PsychologistSay...
Everyday life can be tricky - impossible even, and talking about it can be even more challenging. Trust me; I get it - being human has its challenges. Hello, I’m Dr. Tami, a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. I create candid conversations about what Psychologists are Saying related to everyday situations. I combine Indigenous & Modern Day Psychology - helping us understand behaviors impacting ourselves and others.PS: Here's to Being Human.
Disclaimer: The information in our podcast, webpage, and social media pages is for entertainment only. All views expressed are solely those of the individuals involved and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which we have been, are now, or will be affiliated. The information is not meant to diagnose or treat any mental health condition. If you are experiencing mental health symptoms, we encourage you to contact a mental health provider in your community. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, please call 911 or the nearest emergency room. The comments on this website, podcast, and media posts are the sole responsibility of the writers, and the writers take full responsibility for any litigation resulting from these comments. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason (abusive, profane, etc.). Please keep your comments polite, relevant, and constructive. This podcast is available for private, non-commercial purposes only. Dr. Tami Jollie-Trottier (the host) is not to be held responsible for the misuse, reused, recycled, and cited and uncited copies of content within this blog by others. None of the authors or contributors or anyone else connected with PsychologistSay… can be responsible for your use of the information contained in or linked from these web pages. The authors and contributors of PsychologistSay…are not responsible for any errors or omissions, The information contained in this podcast, on our webpage, and on our social media pages are provided on an “as is” basis with no guarantees of completeness, and accuracy, usefulness, timeliness, or of the results obtained from the use of this information, and without any warranties of any kind, express or implied. This podcast and website contain copyrighted material, which the copyright owner has not specifically authorized. We are confident that we abide by fair use: “Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for ‘fair use’ for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.” If we cover your material and you consider that we are in breach of this act, please contact us, and we will work towards rectifying the complaint. Please note that the introduction (intro) and conclusion (outro) music tracks in the episodes were legally obtained here and are royalty-free. Certification of authenticity is available if required. The authors’ and contributors’ intellectual property, including but not limited to (logos, artwork, podcast episodes, articles, and merchandise) are not to be redistributed except with express written permission from the authors. The authors claim no affiliation with material holders (intellectual property) for the films, television shows, books, or articles we discuss. They have not endorsed us, and we have not endorsed them. This media should be considered for adults only. If you find any errors in any of the content of his podcasts or blogs, please send a message through the “contact” page. This podcast is owned by "Tami Jollie-Trottier, PhD, PLLC.”
PsychologistSay...
The Sacred Path to Mino-biimaadeziiwin: James Vukelich on Living a Good Life
What happens when we release the identities we've constructed for ourselves and embrace a deeper connection to ancestral wisdom? In this soul-stirring conversation, author, speaker, and linguist James Vuklich (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa) shares his transformative journey from teaching the Ojibwe language to truly living it.
Whether seeking to understand Indigenous wisdom or searching for your path toward authentic living, this episode offers profound insights on releasing constructed identities, embracing our connections to each other, and finding liberation in unexpected places.
What identity might you need to release to discover who you truly are?
Your support matters to us! Please give us a follow on each of our platforms to stay updated on what we're doing at PsychologistSay.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PyschologistSay
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/psychologist_say/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@drtamitrottier
The. The following is a series of candid conversations. The content is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for seeking help from a mental health care professional To learn more info regarding additional disclaimers, privacy policies and Bonjour, Welcome to Psychologist.
Speaker 2:Say, a podcast where we talk about the psychology of everyday living. I'm your host, dr Tammy. I'm joined today by a very special guest and he is actually sitting right across from me, so I'm so excited to have James Vuklich here. He is an author, a speaker and a linguist right, and he's also a descendant of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. That is my tribe, and he is here on the res in the res, whatever the right way to say it is, but he's here. The right way to say it is, but he's here and we're excited to have him here. He spoke last night to our community at a wonderful event where he was able to discuss one of his books, the Seven Generations and the Seven Grandfather Teachings. So I want to welcome our guest and say, miigwech, thank you for being part of this. How are you doing today, james?
Speaker 1:and say, miigwech, thank you for being part of this. How are you doing today, james? Miigwech Nmeno aya. Thank you so much, I am really well, I am super happy to be here at Turtle Mountain. This has been a wonderful and beautiful trip.
Speaker 2:Okay, so tell us a little bit for our listeners. We have people who listen to the show because they're seeking, they love, to engage in this conversation about the deeper aspects of daily living and how psychology applies to everything in life, because it's our behavior, it's our thoughts, it's our emotions, it's what we show to the world and for our listeners. I think, when we think about psychology and having an author, an Indigenous person here, somebody who is there's, your specialty is words and language. How do you communicate to them this thought of being well and how it feels to be home for you? I guess I should say home, but I may be implying that, or what? Tell me more.
Speaker 1:It's such a good point because when I started working on this book, this was part of, for me, what was the ceremony of everyday life. It wasn't something reserved for a special time. It was the ceremony of everyday living and when I was seeking out wellness because the genesis of this particular book, it begins at a low point in my life. It begins when I'm about to step aside from teaching Ojibwe. I'd been chronically underemployed. I had been working, but not enough.
Speaker 1:Okay, interesting, I was working at a loss all of the time For years. It had been for years and I had reached this point where I'm like, okay, I had to let go, because that was part of my identity was teaching the Ojibwe language. And I had reached this point where I'm like, all right, I can let that go. I can still have the language in my life every day. I just won't teach it. I just won't have it as my voc, as a job. I can still read it every day, I can still speak it every day, and so I decided to. If this were my last time speaking about something, what would I speak about? And it put me in this place where I'm like I've taught so much grammar, so much of the linguistic function of language. I would share these teachings that elders taught me Like left brain Exactly Analytical, verbal language teaching linear.
Speaker 1:And the meanings of the words yeah, what they really meant okay, rather than how to use them right.
Speaker 2:So when what I think I heard you say was you were a teacher of the language, but then you decided to live the language. Indeed Deep Isn't that transformational, where you're not a teacher, the language is you and you had to step away from teaching it in order to activate that sense of self.
Speaker 1:It was this moment where I was dealing with what I considered a failure, because I hadn't achieved what I wanted to in creating more fluent speakers.
Speaker 1:I had there were some students who did really well and then they went out and became excellent speakers. But I had a community-wide goal for this Right and I realized I was leaving out an important part of the language, and that was the. It was holistic. I was leaving out the spiritual part of the language, the, the lived part of the language, rather than just teaching the grammar and the rules. Okay, so.
Speaker 2:So the psychologist in me and and this is not there, but you know this, I want to, I want to let you know that we do have guests that come on, it's not true, but sometimes we go a little bit deeper and it's totally voluntary. But I guess the psychologist in me says okay, something about this, you had to start to live what you were teaching and for you that felt like a failure, isn't that? I mean, that's where I think many people are struggling in life, where we feel like, when we step away from something that we thought was the reason why we exist and we step in to the unknown of, like a spiritual calling or passion, um, what starts to happen to your identity and what pushes you forward without a measure of, like westernized success, such as train, this many fluent, you know, the community, those, those standardized measures of. So how do you measure your success now?
Speaker 1:that you're in this, you're living the language you're, yeah, when it had changed. It needed to change in order for me to do what I'm doing today. So at that point in my life, uh, you know, my, my relationships were frayed as well. Uh, I was not successful at what I can, at what I wanted to do with teaching the language again, being chronically underemployed. Uh, my frayed relationships, and I had reached this point where I just began letting go, uh, there, this. So I had let go of, you know, being the son, I let go of being the brother, I let go of my opinions of what that meant to be. Okay, all of that, I had let that go.
Speaker 2:Just to be, Is there an Ojibwe or any phrase that says to let something go in the way that it's not like dropping something literally. It is indeed dropping it. Oh, interesting.
Speaker 1:And it is one of I'm working on it for this next part of my latest book To make an offering in Yojibwe language is bagichige, okay, and if I'm saying I'm setting tobacco down, I am bagitana, I am releasing him or her, I am setting him or her down. And so in Ojibwe asema tobacco is animate, so I'm releasing that.
Speaker 1:And it struck me that, as I'm releasing that, I am letting go of all of those things. I've asked for help. I'm not holding on to those desires anymore. I am not holding on to my fears, I'm releasing it. I am letting that go, I am setting that down and letting what needs to happen take place. I don't need to carry my fears, I don't need to carry my ambitions. I can release it at that moment and when you look at to make an offering in Ojibwe, it's bagichige. It is to release and to let go.
Speaker 2:To release and to offer, and I think because we tend to in society take beautiful concepts and ideas and put language you know like drop something. And that's part of what I think is so healing about any language, and it's sad because I'm Indigenous, but Ojibwe, michif, those are foreign languages to me, but I see the beauty in why they had to be descriptive, but how the use of our current English can just really hinder our level of how we deal with and cope with life, and so I think that's something that I think is so beautiful about our Indigenous culture, indigenous people. No matter what language we're speaking, we can learn these connections and on that deep level of our ancestors had to come up with these terms, not because they wanted to impress our needs, they were describing how they were living.
Speaker 1:Yes, and that letting go that's a very, it's a human necessity.
Speaker 2:I think to a realistic life, like I did not need to carry all of those things with me big ones and I work with people and when you have to let go of a relationship that you and putting it down or releasing versus I'm disconnecting, or you know that really kind of rigid where we need to move away from somebody that we care about, that we thought was nurturing or fulfilling us, but yet we realize there was something hurtful or dysfunctional about that person so we have to release it. Let it go in a way that makes sense to both parties, and I heard you say some of that. I think I even heard you say, like you had to release some of your obligations, maybe as brother or can can. Did I get that right?
Speaker 1:I was actually releasing my opinions of myself in what I thought people saw me as I had this cultivated image of ego of who I wanted James mcglitch kagegabo to be, and part of the fear is people seeing you in another way, such as um, which was for me this, and that took place, like during this period of yeah being for me I. I had considered it a very low point, but there was a moment of self-realization where I had been able to observe myself using meditation, using awareness.
Speaker 1:And as I began to let go of some of those obligations that I perceived that I had created and that I had imposed on myself.
Speaker 2:And based on ego, our thought of how we should be performing versus or the way people see me. In psychology, a lot of times that's called impression management. Okay, so I may, and this is everybody. It doesn't mean it's the more we're aware of it or the more we're with somebody who's using it. It's really a sign of I'm working really hard to show up the way I think I should and the way people want to see me. But it's work because that's not me, and so behind closed doors I am somebody else me and so behind closed doors I am somebody else.
Speaker 2:But nobody but maybe who's closest to me gets exposed to this person, and this person can be hurtful, they could be impatient, they could be rude, they could be detached from love, they could be overly needy all of these things that are real parts of human emotion and behavior that people have learned to feel more guilt and shame about. So they don't show the world up though that that fear of I might let down my guard and somebody's going to see this, maybe this ugly piece of me, and how could I ever go back to being, in their eyes, this person I built myself up to be, or that I think they want to see that's, that's all it might. We're all in the. Is this kind of where and that was it.
Speaker 1:Because, again, uh, because I tried so hard with becoming a professor and, like, I had reached this point where I, again I and it's so weird to think about because this is like 15 years ago Okay, this takes place, but this profound transformation that I needed, right To happen, right, but again that kind of it's that pseudo self that, again, I had created to let that go, to release those self-imposed obligations, self-imposed. The moment I had that, there was this moment of liberation from that Okay, that okay, even if I, you know, in my opinion, was not the good brother or not the good husband or not the Ojibwe teacher anymore, I would still be James.
Speaker 2:Right. It's a really, really big identity shift of if, um, if I was not, and I and this. This is a really hard um thing for people to get to, because in everyday life we become our, our titles. It's the first, I mean. What happens when you meet somebody new and you introduce yourself? Hiames and then what's the next question out of this stranger's mouth to you?
Speaker 1:yeah, what do you?
Speaker 2:do. What do you do? Not, who are you, but what do you do? And uh, another question that maybe some of us indigenous or people of color may get is kind of like what, what are you?
Speaker 1:And yeah, again, to be able to let those go, was this moment of liberation which led me to the point where I was like, okay, if you are not a professor, James the Ojibwe professor, then what would you talk about? What would you do? And if it was my last time out, I would talk about this idea of seven generations, Okay, and I'd talk about the grandfather teachings. Because when I had let all of that other stuff go, when I sought out direction, when I sought out how can I lead Mino-Pamatsuan a good life, that became my goal. It was no longer to be James, the image I had created and wanted to fulfill. It was how can I lead a good life? And for once I was like, okay, I can get behind that 100%. There's no contradiction, it works in alignment with what I want to do and how I want to act works in alignment with what I want to do and how I want to act. And the idea that my actions are affecting all of my relatives, not just now, but seven generations from now.
Speaker 1:Right, which I hadn't, which is hard a hard perspective when you're just cultivating that image of yourself, that ego that you were projecting to everyone. All of a sudden, I'm like, oh, that is an illusion, that was an illusion all along. Now that you were projecting to everyone, all of a sudden I'm like, oh, that is an illusion, that was an illusion all along. Now that you understand that, what do you want to do? And I was like oh, I want to lead a good life. That will be pretty much my only goal from now on. Well, how will I do that? It'd be the grandfather teachings. And when I thought of what those words actually meant, I went back to basics and I started reading. I went back to basics and I started reading. I went back to a time when I was happy.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, when I was 18.
Speaker 1:Yay and I was free and I was reading philosophy and investigating spirituality.
Speaker 2:Free from what. I mean listeners probably want to know. If I want to know, I think our listeners are going wait. This is so. We love it, but free from what.
Speaker 1:Free from all of those ambitions in creating that image of who I thought James Kagegawa was, Because you're 18. You were just creating that at that moment. You were investigating. You're really. You're brand new. You're in the Ojibwe language, Oshkinawe. You're like a new man.
Speaker 2:At 18?.
Speaker 1:At that age, from probably 14 to about 20, you'd be considered like a young man, a new man.
Speaker 2:A new beginning.
Speaker 1:And so you're about. You're no longer a child. Okay, you're not maybe ready for all of the responsibilities of an adult Adult, raising a family, looking of an adult adult. Raising a family is looking after people, caring right, caring for a family. That's an awesome enterprise for anyone. So maybe at that age, this is, this is when you're new, and so when I began, I went back there and I started noticing, reading teachings and even unwittingly saying, oh, oh, that's like the Ojibwe teaching the old man just shared with me. I remember hearing something similar to reading the Tao Te Ching and seeing teachings that really resonated with elders that had shared with me in the Ojibwe language and I thought wait, why am I looking out there for direction I'm seeking to?
Speaker 1:lead a good life, seeking to be a good relative, acting in a way that's positively beneficial, not just for me now, but for someone seven generations down. And then I realized ah, that would be the grandfather teachings, it would be the sacred law.
Speaker 2:Can you explain for our listeners who are not familiar and this is our Indigenous, you know, this is our teachings that we're trying to reclaim, we're trying to learn, mean in terms of going to those teachings and just in a real sense of like, how can they understand what some of those are?
Speaker 1:The seven grandfather teachings are teachings that have been passed down from time immemorial as a way of leading a good life, and that's what we call Minobamatsu. It's a life of peace, it's a life of balance, it's a life without conflict with your environment or with yourself. With yourself. It's a life without contradiction, where you're saying one thing and then doing another. It's a holistic life. Okay, a holy life if you will saying one thing and then doing another. It's a holistic life, a holy life if you will. And the grandfather teachings which have been passed down, and there are a number of origin stories from them, with different particular religious societies. For me, I wanted to not focus on a particular religious society, but rather than the meaning of the words, the meaning of the teachings, and so that's when I began using my linguistic background to really investigate what was inside, breaking the right.
Speaker 2:What is inside? What's what is inside of the word Uh, and that's you know, uh, you do the social media, ojibwe word of the day. It was how many of us in your community came to find you. And you know, many times I went to and listened and found a lot of healing in what you were saying in terms of breaking down this word that I may have difficulty pronouncing and then, of course, some shame that I'm having this difficulty. Yet, focusing on the, and to me it was more about the storytelling that you did, about the word, and that's where, for me and it's interesting because we both kind of have a similar thing that was kind of in our lives, and mine was about 14 years ago, so it was interesting, and that was a part of your book where I went.
Speaker 2:Oh, interesting, he had some kind of suffering where it was so much suffering that you had to do, you had to explore something else, and that really resonated with me and so many others who have created masterpieces and not to be like an achievement, but went forward and created without knowing what they were going to create, but they could feel it inside of them and it usually comes from some kind of suffering that was so intense and deep that it allowed them to access something within themselves. They was always there they didn't know about, and when they start to unleash it, it guides them, and it can feel very frightening because it's not westernized, it's not academic. Sometimes you don't even know if it's spiritual. It just feels like something that is so deeply inside of you but yet connected to everything around you. It can feel very isolating too.
Speaker 1:And the isolation part. It was welcome. I had become fine with myself, so I was no longer lonely. I was never lonely, in fact, because I had found peace. It was this moment where, using those teachings, I was able to really find that moment of peace where, again, I was fine with the universe. The universe and all of my relatives were always around me. There was no reason to be lonely Because you're not alone, right, exactly Ever.
Speaker 2:And that's one thing our producer Harold, he shared. He was at your talk last night but he shared that exact what we're talking about now. When you did the seven generations and your ancestors and he said it was just really deep. He said how we are, our ancestors, they're not in the past, they're us, they're within us, they're us, they're within us.
Speaker 2:And so when you said you're never alone, uh, I think listeners can that. That's something where they they can't see that. They look around and go I am alone, there's nobody next to me, you know I. But instead it's like, well, I am of my people, I'm of this land, I'm of this god. Whatever they're part of it's inside of of them. So you're never alone. And that's the healing part of breaking down a word and just sharing it in form of communication and talking, just like we are. It's the storytelling that people get these light bulb moments and can really learn from Anishinaabe and spirituality, culture, whatever it is. It's taking time to really listen to somebody else's story. And then how can I build off of that in my own life?
Speaker 1:And that was part of the words, was I? When I began looking in the morphemes, the small parts of the words, I was hearing stories that our ancestors, I think, are sharing with us, and they embedded in the words themselves. All of a sudden I'm listening to them and you know I'm not the only person who you know. You mentioned the suffering of it. That word Gush Kingdom. It means sadness, it can mean sorrow.
Speaker 1:I think it could even mean suffering. And when you look at it it has an gushk which is to be sealed, to be closed off, An andum to think you are closed off Because you can only think it. You are never in fact shut off, cut off from all of your relatives. You can think you are and it is that thought that makes you suffer. Okay, I were able to change the way I'm approaching this, able to change my thought that all of a sudden again, I'm not lonely, I am here with those relatives. I'm not just thinking exclusively of me, I'm thinking of all of my relatives. And it is a liberating thought, it is a liberating perspective.
Speaker 1:And when I started looking at those words, even just breaking them down Again, I would hear story after story of people who, not just 50 years ago, 100 years ago, 800 years ago, thousand years ago, people who went through the human experience went through this as well. I too felt sorrow. I too felt a moment of suffering where I could not continue the way that I am now. Something will have to radically change in my life. When I went through that experience, I embedded my story in this word, in this teaching, and it passed down to another generation and another generation, so that when you get there and you will, if you're living the human life, if you're having a human experience, you're going to have this at one time You're going to have intense suffering, You're going to have sadness.
Speaker 2:Or several times right.
Speaker 1:Several times, indeed, you will feel loss, you will feel loneliness. We've felt that too. This is how we dealt with it, and for me to have a moment to share those words with people was when I posed that question what's the last thing you would do in the language If this were done at the end of the semester, you're going to step away and get another job. What would you talk about? It would be those stories, and that was the genesis of this book.
Speaker 1:The first time I did it, I was like well, I did it, that's exactly what I wanted to do. It was at um, it was with a group of teachers and instructors and somehow the next day everyone was like, oh wow, Everyone loved that presentation. I again, I had that desire to influence people, that desire to present that image of what I considered James Kaku. I'd let that go and, uh, to hear that people enjoyed hearing about the grandfather teachings was a pleasant surprise. But I thought, well, maybe I'll continue speaking about this Because it also brought me great joy. There are times I feel like I'm getting away with it because this is so much fun.
Speaker 2:So that almost I mean it almost sounds like not imposter syndrome, but I mean I can relate to that feeling of oh, this speak, I would do this for free, I cannot. I almost feel guilty like oh boy, I cannot. I almost feel guilty like oh boy, and not. I think most people would love to leave work or their job or whatever, however their life, whatever they make money doing, having that kind of guilt of wow, I just totally got paid for something that I can't believe they paid me for and I think that's that good fortune. And I mean I'm also, you know, I know our traditional ways, I'm learning all of the time and I'm also Catholic and very spiritual, and I remember it just really made me think of that when, because speaking is one of the things that I love to do, it comes natural, doesn't? You know, trying to prep for it is more work than me just getting up and speaking. But I almost didn't do it because it felt like that, like this can't be, it shouldn't be that easy.
Speaker 2:And somebody asked me that when I was in adoration, it was a volunteer who was and she said well, what would you do if you could? Just if you could speak to people just like with this, without any expectations of you, need to have these linear objectives and goals. And I said I think I would be the happiest I've ever been. And then she said, well, why wouldn't? Why aren't you doing that? And I said I think I would be the happiest I've ever been. And then she said, well, why weren't you doing that? And I said, well, that doesn't sound like. That doesn't make sense to me. I should be suffering. And she said God wants you to be happy.
Speaker 2:It was again. It's like a moment where are you kidding me? So why do we run away from things that feel so good or have even guilt for? That's part of like having a gift, but then owning the gift and using the gift is that's where it says. I think some of us are really. Obviously I'm struggling with this and maybe I'd sometimes, of course, you were too. Am I getting on something here?
Speaker 1:Well it was. I recall I was listening to Jack White. Well, famously he's a very famous musician but loving loves to play the blues, and it was in an interview where he's like I can't believe I'm getting away with this, Like getting on stage, traveling, playing the blues and people showing up and loving it. And I thought that's exactly how it feels when I get a chance to speak about the grandfather teachings, when I get a chance to share, like a word that I've heard and that I've looked into, and all of a sudden I've heard a voice from it could be even thousands of years, it could be from even a few hundred years, sharing this beautiful moment of insight, All right, and that I get to share this with people who I'll probably never meet or see or visit with. When I do a small video and post it online, it ends up going all around the world. So those moments for me, they're really joyful and it becomes I never want to forget the gratitude for that that me wait to win Des Moines.
Speaker 2:That humility even right.
Speaker 1:Humility. That, oh wow, what a special gift this is. How much fun this is.
Speaker 2:You know, and you really. If I just want to give our listeners a bit, because they're not here and we were not, this is all audio, but I wish you could see James right now, and this is genuine because he's been here for a couple of days, but he's very humble and this energy and it doesn't mean you're just so full of positivity that you know it almost like well, where does he get this from? It's based in a really grounded sense of I know the struggling, I know how this is and yet I can still look at life this way, and it's it to me feels achievable, then, for our people, and maybe not just our people, but I'm sure all sorts of people relate and who would listen to you and can learn from you.
Speaker 1:I, you know, and I have to take and give credit to elders who taught me, Because they went through the worst that colonization has to offer. Their spirituality had to go underground, their spirituality had to go underground. So many of them faced physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and sexual abuse in their lifetimes. It was the worst that colonization has to offer. Yet I had met people who were able to be grateful On a daily basis. I had met people who were able to laugh, to joke.
Speaker 1:I noticed yesterday, with Anishinaabeg and Indigenous people, you're always going to your laughter always going to your teasing and it's really good fun, and I was like that's the example I want to see. Despite having faced that, to say Mino Kishigata, it is a good day, nice. Despite that, I am still seeking out a good life, I'm still seeking out joy, I'm still seeking out health, and that's really that became the source for what I'm discussing now.
Speaker 2:Wonderful.
Speaker 1:And it's transformed my life.
Speaker 2:Well, I know I'm truly inspired. I'm a big fan and I think that I got to witness what your work does in a community and to see our. I got a message last night I'll share with you. After your talk, one of my friends sent me a picture of her young grandson and he's holding up your book. Sent me a picture of her young grandson and he's holding up your book and she said we are home learning the language on this book, together with James' book, and it's a children's book that some of our young people in the audience got last night from James. It's Wisdom Weavers and Exploring the Ojibwe Language. And so for her to send that picture exploring the Ojibwe language, and so for her to send that picture and she's touched. They both left inspired and then she messaged again and said he wants to write his own book now and I said this is why we do this.
Speaker 2:It's late at night, we're exhausted, we're tired. It was a busy, great, productive day. I looked at my daughter and said despite all the fatigue, the planning, this, you know the stress and when you get to leave something in your community and see what the impact that it's had it planted a seed, and for someone to even take time and give that feedback. You know that that good life, that that they even knew how meaningful that could be, and I wanted to make sure to share that with you because we all had a moment where we're driving home and we all got to feel very grateful and good with what we helped do that day and what we got to experience. So miigwech for that.
Speaker 1:Miigwech and I'm sure, sure viewers can't see but the smile on my face. It's ear to ear. That is exactly why I worked on that book was hopefully to facilitate a moment of a family yep, of people just going over the language together. Right, that was what I did with my son in the book yes, I see that you have a dedication to him.
Speaker 1:It was really special because it takes place during the pandemic. That's not in the book, but I was looking for something to do with my young son now that the schools had shut down and I was like you know what? We're going to go get some red willow shut down. And I was like you know what? We're going to go get some red willow, I'm going to harvest some, show you how to make traditional tobacco, and we'll make a dream catcher too and that I had an opportunity to write a book that Marcus Trujillo did an amazing job illustrating, that I can give to my son that he probably won't remember too well because he was five, six at the time.
Speaker 1:Oh he, he'll remember it and now he'll be able to look at this, maybe like that very weird time in everyone's life that it's, it's recorded and uh, I'm really happy that there was another family that got to do what the plan was oh yes because I'm reading books with him, and it was how about if people could look at that, maybe use their phone with a QR code and share a word with one another?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:To look at our culture, to celebrate that, and right before bedtime, right and then. That is the goal. So thank you for sharing that with me. Yes, you give your friend my very best.
Speaker 2:And thank you, jennifer, I will give her a shout out. Jennifer champagne is my very close one of my best friends, uh, who did uh come and support the event and share that information, so I'm glad I got to pass that along to you. So, for our listeners, I think we're just about ready to, even though I would love to sit here.
Speaker 2:We could talk probably for days, maybe one day, we'll just do a live like 24 hour, just kind of keep talking, but I really, is there any last thoughts that you have that you want to find you and where they can find you on? Maybe if you have your website or something, a project that you'd like them to know about?
Speaker 1:Well, you can always find all of my social media, a newsletter where I like to keep in touch with people about what I'm doing at my website, wwwjamesvuklichcom. And if you'd like to really investigate the grandfather teachings, the Anishinaabe, ojibwe, chippewa, nakowai Soto perspective of seven generations, you can always check out the book the Seven Generations and Seven Grandfather Teachings. Or, if you want to hear me talk about it, I do an audible version of it as well.
Speaker 1:And the fact that I had a chance to talk about this with you this afternoon. The generosity and kindness you've shown me in getting me to Turtle Mountain, nicanagwadjewing, to a homecoming. This was a really special, special event for me. And to have that moment to say, miigwech pizindele, thank you all for listening. It's, it's heartfelt and I really mean it.
Speaker 2:Miigwech pizindele, thanks for listening, miigwech, and that's just part of what we do here. In our culture, we're we're taught to you make people feel at home because this is part of your home and we share, we open and we want to give and let people know that we're all here to help each other, heal and support and celebrate. So you definitely deserve that celebration. Okay, so that will wrap it up, ps. Life can be tough, it can feel out of balance, but if we're taking time to focus just every day on looking at one way that we can move towards living a good life, miigwech.
