“I learned more from Arlen in an hour than I learned from watching 10 years of news,” he said.
In years past Rattai and his team have designed corn mazes in his fields that reflect important moments and experiences for Manitobans, but this was the first time the cornfields at Deer Meadow Farms were etched for a cause.
“I’m not a cause driven person,” he said. “However, this year I knew we needed to do something on Every Child Matters. I felt pressed to do that. I felt like I’ve never done human rights before and we should.”
Corn holds significant meaning for Indigenous people. Farming and agriculture where a way of life. The plant has historically not only had a practical meaning and use to feed and nourish, it also a spiritual meaning and teaching. The Ojibway word for corn is Mandaamin. Though there are different variations of this this legend, the legend of Mandaamin is that he was a spirit man— the spirit of corn —who sacrificed himself for the Ojibway people.
Mandaamin was a gift from the creator, so that the Ojibway people did not have to depend on the hunt and the waters alone for food.
I didn’t grow up learning about my culture or of any of the teachings of our people. I didn’t practice our traditions, or even know where I came from. My grandmother, Annie, died when I was a baby. I have a handful of old photographs of her as an old woman, cradling me as a baby, but that’s it. Our lives touched briefly before hers ended, and yet I have this profound sense of love and loss for her.
But I am learning now, and I am sharing her name and her story— what I know of it— because it’s important and she mattered.