wabanaki ceremonies & rituals
There are some important things that people need to know about Wabanaki ceremonies and rituals. The first is that Wabanaki is an ancient, historic, confederacy of Nations, each individual Nation is sovereign, and has its own traditions, Elders and facilitators. There is no such thing as "one size fits all" when it comes to traditional Native (Indigenous North American) spirituality in general or with any of the Nations of the Wabanaki Confederacy.
The people of the Nations of Wabanaki Confederacy, all of the Algonquin-language family, may have some things in common, and some elements of what they do as well as the tools that they use may be similar, but they really are distinct as peoples.
In general, concerning Native spiritual ceremony, practices, and ritual, it is not to be found on the internet or outside the community of Native people. It is not to be found in books or in a library. You will never find these things on any of the websites at Kisikew.Org or AniYnwiya.Org. These traditions are living ones, shared person to person within our communities, with proper protocol being respected. Further, these practices, ceremony, and ritual belong to Native communities as a whole, as their spiritual inheritance.
Anyone who purports to teach Native (Indigenous or Aboriginal) spirituality to anyone for a profit, or by selling anything, be it a book, a cd, a weekend, a sweat-lodge experience, charging admission for a healing performance, holding pay to pray events, etc., is considered to be a fraud by the traditional North American Native community in general.
Frauds should be shunned, and usually they are in and by their community if they are Native. If what they are doing is criminal, they should be reported to the proper authorities.
If you want to find out more about this, we recommend the New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans site and discussion forum.
Annie Deer & Simon Raven (Kjikaqawej)
13 June, 2008, Tiotiake
