Learning from nature

The sky is a light concrete grey, the water several shades darker. It's a day of steady drizzle and gusting winds. But Robin Greene is not inside his cozy home. His wife Kathleen sends a grand-daughter out to find him.

Greene was born on Big Island, Lake of the Woods, in 1932, before moving as a baby to Iskatewizaagegan (Shoal Lake) with his parents. He gained an appreciation for the outdoors as his family made its livelihood by fishing, trapping and picking wild rice. In the 1980s, he stepped back in time by building a secluded cabin on Shoal Lake without hydro or running water, that allows him to spend time away from the community.

"What it did for me? I recaptured most of my culture and ways I was brought up with my parents," Greene said, now sitting at his kitchen table.

Greene also continued to learn from the natural world.

"One year about this time, a turtle came out of the water toward our cabin to lay its eggs, digging a hole in preparation. About half-an-hour later, a little black mud turtle followed the big snapping turtle and did the same thing. It was dark when the turtles reached our house, but it was storming from the west, flashing and thundering, and when the lightning flashed you could see the pouring rain and the turtles laying eggs side-by-side."

Fascinated, Greene watched awhile before going to bed for the night. First thing in the morning, he looked for his turtle friends.

"They weren't there, and you couldn't tell that they had been there," he remembers. "The rain had washed the area so it looked natural again.

"Even though the turtles had wanted to leave the water and it had rained hard, that didn't disturb them from what they were doing. At the same time, the area where they laid their eggs was purified.

"As humans, we tend to take shelter from the rain. What I believe now is that we should be out enjoying it. It gives life from above and cleans our environment."