NORVAL MORRISSEAU BLOG: James Simon MISHIBINIJIMA & the "Legacy of Norval Morrisseau"...

Friday, October 5, 2018

James Simon MISHIBINIJIMA & the "Legacy of Norval Morrisseau"...

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* This post was originally published on August 1st, 2011

"Sleeping Giant (Norval Morrisseau)," acrylic on canvas,
24"x48", © 2017 James A. Simon MISHIBINIJIMA
/Click on image to Enlarge/

WHEN THE EAGLE LANDS ON THE MOON, NATIVE PEOPLE WILL TEACH THE WORLD HOW TO LIVE ON MOTHER EARTH...

There is a native prophesy born in the Trail of Tears: When the eagle lands on the Moon, things will begin to improve for native people. When the eagle landed on the moon in 1969, ancient ceremonies in traditional cultures were remembered and renewed throughout the globe.

In North America, the spiritual elders of tribal nations travelled to the east to teach the ceremonies and share their knowledge. It is in the East that tribal nations first met the arriving Europeans and were the last to recover from the impact. For forty years, the revitalization of native culture has taken on an astounding momentum that has been barely perceptible to the modern society.

Civilization is defind as the language, art and consciousness of a people. Consciousness is defined as the way in which humans know, language informs this consciousness. Art is the universal language of abstract symbolism that holds the meaning of this consciousness.

In 1962, the Anishnaabe - Ojibwe artist Norval Morriseau, delibrately broke the ancient taboo of his culture and revealed the following generation to provide the meaning of their symbols in their paintings.

These symbols are the mnemonic device for a written form of language incised and crossed - hatched on Birch Bark Scrolls and hidden in hollowed logs far west as Denver, Colorado and far as Newfoundland. They are also painted on the precambrain rock face of the Canadian shield for thousands of miles.

Over five hundred years ago, a foretelling of devastation arrived in the east, began a migration of thousands of families from the Atlantic seacoast inland to the Great Lakes territories. The western location given was simply: Where the food grows on water. This is the wild rice region of Wisconsin.

Today, eastern tribal nations known as the Wabanaki - The people of the dawn - who sent their sacred bundles and teachings inland to be protected until called for their safe return. The Anishnaabe travel east to the territories that incuded Norhern Maine. South Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

These symbols within the teachings piece together the history, migration, and consciousness of the Algonquin Family of Nations. The meaning in these symbols communicates a knowledge that includes the practical and metaphysical natural science of human consciousness, distilled to a simplicity and refinement.

Science man be the easiest analogy to make in introducing the meaning contained within the symbol to those outside of it's culture. As LAO TSU warned in the texted known as the Tao Te Ching, "THE WAY THAT CAN BE TOLD IS NOT THE ETERNAL WAY." but the symbols inform the consciousness of a natural law more encompassing that rational science alone can prove.

The cause and effect principles of Cartesian Physics have advance human achievement in science and industry. By isolating and fragmenting smaller and smaller particals, the manipulation of these particles has been determined. But when subatomic particals were able to be seen. They appeared to vibrate randomly and chaotically beyond human control. Humans could not manipilate the movement of particales, but the most important discovery may be that humans have been proven to influence their movement. When the scientist behind the microscope was changed to another scientist, the movement of the particals also change.

The realm is familair territory to Native Spiritual elders. The Natural law of the universe is understood as a vastness in which human behaviour influences the vibrantional alignment of the universe and all the life on Earth, including the animate and inanimate. Our relationship to the universe is interconnection and interdependant as an extended family.This consciousness is not a sentiment but a trained and disaplined awareness that is felt within the human being. The alignment of human beings to the universe is the science of Native Spiritual Tradition.

When quantum physicists reported that subatomic particals move randomly and chaotically in space, Einstein declared "God does not play dice with the universe" Native elders would agree with him on this point. Native traditions and ceremonies are the science and disapline of expanding human consciousness to natural law within the universe. When facing the unknown and unfathomable, a natural science orients human beingness to the earth in four directions: The electromagnetic wave of life forms. The invisable life force wiithin them, the gravitational pull on the earth and the eliptical orbit of planets around the sun. All of these forces are taken into account in the rocket science that landed the eagle on the moon, and all of these forces are taken into account in ceremonies.

In anishnaabe painting which is the sole domain of spiritual elders in Anishnaabe tradition culture, the symbol of the circle denotes perfection, completeness and continuity. A simple dot represents: Manitou (spirit). When science discovered that the balance of carbon and oxygen nuclei is so fragile in supporting life that they wonder if human life was designed into the creation of the universe. The dot communicates that the Anishnaabe have asked this question and answered yes. They refer to natural law as the original instructions created in the creation of the universe to balance human conduct with this law. The symbol of a circle with two perpendicular lines inside of it is refered to as the medicine wheel.

When philosophy seeks the first principle of creation and askes if something can come form nothing, ancient native knowledge answers "Something comes from nothing and nothing is the Creator of all Creation."

The meaning of Anishinaabe symbolism expressed by modern Anishinaabe painters is the ancient science and knowledge that informs human consciousness and conduct when faced with the unknown. This becomes an urgent message in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The rational objectivity of modern societies and educational systems collapse in the face of natural science which can be influenced but not manipulated. The protected domain of isolation and fragmented nations face the earth's response.

We live in a global village of connected relationship to each other. The earth and the universe a life an extended family. The electromagnetic wave force within life forms, whether animate or inanimate, upon the earth, is held by the gravitational pull upon a rotating planet that moves elipically around the sun. When human beings align themselves within the natural law of the natural universe, the sensation resonated as joy and love.

As human beings enter a new century after the previous century that brings the earth to ecological crisis. ancient meaning and knowledge shifts into a position to address the imbalance of human behaviour to natural law.

The anicent traditions and ceremonies which inform and discipline human concsiousness to the vast expanse of the universe while orienting human beings to the earth has become required knowledge. The influence which aligns the vibrational universe proves scientifically rational.

It is the time of cleansing when the earth will cleanse itself through fires, floods and earth quakes. This native prophesy ocurs simultaneously with the new beginning when human consciousness expands to understand the meaning of ancient knowledge, tradditons and ceremonies.

When the Eagle Landed on the Moon in 1969, the Message and Vision was, "Spirit and Love was delievered to the Grandmother the Moon who controls the tides, fertility and seasons upon Mother Earth". Forty years later, the earth responds even more urgently as human conduct remains unsustainable. The symbols of a natural science communicates the earth's response and their meaning communicates how to realign the balance of a natural law.

This is the conciousness and language of the Anishnaabe civilization and it is communciated in the universal language of Anishnaabe symbolism.

Painting has been communicating tool of Anishnaabe spiritual elders and remains so, to this day. We look to the paintings of these artist to orient and give meaning to human beings upon the earth as the twenty-first century dawns.

© 2008 James A. Simon MISHIBINIJIMA/RAMEY