Aadsookaanan Project
Our aadsookaanan are our sacred stories. They are the foundation of all that we are and of all that we do as Biigtigtong Nishnaabe people. Aadsookaanan answer for us many of the ‘whys’ of our Nishnaabe world. Our aadsookaanan teach us, in story form, the philosophical foundations of our Biigtigong Nishnaabe universe.
Our Great Flood Story
While each and every aadsookaan is important, a primarily significant aadsookaan is our Great Flood story. This is the first sacred story (of many) that the Aadsookaanan Project will be documenting, reconstructing, and re-recording.
Gaa-gii-aadsookewaad
We are grateful that some of our Elders from many years ago have left us not only written parts of our Great Flood story, but also some recorded audio and video of themselves telling substantially large sections of our Great Flood story. In our Biigtigong dialect, we refer to these Elders as Gaa-gii-aadsookewaad, which, in English, means “Those who told the sacred stories.” You can learn more about these Elders by scrolling further down this page.
Yaadsookenid Gaa-gii-bzindwaawaad
Additionally, we are very fortunate that some of our Elders of today can remember hearing the Great Flood aadsookaan when they were very young. In our dialect, we refer to these Elders as Yaadsookenid Gaa-gii-bzindwaawaad, which means “Those who listened to the sacred-story tellers.” You can learn more about these Elders by visiting our Aadsookaanan Team page.
Aadsookaanan Gaa-sigsidoowaad Neyaab
We have assembled a team of people who are now working very hard to collect, organize, and reconstruct not just our Biigtigong story of the Great Flood, but all of our aadsookaanan. In our dialect, we refer to this team as Aadsookaanan Gaa-sigsidoowaad Neyaab, which translates as “Those who are reconstructing the sacred stories.” You can learn more about this team by visiting our Aadsookaanan Team page.
