Book Review: Onigamiising

[osprey_archer]

Here's a lovely book I never would have found without Netgalley: Linda LeGarde Grover's Onigamiising: Seasons of an Ojibwe Year, which is a melange of many things: an exploration of Ojibwe (or Anishinaabeg) culture (Grover is a member of the tribe herself), a memoir, a family history, a meditation on how to life a good life - mino-bimaadiziwin - which involves "modesty, respect, thankfulness, generosity, and an awareness of one's ability and obligation to contribute to the well-being of others."

It's even occasionally a cookbook. I bookmarked the recipe for Blueberries and Dumplings. Will report back if I ever make it.

There are echoes of historical trauma in the book - particularly the Indian boarding school era, which lasted from 1879 to 1934, although, as Grover points out, the schools generally didn't close on the dot in 1934. That's just the date when the federal government decided the schools should be shut down, but many lingered on afterward.

Grover's father was sent to a boarding school, and although he didn't talk about it, Grover feels the contrast between his experience and her own memories of going to a regular day school, and sending her own daughters and grandchildren to school confident that they'll come home that night.

But on the whole it is a gentle book. The emphasis on family pleasures and the changing seasons is a relaxing contrast to the generally harrowing news right now.

Oh, and it's got another facet: craft guide. Grover reminisces about ironing autumn leaves between waxed paper (between old dish towels, so the wax didn't melt to the iron) and then hanging the leaves in the window "where the afternoon sun lit them to a stained-glass effect." Doesn't that sound gorgeous? I want to do that too.

Comments

[asakiyume]

That waxed-paper thing is something I used to do with my kids when they were small! Each year we'd put the results up in the window--it was always beautiful. Sometimes we used them as temporary lampshades, too.

[osprey_archer]

Somehow it does not surprise me at all that you have done this craft! It sounds like it would be super simple, too, within even my limited crafting capabilities.

[missroserose]

I did that with the wax paper leaves when I was very young, too! It was something my parents could afford to do with me when my mother was in law school and we were broke. :) We made ours into placemats for the table.

[osprey_archer]

Oooh, that's another good use for ironed leaves! Really a pretty versatile craft, now that I think about it.