-by Paul Strome
When I think about how values are taught in society I view it from a number of different perspectives. I obviously viewed it from a cultural perspective as well as a child’s perspective because of what I was in the past. As a student because of the values my teachers and professors shared with me. As a son, because of the values my parents shared with me in a number of different ways, and the legal profession that shared their view of the values of society. Becoming a parent also had a profound effect on my values. My focus had to become more about my daughters and my wife than they had been previously. I was also fortunate enough to experience many years with Indigenous cultures which also influenced my values, especially about the value of family and my relationship with nature. Some might say I have experienced an “experiential” lifestyle.
When I think about how some people relate to the different times of year I also think about how some Indigenous people refered to the time of year based on the notable things that were happening in nature. They had millennia to become intimate with nature and they chose that intimacy to be reflected in their language, which is verb-based in the case of Mi’kmaq. The following list of the months of the year are delineated with the natural component first, followed by the English name for the month and then it is followed by the Mi’kmaw name for the month. Frost fish (tomcod spawning time) is January or Punamujuiku’s in Mi’kmaw. Snow-blinding month is February or Apuknajit. Maple sugar moon is March/Spring time or Siwkewiku’s. Birds laying eggs (egg hatching time) is April or Penatmuiku’s. Frog croaking time is May and Sqoljuiku’s in Mi’kmaw. Trees fully leafed (leaves are budding time) is June or Nipniku’s. Birds shedding feathers (animal fur thickens time) is July or Peskewiku’s. Berry ripening time is August or Kisikewiku’s. Mate calling time is September or Wikumkewiku’s. Animal fattening time is October or Wikewiku’s. Rivers starting to freeze (frost month) is November or Keptekewiku’s. Chief Moon (winter month) is December or Kesikewiku’s. I know the pronunciations of these Mi’kmaw words is challenging so https://mikmaqonline.org/ is a great online resource to learn and so is https://www.afnts.ca/mikmaw/lessons.
English speakers don’t refer to the months of the year in such a “nature-based way” as our Mi’kmaw brothers and sisters do. As an anthropologist I appreciate how language reflects culture. Authors like Robin Wall Kimmerer have brought attention to this phenomena in her books The Service Berry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World and Braiding Sweetgrass. I highly recommend both of them.