Anung at the Museum of Ojibwa Culture: Shirley Sorrell

As the planning continues for the launch of Anung’s Journey at the Museum of Ojibwa Culture on August 21st and 22nd, I have gotten to know Shirley Sorrell, the Museum’s Director. This woman is a delightful force for good in the world and I am lucky to have met her.

She has been the Director of the Museum for 13 years and the scope of new indoor and outdoor exhibits that have been added is impressive and it’s fun listening to her talk about what’s to come.

Right now they are building a new Huron longhouse and creating a documentary of the construction, capturing a demonstration of the old ways.

New wigwams are being added to the Ojibwa village.

Shirley recently helped a PhD student find a great research topic in the Clan system that resulted in another documentary capturing the purpose and effectiveness of the traditional family clans.

She brings the youth of the neighboring tribes together with elders so the generations can learn from each other.

And she is looking for new ways to grow the Tribal Youth Entrepreneurship program.

The Museum is open to the public with a donation requested. They could do so much more if they had more support.

You can order beautiful pieces of Native American art and handmade crafts from the museum – check out their store and call or email them for more information. Be sure to stop by if you ever find yourself in St. Ignace, Michigan.

Behind The 53rd Parallel: The Quiet Man & The Village of Cong

My family and I fell in love with Ireland the three or four times we vacationed there and found ourselves so captivated by the West of Ireland that we arranged to live there for a year. We rented a house in Galway and spent as much time in Connemara as we could.

Another favorite destination was the village of Cong.

The Monk’s Fishing House in Cong, photo by Ciaran Mchugh

The ruins of the 13th century Augustinian abbey are considered some of the finest examples of medieval architecture in the country; the abbey was home to Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, the last High King of Ireland.

The village is also a main location for the John Ford film, The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. Some key scenes in The 53rd Parallel take place in Cong during the filming of the movie. One of the novel’s main characters, Brian Burke, is from Cong and his cousin, Eamon, is John Wayne’s body double during the fist fight with Red Will Danaher.

Tales from an Ojibway Chief: Steve and Minogi

“Tales from an Ojibway Chief” is a long running series on Carl’s blog, focusing on the real adventures, conversations, and stories between Carl and Steve Fobister, an Ojibway chief, during Carl’s time as a fishing guide on Ojibway lands. Read Part 1 of the series and find out what Steve had to say about the Redskins Controversy, and be sure to follow Carl on Twitter @carlnordgren for the latest in this series.

A few years back as I was starting a new business that would package what I was learning to do in my Duke classrooms; I had figured out how to help students grow their creative capacities and develop their entrepreneurial instincts. I was considering developing a business around delivering my content to anyone interested in becoming more creatively entrepreneurial. It was just when Steve Fobister and I were getting involved in each others lives again, after decades apart.

One day I called him to talk about the business idea. And I wondered if there was an Ojibway word that came to mind that might serve as an interesting name for the business and without a moment of hesitation Steve said “I was already thinking of this. It’s Minogi.”

Steve explained that “Minogi means growing well, or growing better”. He said it was used to designate the special sort of knowledge or wisdom that leads you to a better life. The phrase he used that captivated me was “Minogi wisdom helps you live a graceful and respectful life.”

As we talked more about it we realized that when this word became, when it took shape to designate this meaning, when the meaning and the sound merged as language emerged, at that time all the people were in a primitive aboriginal state. And that the fundamental aboriginal wisdom we needed that could lead to both an individual and the clan growing well and living gracefully would be the ability to understand at an intuitive level the many varied and interwoven patterns of nature and especially those patterns that promise abundance, and to learn to live a life in harmony with them.

“Minogi means growing well, or growing better”

I tell my Duke students that Minogi wisdom is the most important wisdom for their business success and personal happiness. They need to learn how to see and understand and feel the patterns in the nature of their lives that offer the most opportunity and learn to gracefully develop them.

Anung at the Museum of Ojibwa Culture

What a gift. It seems almost too good to be true. The second novel of mine that Light Messages is publishing this year is Anung’s Journey and the Museum of Ojibwa Culture wants us to launch the book there, in St. Ignace, Michigan, on the Upper Peninsula side of the Straights of Mackinac, during a two day event, August 21st and 22nd.

This book tells the story of the Ojibwa orphan Anung and his vision quest to find the greatest chief of all the people, a journey that takes place “in the days before the white man came to Turtle Island”. As he travels east he meets other Indian tribes–he is outfitted for winter by Oddawa traders and he participates in the Wyandot Huron Festival of the Dead. He lives with squirrels and bears and is threatened by the cannibal Windigo.

Anung’s traveling companion, Turtle, tells him the oldest Ojibwa stories including how after the flood the earth was rebuilt on the back of Mi-zhee-kay, the great sea turtle that rose from the depths to offer itself for this purpose. Many Ojibwa believe the Straights of Mackinac is where Mi-zhee-kay surfaced and waited until lowly muskrat retrieved the bit of mud from the bottom of the flood waters that Sky Woman needed to create Turtle Island.

Mackinac (pronounced Mack in aw) is an English interpretation of the French interpretation of Mi-zhee-kay.

So the Museum sits at the center of the Ojibwa universe and this is where Anung’s Journey begins. I am grateful, and delighted that Shirley Sorrell, the Museum’s Director, is eager for this book launch to be a celebration of the book’s celebration of the culture of the First North Americans.

Shirley and I are shaping the first plans for the two days; she is actively recruiting a young male dancer Anung’s age, and an elder master drum maker, and it seems they are excited about demonstrating their crafts. We are still looking at other public activities. I look forward to keeping you updated and I invite you to join us.