During the last few years, my family has been working on implementing more of our historical roots into our daily lives. We are trying to honor the messages we have received from our ancestors. This can come in many forms. For me it comes through as storytelling. For Maruf it comes through his dreams. For my children it comes from nature. Parenting from this place has required me to shift all of my ideas from an authoritarian role to one where I listen and value my children and all the information they give me.
What I have learned is that honoring my native stories is paramount to understanding my children. My kids have never lined up with the parenting texts the way they line up with ancient stories. Recently, I was presented with an opportunity to do more research in connection with the native stories I grew up with. This is what I learned:
The story of the Thunderbird is one of indigenous basics. The great Thunderbird can be found in ancient native texts around the world. Despite this, its full story has been overridden with nonsense in advertising and marketing. There is the Thunderbird car, the hotel, clothing...whatever. Today’s world has taken this very sacred and very important creature and turned it into a marketing scheme. But if you know the real story of the Thunderbird, you will know my son.
The Thunderbird sits atop his totem with a panoramic bird’s-eye-view of the world. From this post he can see all of humanity and manage all of nature. He protects the land from becoming over-populated with the horned-snake. He manages the morality of man. And because of these reasons, he is considered an omen for war. This is not a negative omen, but one in which you will have to rise and fight for what is right in the world. It is said that once the Thunderbird flaps his wings, the sound of thunder that erupts decides the victor. His eyes blast electric strings of lightning down to keep evil from rising out of waters. He brings rain that cleanses our land and feeds our crops. He lives alone and rarely feeds as he can remain sustained for long periods on little food. The Thunderbird is kept alive by the molecules of energy that he absorbs from nature’s electricity. He manages all of nature.
The impacts of the Thunderbird’s story brings peace, love and understanding to my home now that I decide to reject the colonized views of the world. Views that tell me my son’s inability to keep his feet on the ground is a problem. Views that tell me his ability to pay attention to all of nature at once is a need to medicate him. Views that tell me his ability to find sustenance in his minimal food selection or solidarity is a sign of depression and ill behavior. What if. What if I decide to throw away these colonized viewpoints and instead teach my son the indigenous basics that connect to his life. What if I teach him about Thunderbird and showed him that he too sits on top of the totem alone and unafraid. What if I teach him that his ability to see all of the world at once is a gift from the gods that he must learn to navigate. What if instead of following today’s colonized viewpoints, I allowed my son to worship a great being in which he can see himself. What if I decide to teach him instead that his abilities are paramount to his growth as a man and that with them he will one day be able to lead his own family to live a wondrous life where all his children’s children are valued for the unique gifts they bring to the world. What if.
What if it wasn't just me and my son. What if we all were able to reject the narrative that has our children of color in a pipeline from schools to medication to prisons. What if we all decide to find our histories and join together in rewriting what it means to be successful. This is the essence of #teachlove. This is how we are choosing to move forward.