Wiikwemkoong Elder recognized with a 2024 Indspire Award for Culture, Heritage and Spirituality

By Rick Garrick

WIIKWEMKOONG UNCEDED TERRITORY — Wiikwemkoong Elder Edna Manitowabi was recently recognized with a 2024 Indspire Award for Culture, Heritage and Spirituality, one of 12 recipients who will be honoured by Indspire on April 18 in Ottawa. The event marks the 31st anniversary of the Indspire Awards, which recognize Indigenous professionals and youth who demonstrate outstanding career achievement, promote self-esteem and pride for Indigenous communities, and provide inspirational role models for future generations.

“It’s quite an honour to be nominated by one of my peers and my colleagues because it has been a long journey,” Elder Manitowabi says, noting that she taught at Trent University’s Indigenous Studies department until she was 66-years-old. “It’s been an incredible journey, I’ve come a long way since my youth when I began searching, looking for our ways, Anishinaabe ways, and looking for life, really.”

Elder Manitowabi says she was in her teens or early 20s when she began searching for people she could talk to or ask questions about the traditional ways.

“I had the Residential School experience, so that was a trauma in my life that kind of held me back,” Elder Manitowabi says. “That was one of the reasons I was looking for knowledge, for our own ways of knowing. By the time I was 21, it became kind of like a hunger and a thirst. I was very fortunate in my 20s and early 30s that there were Elders that were put on my path that I could learn from and I was able to hang onto their coattails, so to speak, before they passed on.”

Elder Manitowabi says it was difficult to find Knowledge Keepers back then but by the 1970s, youth and Elder conferences were being held.

“That was really where I gathered knowledge from, from the Elders and listening to their stories,” Elder Manitowabi says. “I started going to ceremonies back then. I was quite moved, it was as though I had found my way back home, it’s as though I had found my way back to our own people and what was originally given to us as Anishinaabe people.”

Elder Manitowabi says the first time she heard the big drum in her community was in 1960.

“So that sound and the vibration of that drum had a very strong impact on me and that was one of the reasons why I went looking for that knowledge, wondering why, what was that because it felt as though something deep inside of me was awakened and it caused me to question life, to question the meaning, where does this knowledge come from,” Elder Manitowabi says. “So that was my journey, it was the drum that woke me up.”

Elder Manitowabi says she began doing theatre and storytelling in the 1980s and early 1990s.

“That was a catalyst to find a way to give expression to who we are in terms of our culture and our teachings,” Elder Manitowabi says. “I worked with Drew Hayden Taylor with Debajehmujig Theatre (Group), which is based in Wiikwemkoong, and also got involved with the Centre for Indigenous Theatre.”

Manitowabi says she was then asked to teach at Trent University.

“I welcomed that door opening,” Manitowabi says. “I was asked to do some theatre work there, so I got involved with teaching a course in theatre and a course in Indigenous knowledge, and because I had been active with women’s workshops, I developed a course with the Women’s Studies. I loved the acting, performing and helping the students to find their own voices. The other one [that was] most important was using language in theatre, our own Anishinaabemowin as a way of picking up the language, passing it on and teaching it.”

Elder Manitowabi says she is still involved with the Elders Gathering at Trent University, noting that she is scheduled to do a Harvesting Panel on Feb. 10.

“That’s the other thing I delved into was traditional medicines in terms of plants and making medicines,” Elder Manitowabi says. “So that’s a passion, and it gives you life, it gives you motivation — I’m at the stage in my life where I have to keep moving, I can’t stop.”

Indspire is also presenting 2024 Indspire Awards to Youth recipients Adam Gauthier, Braden Kadlun, and Dr. Jayelle Friesen-Enns, Arts recipient Eden Robinson, Business and Commerce recipient Victoria LaBillois, Education recipient Kanonhsyonne Jan Hill, Health recipient Lea Bill, Language recipient Ronald Eric Ignace, Law and Justice recipient Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin, Public Service recipient Jocelyn Formsma, and Lifetime Achievement recipient Thomas V. Hill.

“The Indspire Awards are a powerful platform to showcase the outstanding achievements of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people in Canada,” says Mike DeGagné, president and CEO at Indspire. “These awards not only celebrate Indigenous excellence but also inspire future generations to pursue their dreams and make a positive impact in our world.”