes to hold the peace there must be war. The mothers are by nature less likely to send their sons and daughters into warfare because there is nothing like the closeness of children to the mothers heart.
The matriarch cannot be faint of heart. Sometimes there was just no other choice. We had to fight or we wouldn’t be here today alive, we would be extinct as Haudenosaunee.
The purpose of the “educational” warfare upon our grandmas and grampas of the Mohawk Institute was to create fear amongst the Iroquois through the women by bodily siege. So the women whom are closest to the kids by heart pass these unnatural vibrations to the children.
I know because I would lash out in anger because anger is fear. Fear is control. Fear wrecks the clan family. This is a colonial weapon. To decolonize is to eradicate fear in the land which is what the Peacemaker sought to accomplish.
By recruiting the Mohawks first then the rest of the nations was to create a United Union to eradicate fear so the coming faces of the 7 generations could blossom. A child hood without fear for children is the same as rain to the flowers in bloom. They flourish.
The balance of sun energy and moon energy must be equal. Everything in creation is about balance. War is unnatural. Sometimes our mothers must call it if they have to. Love is just as much a role of the male as anything.
It is simple. We must return to this simplicity and look to the knowledge of creation for our inspiration for vision. The saying goes a people without a vision perish. Are we flourishing as Haudenosaunee or are we perishing?
The circle of life is a living circle which regenerates our spirits through thankfulness. A ceremony is a celebration of famly love and life. So we as a distinct people must cling to our distinctiveness and absorb the Orenta love energy in nature, in Sonkwai:iatison.
All is a symbol of a perfect love. I’m not afraid to talk about love because my mother gave of it freely. Now I’m trying to give back and help just as freely. I am a very strong person because my mom was. This is our greatest achievement as Haudenosaunee. We must tattoo it on our souls so we’ll always remember that we are all in this together. It is a war not of our making.
But never the less it’s here and we’re involved no matter what. So let us remember this in all our communications to each other whether cellular, written or verbal. Wakiro!