Last night I went to a talk with an Ojibwa Shaman named Duke Redbird. The talk was on Totems in the moden world. He spoke a lot about Countries and what their collective Totem is. What animal has a country picked as their totem animal and how the collective of people adopt those characteristics. Facinating topic. He spoke about a lot of the other countries having predators as animals...and then Canada. We have the Beaver. Not a predator but still a lot of traits that we don't necessarily want.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9_gbYRA9PE&feature=related
4 comments:
What are the traits we don't want though?
Hey Bryan, one of the main traits that he mentioned, which felt negative to me was that Beavers take flowing rivers, streams, etc and make them into pools that can become stangnant. They stop the flow of water through the environment in which they live. The life that has relied on that flowing water further downstream then has to move to find new water. He likened that to how some of our professionals move to places like the U.S. in order to work because Canada is stagnant in specific job industries.
Now as you mentioned on FB that making those stagnant pools also creates micro environments...so obviously it's not all bad, but I thought it was really interesting to look at Canada and the traits we take on from the Beaver and that even though some are good traits, they are not all good traits.
Obviously you have WAY more totem knowledge then I do ~smile~ I'm still very ignorant on most animals traits but I know that you look at both positive and negative traits when you do a write up on an animal...what traits do you think are good and what are bad with a beaver?
He is a bit off on the beavers stopping the flow of water. They actually cannot stop the flow of water. No matter how big of a dam they create, the water still flows into it, through it, and on its merry way downstream. Plus, the dams create wetlands. Its a win win situation. I think this is a good quality to have in a totem for Canada. Plus the beaver is smart, has great ingenuity, is not aggressive against other animals, Is well protected, and has a detailed knowledge of its environment. I think these are good qualities to have in a national totem. Not that I don't think a case could be made for other animals...I can certainly see animals like the loon (or hell even the raven) as a totem. I just don't like to see negative falsely accused on the beaver.
All very good points Bryan. Obviously all animals are not perfect but you see, this is why you are OUR local totem expert :)
I would have loved to have had you there at the talk to see you discuss with Duke directly both your thoughts. I suck at debates but always love to listen and learn from the discussions around me.
I did feel he made some good points but you do as well...as usual. ~smile~
Post a Comment