Accepting Wampum Belts, Canadian School Board Commits to Improving Relations with Native People

Committing to “improve relationships with Indigenous people, knowledges and practices,” the principals with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board in Canada, each received Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belts that symbolized and sealed this agreement. You can read the story here.

This ceremony closely parallels many eighteenth-century meetings of Native Americans and Europeans in which wampum was exchanged.

Aboriginal Community Liaison Jolene John explains the context of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt

In those eighteenth-century meetings, it was common that wampum would be given and received by both parties. Nonetheless, many elements remain the same. In the first place is the speaking over a wampum belt by Ms. John, the Aboriginal Community Liaison, who explains the wampum belt.

Second is the receiving of the wampum belts by those gathered, an action whose significance extends beyond acceptance of a gift. By receiving these belts, the principals present–representing all 102 schools in the district–agreed to “use the wampum as a teaching and learning tool . . . to keep it visible, accessible and safe for all to use.” Further they agreed to “work with Indigenous staff or community members to broaden understanding and us of the wampum.”

By eighteenth-century native standards, this would have been a binding agreement, and the ongoing significant of wampum in native communities suggests that these aboriginal leaders likewise see this as a binding agreement with the school district.

But the agreement is more than just a commitment to improve relations and teach aspects of native culture. The Dish with One Spoon belt symbolizes a particular kind of relationship related to land use. Those who are party to an agreement sealed by a Dish with One Spoon belt agree to share land and resources–to eat together, out of one dish using one spoon (and some would add, with no sharp knives around), to care for one another, and to respect the shared resources. It represents a long-remembered agreement between the Iroquois or the People of the Long House (Haudenosaunee) and the Anishnaabe.