Our Progress

From the words of our Elders, we can identify some guiding values that are key to our community. These values, rooted in Nehiyaw Tapisinowin (Cree Worldview), are not only relevant today, but are the foundation of a strong and healthy community. While Nehiyaw (Cree language) is used to express them, these values are inclusive of Saulteaux, Nakota, Dakota, and Cree/Metis ways of seeing the world.

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Mamatowisowin

Key to being a whole person, healthy in mind, body, spirit, and emotion who lives on balance with others, and the environment, or holistically, is what Nehiyawak call Mamatowisowin. This is described as "a capacity to tap the creative force of the inner space by the use of all the faculties that constitute our being." It is our connection to this spiritual strength that must guide our thoughts and actions. It also emphasizes how our spirit is interconnected to our physical, emotional, and mental aspects. In other words, recognizing the importance of spirituality is important to our community's health development.

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Wahkohtowin

We are all related, because our lives are interconnected and interdependent, and so we must strive to treat each other like family. The human family is also enmeshed in a series of relationships with animals, plants, and the land. The life-giving nature of this relationality is captured in the concept of wahkohtowin. In terms of community development, wahkohtowin means working together to build a community that carefully considers all of our relationships and recognizes them as family relationships.

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Miyo-wicehtowin

Related to wahkohtowin is the concept of miyo-wicehtowin, which further stresses that we must not only recognize our relationality to others, but also strive to get along well with others, to have good relations and thus maintain and expand our community circle. Basically, miyo-wicehtowin means 'having or possessing good relations'. It requires Cree peoples as individuals and as a nation to conduct ourselves in a manner such that we have positive or good relations in all our relationships.

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Intergenerational

The nehyawak view of time is that one that requires a type of decision-making that considers the seven generations before and after the present moment. In making decisions of our community, although we may speak of the short, medium, and long-term goals, all of actions must be informed by an intergenerational approach that honours and takes into account the strength of generations past and how our actions will impact the generations of the future.