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Shebahonaning

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Shebahonaning - Safe Canoe Passage.

This is a painting I created as part of a contest. It was meant to illustrate the "Wild Rice Moon" in the Ojibway calendar. You can view the actual contest entry here: [link]

Wild Rice Moon - called “Manoominike-giizis” by the Anishnaabe (Chippewa/Ojibway) people. The Anishnaabe also refer to this moon as “Blackberry Moon” and “Blueberry Gathering Moon”

This moon is associated with late summer; namely August and September. Summer is coming to a close. The days are already growing shorter. While the days are warm, the nights are noticeably cold. Mist forms on the lakes overnight and rolls off in the morning. Young birds are flying and harvest begins. Wild rice is harvested by canoe in swampy areas. The bears have turned most of their attention to feeding on the wild blueberries that grow on the rocky terrain. They are trying hard to fatten up for the winter. The mosquitoes and black flies are mostly gone. Some butterflies remain, but the monarchs are preparing to migrate south. Other tribes call this time: “When indian corn is edible” (Algonquin), “Black cherries moon” (Assiniboine), “When young ducks begin to fly” (Cree), “Time of freshness” (Mohawk), “Big harvest moon” (Muscokee), “When geese shed their feathers” (Sioux).

For this piece I chose to paint an Ojibway woman canoeing through morning mist to harvest wild rice among the reeds. I used some of the beautiful scenery of O.S.A. lake as a backdrop, eventhough O.S.A. is currently a dead lake; poisoned by acid rain. Back before the industrial revolution though, it's quite possible that O.S.A. would have supported much life including wild rice. O.S.A. is located within Killarney Provincial Park. The Killarney region was originally named Shebahonaning (Safe Canoe Passage) for the channels and lakes that allowed peoples to navigate the area by canoe without facing the dangerous big water of Georgian Bay.

I used this photo as reference for the background: [link]

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DZkribblerLuiz's avatar
Mysterious, very nice. It has my intrigue :)