Winter wisdom from Indigenous educators to carry you through the season

Dropping temperatures and shorter days can prompt many of us to turn inward and reflect on how to take better care of ourselves and one another. For those who experience Seasonal Affective Disorder, reduced exposure to sunlight can lead to low energy and mood. Fortunately, Indigenous knowledge systems have long offered tools for grounding and resilience during the fall and winter seasons. 

There is a vast kaleidoscope of seasonal practices across Canada, shaped by more than 630 First Nations groups, Inuit and Métis peoples. The variety of cultures and communities may employ different methods for the seasonal shift, but the goal remains the same: preparation for the end of a cycle and maintaining our well-being as we wait for the next one to unfold. Here’s how Indigenous communities care for mind, body and spirit during this period of transition.

Shift with the seasons

For Anishinaabe people, the moon is a guide through Earth’s cycles. “We follow the moon’s calendar,” says Zhaawnong Webb, an educational content creator and master’s student at the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies at Trent University. “Within each moon comes different teachings and ways we’re supposed to live during that time.”

By connecting more deeply with Anishinaabe ceremonies, Webb, who shares the teachings he learns on his website and via social media, has come to understand what the different seasons represent and how they integrate metaphorical lessons of death and rebirth.

We use spring and summer to work on ourselves, while fall is utilized for preparation. “Winter is isolating,” says Webb. “If we carry all the things we piled on during the year into winter, it can affect our families.” Practicing self-awareness is a crucial element of preparing for this energetic lull and improving our connection with our loved ones. 

Care for mental health

Lisa Raven, executive director of the reconciliation workshop organization Returning to Spirit in Winnipeg, discusses why it’s essential to pay extra attention to your mental well-being during the colder months. To enjoy our time indoors over the long winter, we need to remove both mental and physical clutter. Raven suggests letting go of resentments and making an effort to tick items off your to-do list to help ease your mind. “Those incompletions weigh so heavily in our space, and we’re not even aware of them,” she explains.

It may sound simple, but caring for your surroundings can have a profoundly positive impact on your mental health. “If there are things I’m not doing that I know could be done,” says Raven, “then it affects me physically, which affects me emotionally, which also affects me mentally and spiritually, because then I’m less likely to do the things I need to do for myself.” 

Our awareness of human connection expands with the arrival of fall, as shifting temperatures help us adjust how we ’ve been operating. This change can be a poignant reminder of our shared humanity as living beings on Earth. We’re more motivated to ground ourselves during the autumn and winter seasons, which helps us become more present in our spaces. 

Community becomes family

When the days are their darkest, lending a helping hand to family, friends and loved ones can be a fantastic way to add warmth to your winter planning and strengthen ties with your community. Connections within your environment grow when you make time to pitch in together. 

Activities such as the fall transplantation of birch trees help increase a more plentiful harvest in the coming season, protect the plants and provide an opportunity to engage with the land. Participating in group efforts can do a great deal to improve your mood, as spending time working toward a common goal helps enhance your relationships within your support network. “That process connects you. That itself is healing,” says Raven. “Communities used to operate that way — doing things together, visiting, laughing, teasing. Priceless.”

For Jodi Lynn Maracle, a Mohawk language teacher, hide tanner and artist, storytelling in wintertime is especially meaningful, as it helps to pass on wisdom to younger generations while adding warmth to the silent surroundings of the season. “We’d have stories with a lot of humour, a lot of laughter,” she says of the ancestral tradition. “We would all be together supporting one another.” 

Modernizations to Indigenous family systems have impacted how we interact in the dark half of the year. Nuclear families have become the norm, isolating us from each other. Storytelling — and having a support system — can help lift your spirits as temperatures drop. 

Be a thoughtful forager

Maracle finds that private activities, such as foraging for bones along the shore of Lake Erie, help improve her mood during the fall and winter months. “I’d use those to make beads or to make jewelry or to use them in my art practice or to trade with people,” she says of her eco-friendly found materials. 

Engaging in a cultural practice such as hide tanning can be physically demanding and requires a measure of focus and determination, providing a tangible goal to work toward. “I do a lot of hide work indoors, and I’m really grateful for that because it kind of forces me to be active,” says Maracle. 

Building a relationship with the changing cycles helps Indigenous people identify specific resources, such as plant foods, medicines or botanical dyes. Nurturing yourself with nature can be a budget-friendly way to take care of your physical body, as long as you do your research and respect the land. 

Plant medicines such as sumac, purple aster, mullein and white pine can be excellent sources of vitamins for tea, infused honeys and sinus-clearing steam baths, but it’s essential to be mindful of how you gather your medicines. Considering reciprocity and mindfulness — taking only what is offered, and giving thanks in return — can help you to become a more thoughtful forager. 

“For us as Haudenosaunee people, you never want to harvest the white pines from the tree itself,” Maracle says. “You have to wait till you find it on the ground, [when] a branch has fallen.” It’s also important to consult an expert or your doctor before ingesting any plants, as some can cause health problems if you’re not careful or overindulge. 

Corn harvesting and braiding are other ways that Indigenous people prepare for the coming season. Maracle stores her corn braids at home, both for practical reasons and as a reminder of when things were plentiful. “When you make these medicines, when you harvest this food, when you're working with deer hides that were harvested in the dark of winter,” says Maracle, “you can touch and feel and remember that spring is coming again.” The act of corn braiding helps promote mindfulness. As you weave in each stalk, you can remember the three sisters: corn, beans and squash.

Soup as medicine

Corn, beans and squash nourish Indigenous people during winter as both food and medicine. Batch-cooking soups made from these ingredients can be an ideal way to make the most of your fall harvest and get you through a seasonal cold. “It feels like I'm making a potion for my family,” says Chelsey Celine Bouchard, a historical digitizer at the Six Nations Public Library. 

Bouchard’s cooking is influenced by chef Tawnya Brant, whom she once worked with at Yawékon, Brant’s Haudenosaunee fusion restaurant in Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. She believes in improvising while following recipes to invite creativity into your cooking. “Put as many lovely flavours in as you can,” says Bouchard, who likes to add ginger and bay leaves to chicken soup. 

Bone broths are nutritious and good for the immune system, and their recent popularity echoes what Indigenous people have long held as a staple part of a fall and winter diet.

Learn new skills

Opportunities to learn traditional skills have become more plentiful than ever over the past 15 years, with classes in beading, moccasin-making, sewing and weaving offered both in person and online. As workshops become more widely accessible, they help pass down Indigenous wisdom to respectful participants. 

Maracle shares that many teachings can be learned with the click of a button, as long as you have the stamina to stick with your work. Beading circles are an excellent way to create something meaningful in a social space and level up your skills more quickly. Being patient with your progress can also foster stronger self-esteem and motivate you to expand your artistic horizons. 

Cultural appreciation vs. appropriation

If you’re a non-Indigenous person interested in participating in cultural events, showing a little initiative in self-education will go a long way toward building trust and creating space for authentic connection. “The best thing that they can do is not wait around for Indigenous peoples to fill in those gaps,” says Webb of those looking to learn. 

It’s essential to differentiate between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation. “Being aware of the differences between those two is incredibly important,” says Dr. Nicole Redvers, an associate professor at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University. “A lot of Indigenous communities, when they do have public events, would never turn anybody away.” 

When practiced mindfully, interest and participation from non-Indigenous people can be part of the path toward reconciliation, as learning about the land you live on can help inform how you show courtesy. Giving back to knowledge keepers is not always required, but it depends on the person. If you learn something valuable, come to the table with a spirit of gratitude. 

Everyone can appreciate and enjoy reconnecting with the land and nature. In fact, Redvers says that some physicians' associations in Canada are backing new programs that prescribe time spent in nature. “There’s a lot of inspiration from Indigenous community values and practices about maintaining and engaging with nature, whether that’s going for walks in the woods or other activities that remind us we are part of nature,” she says. 

Expanding your awareness of your surroundings can help foster a better relationship with the planet. “People who spend more time in nature tend to want to protect it,” says Redvers. Caring for the land together creates common ground where understanding can grow.  

Mindfulness matters

Finally, practicing gratitude and mindfulness can help us to be more gracious with ourselves and the weather. Bouchard explains that small things, such as not speaking badly about the weather, help to influence her mood. “I want to speak positively into the world,” she says. 

Whether foraging, making soup or storytelling, the most important thing to remember is to be kind to yourself. “It's good to aspire to something,” says Bouchard, “but beating ourselves up will never get us to where we want to be.”