Gichi-manidoo-giizis Nagomowin (January Song)

Picture of Gichi-Onigamiminis (Grand Portage Island) surrounded by the icy winter waves of Gichi-gaaming (Lake Superior) taken by Rick Novitsky.

What you learn in this song:

The song for Gichi-manidoo-giizis (January) is a simple song with vocables between the verses and is intended to reflect the quiet, meditative time of year when we listen to old tales and reflect on our own stories of the past year. Looking up to the snowy mountain tops, down to the fragile and sometimes dangerous ice, and inward to the process of our own breathing, we find ways to change like a snowshoe hare, to survive another year and remain resilient and hopeful, dreaming in all directions of how we care for, and are cared for, by the life around us.

The primary language lesson is the way word parts that are not whole words alone, sometimes come together to describe the action unfolding around us:

baapaagadaasin = baapaaga- (something appearing spotted or compacted), -aasin (connected to the wind)
ishpaabikadinaa = ishpaa- (up high), aabik- (a geologic element, often metal), -adinaa (a hill or elevated land)
daashkikwadinaa = daashkik- (cracked), -wadinaa (ice / something made hard by the wind)

However, it is important to remember not every word can easily be divided into parts that consistently have the same meaning and sometimes there is no easy equivalent in another language. For example, the word wezhibaabandam means “to have a beautiful dream” but does not contain two word parts meaning “beautiful” and “dream.” Instead, it is a word that calls to mind the act of seeing an illusion that has been created.

* Picture of Gichi-Onigamiminis (Grand Portage Island) surrounded by the icy winter waves of Gichi-gaaming (Lake Superior). Photo shared with permission by Rick Novitsky.