Eagle Feather
Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba
I feel deeply moved and honoured to have been adopted yesterday as an Anishinabe brother by Alma Kakikepinace, an elder and Eagle Clan Mother, at a fireside 60th birthday celebration attended by several dozen close friends and family members. Alma smudged with sweetgrass, performed drum-songs, and presented me with an eagle feather as a symbolic rite of passage and mark of distinction— I pray that I prove to be worthy of the values inherent with the receipt of this honour— honesty, truth, strength, courage, wisdom, power, and freedom.
Miigwetch, miigwetch… (photos by Ian McCausland).