Alo White speaking about the story behind the stained glass window
Alo White, an elder with the Naotkamegwanning First Nation, speaking about the story behind the stained glass window design. The selected design is entitled "Giniigaaniimenaaning" or "our future; the future generations" in English. It will be transformed into stained glass and installed in Centre Block on Parliament Hill.
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Transcript: Alo White speaking about the story behind the stained glass window
This song is a dream song; a spiritual–very spiritual–just like this painting, this design. My partner Christi went through a lot to get to this stage here. She did not use her brain, she used the spiritual. A woman has many spiritual powers. The tobacco she put outside in the ground and the trees and the water and the rocks, to gain insight and knowledge: that vision to see and to be able to put all the things that she's seen into this design. The next difficulty was: she presented me with tobacco to seek a name for this design. It was very difficult. I was going through a lot. I just recently lost a son in February. He was 23 years old, a non-drinker, but he took his life. Still today I grieve. But I had to do this for Christi because she passed the tobacco. The song comes from my aunty. She came in the middle of the night singing it to me in the ear and I sang it the next morning. And also the name: "Giniigaaniimenaaning". "Giniigaaniimenaaning" means "our future; the future generations". We have to continue walking in that manner, in that sacred manner, the future. And that's what we're doing. I have to do it too. It's very difficult, but we do have life to appreciate life and each other and our families and our elders and our leaders. So I'll try and sing the song that comes with it. You don't have to stand up.
Sings song