Asemaa Nitam (Sacred Tobacco First): Indigenous Healing Practices within the Ojibwe Tradition

Abstract

The Seven Stages of Life Teaching is an Ojibwe Traditional Healing Method and Pedagogy used to relieve psychological and physical trauma to promote and support a ‘Good Life.’ The main approach of the method/pedagogy is by reliving past experiences and trauma through participation in the Oral Tradition of Sacred Ceremony. This doctoral research project will share my personal experience of this Traditional Lifeway Teaching using heard stories, Sacred Instructions, Songs, and Dreams as the primary source of reference. My intention for sharing these teachings in this academic context is to provide a point of reference to otherAnishinaabe/Indigenous students so that they can begin their own personal research as I have done to maintain this path through colonization. I am doing this work to validate our Ojibwe Traditional Healing Methods and to promote and support confidence in the psychology of Indigenous Healing Ceremonies for Indigenous students as they move forward in a Good Way. In a very small way, my contributions through this doctoral research project will begin to address some of the issues in ‘decolonizing’ the academy for Indigenous students.