Longboat works to keep the old ways alive

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Last November, when Jan Kahehti:io Longboat (Mohawk, Turtle Clan) finished her work on the I da wad a di Project, a five-year program to help women residential school survivors, she asked herself, what did the Creator want her to do next?

"When we pray for guidance, direction, good decisions, the Creator never lets us down," said Longboat. She felt directed to go on a retreat to Niagara Falls. She didn't realize when she signed up for the retreat that it was based on the book One Year to Live by Stephen Levine, which helps readers to live their lives as if each year was their last.

"There are no accidents in life. Everything happens for a reason," she said. On her birthday this past April, she started her one-year and began to de-clutter.

"I have gone through all my drawers and closets four times. I could not believe the freedom I felt."

Longboat, 68, is a mother of four, grandmother and, as of December 2004, a great-grandmother. She is a teacher, holistic healer and keeper of the traditional knowledge of medicines, teachings, and the roles and responsibilities of women. She is a herbalist, gardener and seed saver.

In the mid-80s, Longboat started Earth Healing Herb Garden & Retreat Centre on Six Nations. She worked at Anishnaabe Health Toronto for four years in the mid-90s and has lectured at McMaster Medical School, Mohawk College and the University of Toronto and worked for Cancer Care Ontario. Last year she began co-hosting a talk radio show and this fall started writing a newsletter based on the four seasons.

She also accepts a number of speaking engagements. In October, she was in Toronto to speak at the annual Traditional Awareness Gathering at the Native Canadian Centre. Though she says what she knows is "only a small amount," Longboat spoke three times over the two days of the gathering, never repeating herself. She told her audience "If they [her teachers] had not done their job, I would not be standing here now."

Longboat's name, Kahehti:io, means "Garden of Plenty." She believes she belongs to the last generation to know how to live off the land. For her, gardening isn't a hobby.

"It's for survival," she said, adding that making sure there is enough food is the responsibility of women. "I will continue to garden until I can't do it anymore."

Longboat's mother was Mohawk and her father Cayuga. They had 10 children-eight girls and two boys.

"My mother was my first teacher. She lived the old way. My six grandaunts-my grandmother's sisters-taught me about behavior."

When she was seven, her grandmother started teaching her about the medicines.

She remembers her father telling his children, "Put your ears up like the rabbit" and listen to what will be said.

"One of our responsibilities when we come into this life is to gather knowledge, " she said, adding that the knowledge, once gathered, must also be shared.

"Our role and responsibility is to keep it moving for seven generations to come. If we do not speak, or tell our stories now, nothing will move ahead for the next seven generations."

Longboat said she loves to talk about the old ways, and recognizes how important it is for people to know about their culture and where they come from.

Longboat learned Mohawk from her parents, who both spoke it fluently. "It is important to understand the language. That's what residential schools and colonization tried to do. They knew that if they took the language away, we would not know who we were as a people."

Longboat has seen some of the changes that have come into the Indigenous world, including a shift away from a more communal society. Her mother used to say "Our voice is our medicine." That voice is one of the things lacking today, she said.

"We don't visit anymore. We don't make reports to one another. Visiting was crucial to our existence and to our knowledge base. People would walk the whole reserve. Our children had a lot of freedom-everyone watched them. Parents took their children everywhre."

Other shifts away from traditional society have also been detrimental, she explained. "Women are powerful. Women are the providers of food; they are the keepers of seeds. We need the same things: air, water, light, and earth, the same elements as the seeds. Why would anyone pollute the air, water or earth? That's our life. We did not have a garbage dump on Six Nations until 30 years ago. Since then, we have filled two landfill sites."

The elements needed for healing, Longboat said, include the spirit, the self, the medicine and the healer.

"When you come into this life, you bring your own doctors with you. Eat food with spirit. Get rest and exercise. Being healthy is not just physical. Continue to stimulate your mind.

"The healer offers the tools," she said. "I can't heal anybody. You are the healer. I'm just the helper. The medicine that you choose to use is up to you."