To the sculpture by Gordon Van Wert, Red Lake Nation,
at the University of Minnesota Duluth Tweed Museum of Art
The color of gabbro in thick greenery he takes the form of a turtle,
this wise and compassionate healer
honored with the weight of knowledge, leaning heavily on a stick,
he bears on his back a circle of red,
petroglyph symbols,
of ancient wisdoms that will be revealed
at the time planned by the Creator.
Dadibaajimoowinini, the storyteller
who is also Gitigaaninini the gardener,
tends the stories,
the foundation of our existence as a people
and of our place in the corporal and spiritual worlds
and as planned by the Creator.
At those times, seasons that have always
since before time existed were meant to be,
he speaks from the lush and living greenery
where the stories, tended, have bloomed.
Dadibaajimoowinini the storyteller
who is also Gitigaaninini the gardener
speaks; we, who have waited with patience
hear the stories; listening we ponder,
honored to accept and bear their weight.
Together, then, storyteller and students
weave the knowledge that passes
generation to generation into the fabric
of our stories and existence,
the spirits of all that has been
and what will come to be.