Storytelling with Isaac Murdoch at Lakehead University
By Rick Garrick
THUNDER BAY — Serpent River First Nation’s Isaac Murdoch shared a story about the Covenant Chain Wampum Belt during his Aadsookaanan Storytelling with Isaac Murdoch circle on Jan. 9 at Lakehead University’s Thunder Bay campus.
“Our people did not fully understand the paper document of the Royal Proclamation of 1763, and our people were going to war with them, so Sir William Johnson had a belt made for the 24 nations to say, let’s all be friends — we won’t take your land and let’s have a Covenant Chain agreement,” Murdoch says, noting that the Covenant Chain Wampum Belt was presented at the Treaty of Niagara in 1764. “This is like the founding treaty between Indigenous people and what is now known as Canada.”
Murdoch says the Covenant Chain Wampum Belt was made with 10,076 wampum beads.
“You’ll see the chain on here and you’ll also see the diamonds, which represent the fires, and you’ll see two people in the middle, which are connected to the chains,” Murdoch says. “The idea behind this belt was that the sun would shine on the silver and the reflection off the silver would shine on the promises and that the promises would always be revealed as long as this belt was around. The original belt got destroyed so this belt is a descendant, it’s like a grandchild of the original one and it’s an exact replica of its grandparent.”
Murdoch says he enjoyed hearing from the participants during the storytelling circle.
“I thought it was pretty cool to have people actually also come up with their own solutions on what’s going to happen in the future,” Murdoch says. “So we have the historical part of what happened and what we’re going through, but people actually came up with good, solid positive ideas for the future and that’s what this was all about, creating beautiful change that’s realistic, that’s tangible, and to motivate people with positivity.”
Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory’s Andrew Mandamin says he appreciated hearing Murdoch speak about the vision that his late wife, Water Walker Josephine Mandamin-baa, had to do the Water Walks around all five Great Lakes.
“He did a very good presentation with the wampum belts and the treaties — that was one of the topics my late wife used to like to engage in, like treaties and wampum belts, to be handed down to the next generations so the new generations would be aware of all this,” Mandamin says. “With the Water Walks as well, he did mention the changes that she made — she created a global movement when she started the Water Walks, worldwide, all over the world. So it was a good thing to hear her acknowledged for the work that she did.”
Jordan Thompson-Vankoughnett, a first-year education student at Lakehead University, says it is an incredible experience to hear from traditional storytellers such as Murdoch.
“I’m a storyteller myself and as much as I love telling stories, I love hearing stories just as much and especially when he brought out the wampum belt,” Thompson-Vankoughnett says. “I’m a wampum carrier myself — to hear the story about the wampum belt that he carries there, how it’s a descendant of the original one, and just getting to hear all those stories and especially when everyone got to have a chance to share … how they think that the story is going to continue in the future, it’s a powerful moment that just helps build community.”
Gillian Siddall, president and vice-chancellor at Lakehead University, also appreciated hearing the stories that Murdoch shared about the Covenant Chain Wampum Belt and his family’s medals during the storytelling circle.
“I thought they were really powerful pieces of history and story that just made the stories that he was telling and the history that he was telling even more powerful,” Siddall says. “And to be so generous as to allow us all to hold the medals and to look at them was really amazing.”