Image: Leah Marie Dorion, 13th Moon (detail), 2018, acrylic on canvas. Photo: Peter Beszterda. — Image: Leah Marie Dorion, *13th Moon* (detail), 2018, acrylic on canvas. Photo: Peter Beszterda.

Métis artist Leah Marie Dorion shares the moon teachings through her detailed painting and poetry. Important to Indigenous women’s wisdom and traditional cultural knowledge, the moon teachings honour women as vital life-givers. The moon, known by many Elders as “Our Grandmother”, marks the passage of time. It provides wisdom, comfort, protection and strength from its position above us in the sky. Through her work, Dorion restores Indigenous women’s teachings and connects us to the sacred and healing natural law cycles.

Leah Marie Dorion is an interdisciplinary Métis artist, teacher, filmmaker and writer from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Dorion holds a Bachelor of Education and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Saskatchewan and a Master of Arts from the Athabasca University. She has received numerous awards and grants and her work is held in many public and private collections and. Dorion is a published author of books about Métis history, cultural teachings and storytelling.

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Leah Marie Dorion

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THIRTEEN MOONS

By Elsie Sanderson

Greetings, I am deeply honoured to share the context of this art exhibition about the thirteen moons by Métis artist Leah Marie Dorion, as I provided guidance as an Elder and advisor during the creation of this original series of artwork. This topic of thirteen moons is timely as Indigenous women everywhere are expressing their own traditional teachings, world view, and perspectives in a contemporary manner.

You’ve probably heard that historically and for many generations our traditional way of life, our spirituality and culture, was prohibited under Canadian law. Anyone caught practicing any part of it was incarcerated and their families were penalized by the withholding of food rations. We lost a lot of our cultural knowledge, traditions, customs and practices during this dark period of oppression of the Indigenous peoples in Canadian history. Our people suffered greatly because the Canadian government and the churches wanted to Christianize and Civilize "Indian" people.

However, our ancestors persevered. They protected and preserved the knowledge, traditions, customs, and practices, by practicing them in secrecy and passing on the knowledge away from those who had been put in charge to enforce the policies. Among the many spiritual and cultural practices that were prohibited were our moon teachings and ceremonies. The moon teachings are being re-instituted and practiced openly in the last couple of generations, but they are not very widely known. I consider myself truly blessed to have been selected to learn and carry the Moon Ceremony and appropriate teachings and provide guidance for this contemporary artwork series.

We call the moon our Grandmother, “Nohkum.” She is highly regarded, respected, honoured and celebrated because she is necessary to life on earth. She is referred to as “Kohkuminaw Tipiskaw Pisim,” Grandmother Night Sun. She is acknowledged for her gift to all life. We thank her through ceremony; we offer our prayers of gratitude for taking care of the water of life, we offer songs, dances and feasts in celebration and we ask her to continue her blessings upon all life that share the planet.

In our worldview and philosophy, it is women who have the responsibility to take care of the water here on the earth. There are moon teachings to help our women learn the knowledge, practises and the skills they need to know, how to preserve and protect the water. This series of artwork acknowledges these moon teachings and represents these important teachings symbolically in semi-abstract form and colour usage. For instance, Leah uses the Thunderbird symbolism to represent the role of water in the moon cycle teachings.

We are taught that each moon in the lunar year is an independent Grandmother Spirit in her own right, which means that there are thirteen (13) Grandmother Moon Spirits in the lunar year. Each Grandmother Moon brings certain gifts of the feminine and the teachings associated with those gifts. As such, artist Leah Dorion has created thirteen sequential moon paintings for each independent moon. I pray this art show impacts the hearts and minds of all the viewers. May we all access the wisdom of the thirteen moons in order to create greater well-being and healing for ourselves and the greater world community.

Elsie Sanderson is a member of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, a fluent Cree speaker, and lives her culture. Raised in the Matriarchal tradition, she is well versed in women’s knowledge and responsibilities. She gives generously of her time to teach young women to learn of the gifts of the feminine, talents and abilities to walk the strong woman road.

Elsie has been involved in First Nation political developments for 52 years, as a volunteer, an employee of First Nation organizations, and later, as a consultant specializing in First Nation Government developments that are founded on Inherent Rights traditions. She developed resource materials for training programs to implement and administer First Nation Government. At the same time, she has been involved in helping to promote First Nation Treaty and Treaty Rights through the development of resource materials based on the First Nation understanding of the Treaties and Treaty rights.

Elsie has delivered training programs and workshops on these matters. She has lectured in post-secondary classes in a variety of institutions of higher learning, delivered speeches to many gatherings and conferences on a variety of aspects concerning these matters.

In time and according to Cree tradition, Elsie was honoured by the Cree community by accepting and acknowledging her as one of their Elders. She is kept busy with a variety of eldership duties, offering advice, counsel, guidance, and helping as requested.

She currently resides in Saskatoon with her husband who is also her partner in a lifetime of offering their combined gifts and talents to assist First Nation peoples to regain their independence, control over their lives and their rightful place in their homelands. She is a proud mother, grandmother and great grandmother of many.