"When I was a small girl, I was born sickly.
I was always ill as a child, than when I was eight years old I was given this dress. This dress, I was told was special
and it was made for me. I was given this dress by my grandfather, after this dress was given to me I began to feel better,
I wasn't sickly anymore. This dress I was told was my "odih iziwin"."
Her Grandfather, Pinasse, had told her he made this
dress for her. When he was a small boy he would have this vision that would be the same, but never did quite understood
what it meant until his old age, by this time Maggie was around 7 or 8, when he knew what this Vision was.
The story of his vision is something he shared with
his family, What is known about his vision is this: That he had seen this dress that made a certain distinctive sound, where
shiny conical shapes hung from the dress. There were certain songs that came with the dress, certain dances and a ceremony.
Maggie's "odih iziwin" was made of colours that were
representative of the world around her. What also came with the dress was what we call a "staff" that had a certain
shape and colour. This staff was given to those that had recieved her "odih iziwin" through the proper ceremony.
There are woman in the Lake of the Woods area that carry this staff, along with their "odih iziwin" or as their "odih iziwin".
It's something uniquely given, especially for them.
Maggie shared her "odih iziwin" with the people she
had met all over North America.
What is also interesting to point out is that this
is her story, our peoples story from the Anishinabeg of Lake of the Woods.
She also shared her ( a repilca ) "odih iziwin" with
the rest of the people when she made a dress that resembled the first dress she was given when she was 8 years old.
-translated by Rhonda White
