Report date
May 2023
Learning Log

Aaniin, it still feels like I am a new Fellow with the new parts of my mind that I am encountering. I think about all that I put into my application. All the excitement of dreaming big and the freedom that came with it. I remember the root cause of my plan, with all the reinforcing causes. It reaches deep within my soul. The anxiety I had when I was watching the emails saying "you have been chosen...". One of my goals is to increase my fluency in the Ojibwe Language. I increased the amount of time I spend with elders that were raised in the language. They have been patient with me as I attempted to use increasingly advanced grammar. Recently, I was able to have a conversation where I used some lesser known grammar and was seemingly understood. One thing I didn't include in my plan but has become an opportunity is to tutor Ojibwe Language Students. This task is being worked into my Ojibwe Language learning and has proved to be very effective. I am having the foundational language structure being reinforced within my vocabulary and world outlook that using more complex language is becoming increasingly easy. Another part of my journey is to gather stories. I want to track the migration story as it's told community by community. So far I have been able to identify individuals as far east as Sault Ste. Marie. I was able to hear more stories. As seekers of knowledge we tend to think of what we want to know and then go to find that particle knowledge or story. I failed to recognize that within our customs we don't usually get what we want to know but we get what we are meant to know. I have heard stories of resistance and adaptation. Not just why we came here but how. I was also able to gain a Dakota view. Not saying that it is the view of all Dakota people but a story from a certain family of a certain community. Much like the ojibwe communities, there are certain stories and legends of how things happened. I thought I knew the "truth". But I realize that the "truth" itself will manifest throughout many stories that correlate throughout our communities no matter the differences the general idea is the same, "something great happened and this is how we know it happened.". All versions of the "truth" can be true. It is true for each community itself and the universe at the same time. Since on this journey, I've quickly come to realize that the power of spiritual energy exists in all things. There are no coincidences, only pebbles set along the path of which one is meant to follow. Each pebble climaxes and and begins a new set of steps. As a new Fellow, the beginning has been greatly impactful. I've broadened my goals while gaining the insight of when I reach my goals, I will have a new journey that puts to rest the journey I am on and begins the journey I am meant to be on. Miigwech