Aachimooshtowihk

aachimooshtowihk — sharing one’s declaration, or truth, with others. aachimooshtowihk signals a process of coming together to share one’s truth as to inform or direct others; this is truthing. (Michif, Graham Andrews, personal communication)

Oral knowledge systems are paralleled to written knowledge systems, both have theories, processes, practices, assessments, and ethics to understand, generate, renew, and validate knowledge. The differentiation between the two systems is the worldview that governs the processes, practices, and validation of knowledge. Oral systems are governed by circles which are enlivened and protected by smudge; smudge as both the call to convene and connecting us to creator. Circles define the action of VALS and the happenings of the circle. The action of smudge and truthing are too methods of the inquiry. The smudge is our first acknowledgement of ourselves in relationship; signifying “ikkimmapiiyipitsiin (sanctified kindness)…we are obliged to honour the life of all beings” (Bouvier 2018, p. 41). Our obligation actuates entities in the circle as equals and contributors to the dynamism of the whole. ikkimmapiiyipitsiin is important in wisdom seeking as it positions relationships as the landscape of learning and understanding.

When asked to interpret the concept of truth from his Piikani perceptive, Elder Crowshoe translated the meaning, “omanii – meaning “real spirit talk” which invokes a sense of responsibility to be truthful” (Bouvier 2018, p. 41). Métis Elder Sky Blue Morin understood truth from her Michif perspective as “tapwe, meaning ‘inner truth’, a truth or knowing from within which is connected to your spirit” (Bouvier 2018, 41). Through these definitions and teachings from the Elders, “it was clear that truthing is a process connected to spirit. Truth is an ontological process—an enactment in which we live out every day of our lives” (Bouvier, 2018, 41). The Michif word that can give further contextualization is aachimooshtowihk meaning sharing one’s declaration, or truth, with others. aachimooshtowihk, or truthing, signals a process of coming together to share one’s truth as to inform or direct others. 

aachimooshtowihk, in our inquiry, is led with smudge. When you are with smudge, telling your story, there is an individual obligation to be truthful with your word. Additionally, with the smudge, because we are speaking to all of creation, we are responsible to the words we speak, they indeed are powerful. Momaday (1998) describes the power of our spoke word,   (p.#). It is important to understand that the truthing process is a shared experience, inherently collective and relational (Little Bear 2009; Maracle 2015; Simpson, 2017, Styres, 2019). Smudge and collective sharing are embedded in the validation of stories, the collective retelling of stories, and the validation of that knowledge; that is a practice of oral recording keeping (Piikani, Reg Crowshoe, personal communication). Métis kin, in the inquiry, shared their stories with me and each other through this I became part of their story, thus, they were not only responsible for telling the truth, but I am also responsible to carry their stories with respect and to discern what I was supposed to learn. Sharing my interpretations with the research collective is an additional layer of wisdom seeking and axiology. After I compiled the narratives from each gathering and side conversations, and organized the interpretations into wisdoms, I shared the information with the circle.