Visiting a longhouse

ABORIGINAL WEEK REFLECTION

Scott McIntosh

“My way or the highway”, a quote we’ve often heard in our lives, a quote I’ve never much thought about, until I found myself thinking it when my site was dunked headfirst into a portion of semester one, known simply as aboriginal week.
It’s an odd sensation to be thrown into a culture so different from our own but at the same time a culture so interwoven into our Canadian history, and yet we don’t know near enough about it.
We spent the day hearing a lot about the culture from Brander McDonald, and at first I disagreed with a lot of what he was saying. This way of life he was explaining couldn’t be right, could it? I mean, the way I grew up has worked fine, so why isn’t he doing it my way? I was at first listening with a worldly perspective and a “my way or the highway” attitude.
This wasn’t right. I spoke to some of my fellow Outtatown community members and quickly saw the problem, God says to love and accept all. Just because this culture is not what I’m used to, doesn’t make it wrong. The next day at the healing circle we attended I was able to see through a whole new light just what the native community was all about. They made things work their way. I learned to respect a culture that had been around far, far longer then that of my own.
It was so interesting to see to see this way of life and it really prepared me for the new cultures we’ll experience in South Africa.
With Gods help I was able to see cultures unlike our own are not necessarily better or worse, they’re just different. And through God’s love we can all learn to accept and cooperate everyone God put on this earth.





Another part of our week included visiting a longhouse where we learned traditional about native practices including how to make cedar bracelets.