Point of Origin Episode 5
Rise and Resilience - Part 2
The Story of MAnoomin
Hundreds of years ago, the indigenous American Anishinabek, were visited by several prophets, two of which told them that people with white faces were going to be coming across the ocean, and that they needed to leave their homeland and travel westward, to the place where the food grows upon the water, or risk being destroyed.
They followed those prophecies, and though it took a few hundred years, they made their way down the Saint Lawrence River and then into the Great Lakes region where they found wild rice. This episode tells the story of the sacred wild rice that grows on the water. This is the story of manoomin.
Available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, & iHeartRadio
Watch how Manoomin is cleaned and sorted by hand
The final step in processing Manoomin (wild rice) is to sort out the broken pieces (the "popcorn") and the grains still holding hulls from the manoomin. This is not only a time of labor, but a time to spend sharing stories and joy. This video was filmed at the 2010 Wild Rice Camp at Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Reservation.
Photos and videos courtesy of Barb Barton.
A very special thank you to our guests:
Barb Barton is an endangered species biologist and Author of Manoomin, the Story of Wild Rice in Michigan.
Wasson Dillard is a teacher, culture-bearer, natural fiber weaver and basketmaker.
Shiloh Maples is the program director for the American Indian Health and Family Services in Detroit and a program manager for food and soverignity wealth initiatives where she promotes traditional dance as a means of physical activity and native foods as a part of a healthy diet.
