LITTLE CURRENT—James A. Simon Mishibinijima (Animikii Waabishkaa) is an internationally acclaimed Anishinaabe artist whose works adorn the walls of such eminent locations as the Vatican (two works) and New York’s Rockefeller Centre. Last month, Mr. Mishibinijima gifted one of his works to the Manitoulin Hotel and Conference Centre in Little Current.
The work, ‘Dreamers Rock and the Little Children,’ holds special meaning for the artist as it was inspired by a 94-year-old South Dakota knowledge keeper, Stanley Swift Hawk, who visiting one of the Ojibway Cultural Foundation art camps Mr. Mishibinijima attended during his teenage years.
“He told us, ‘when you see a child fall to their knees, you too should go down and meet that child in their pain. One day, that child will kneel beside you when it is your time,” recalled Mr. Mishibinijima.
The artist related the story of how he received his spirit name 28 years after Mr. Swift Hawk first offered it to him. The elder had gathered the youth together and asked if they were ready to receive their spirit name. Mr. Mishibinijima alone responded that he was not yet ready. “I wanted mine to be symbolic,” he said.
The elder assured the youth he would be back the next summer but began his spirit journey before he was able to return to Manitoulin Island.
Fast forward 28 years, and Mr. Mishibinijima had still not received his name, but that was all soon to change.
“I was asked to be the firekeeper for a woman’s sweatlodge,” he recalled. It was during that session that the elder in charge told Mr. Mishibinijima that there was a spirit named Swift Hawk that wished to speak to him in the shaking tent.
“There was barely enough room in the tent for one person,” he said, the elder told the artist to hold their hand. “The tent was shaking like mad,” recalled Mr. Mishibinijima.
The voice asked him if he was ready to receive his name. “I said ‘yes’,” recalled Mr. Mishibinijima.
The voice gifted him with the name Birch Bark Silver Shield White Thunderbird, that’s Mishibinijima Animikii Waabishkaa in Anishinaabemowin.
Mr. Mishibinijima told the spirit that it had been 28 years since they last talked. “The spirit said, ‘no, it’s only been 28 days,’” said the artist. “Time passes very differently in the spirit world, they are travelling at light speed.”
Mr. Mishibinijima was born in Wikwemikong in 1954 to a family of 13. He realized his gift at a very early age and took part in his first international art exhibition in Rome at the age of 19. His most often quoted statement is “any artist in the world will reflect his surrounds to paint his subjects and how that artist delivers his message means success in what he does. Mr. Mishibinijima’s most common theme is painting islands and water because, as he notes, “a human being is an island and his inner universe is made out of water, destroy one part of who he is will mean, he will destroy himself forever.”
The work, which now hangs just off the hotel lobby, is valued at a cool $10,000. The hotel has prints of this work and a previous work gifted to the hotel for sale at the reception desk.
“We are very honoured to be gifted with such an amazing work,” said hotel manager Val McIntyre. “It is very special.”
Mr. Mishibinijima said that he would one day like to see his Seven Grandfathers works displayed here. He said that when they teach those teachings in school these days, they are taught all at once—something he believes is a mistake.
“By the time you get to the third teaching, the kids have forgotten the first two,” he said. Instead, each teaching should be dwelled upon for at least a week before coming back to the next. There is much to be reflected on in each of those teachings.
Mr. Mishibinijima’s works are much like that, filled with symbolism and nuance from each canvas’ edge to edge and executed with a technical skill that comes from years of academic study and more than three decades of practice. ‘Dreamers Rock and the Little Children’ is well worth dropping into the Manitoulin Hotel and Conference Centre to view the work in person.
