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the Seed is the Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Eileen M. Antone
Eileen M. Antone*
Affiliation:
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1V6, Canada
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Abstract

Since humanities arise from a specific place and from the people of that place, this article will focus on Peacemaker’s revolutionary teachings about the seed of law. Long before the people from across the ocean arrived here on Turtle Island (North America) there was much warfare happening. According to John Mohawk (2001, para. 1), an Iroquoian social historian, “[t]he people had been at war for so long that some were born knowing they had enemies [but] not knowing why they had enemies”. Peacemaker planted the seeds of peace which resulted in the Kayenla’kowa, the Great Law of Peace (n. d.), which is the basis of the Hotinosh^ni Confederacy. With the burial of the weapons of war under the Great Tree of Peace the Hotinosh^ni were able to develop their rituals and ceremonies to reflect their relationship with creation. This peaceful confederacy was disrupted shortly after the Europeans arrived with their violent imperialistic ways of life. The 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal People (RCAP) documented the situation of Aboriginal communities, which was the result of oppressive policies and programs of colonialism. The RCAP also captured the many different voices of the Aboriginal people in their struggle to revitalise their traditional teachings that will make them strong again.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 34 , 2005 , pp. 53 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005

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