Thunderbirds

This exhibit explores one of the most important figures in Anishinaabe cosmology, animikiig ('thunderbirds') or binesiiwag, as they are known in Anishinaabe communities further north.  These are just a few of the many stories about these powerful entities that protect the Anishinaabeg ('Anishinaabe people').  The exhibit includes pictographic drawings on wiigwas ('birch bark'), historic and contemporary photographs from the Berens River region, audio recordings and video tapes of Anishinaabe chi-aah ya agg ('wisdom keepers').

Walking us through the exhibit will be:

Larry Aitken is the tribal historian for the Leech Lake Ojibwe reservation in Cass Lake, Minnesota. He is also an endowed chair and the director of American Indian Studies at Itasca Community College in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

Margaret Simmons is from Pauingassi First Nation in Manitoba. Margaret worked with Maureen Matthews, interviewing and translating, on her radio documentary entitled “Thunderbirds.”

Dr. Maureen Matthews is from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is the curator of ethnology at the Manitoba Museum and a radio journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Company.

Roger Roulette is from _________ First Nation in Manitoba, Canada. He is a teacher of Anishinaabemowin at the University of Manitoba. Roger worked with Maureen Matthews, interviewing and translating, on her radio documentary entitled “Thunderbirds,” parts of which are excerpted in this exhibit.

Dan Jones is from the Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nation in Ontario and is an Anishinaabemowin (‘Ojibwe language’) teacher at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet, Minnesota.

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