“All my Relations.” In the sweat lodges where I reconnected to my culture, it's uttered by the leader as he splatters water on red-hot stone. When the sacred pipe is passed around a circle and the steam raised to all directions in benediction, the words are there. When the people gather in a good way, each speaker begins with the salutatory statement: "All My Relations."

For Natives across Canada it's the language of communion. It's the recognition of unity in the universe, of harmony, balance and the invisible bridges that span the diversity of our lives; it's a dedication a greeting, a salutation and a prayer.

I turned 36 in November. As I celebrated with a small circle of friends over an old-fashioned stew, bannock, pumpkin pie, presents and laughter, it occurred to me how long it has taken me to realize the meaning behind this ancient phrase.

The Old Ones talk of prophets who foretold of the coming of the white man. They spoke of the great changes that were to follow and of the hardship the people would have to learn to navigate. They spoke of a separation from the land and traditional teachings, a time when the young would speak the white man's way, the voice of legends would fall silent and entire languages would disappear. And they also spoke of healing and the importance of remembering.

With this knowledge, the elders of the aboriginal nations began to look for ways to teach their people to deal with the disruption. They looked to nature. All around they saw evidence of certain immutable laws within the pitch and rythmn of life.

They perceived that everything in the universe was in relationship with everything else. Just as the four-leggeds depended upon the waters so, too, did the winged ones, the two-leggeds, the fishes and the plant beings. Life itself was a circle and, for a circle to be complete, it must include everything. And so it was seen that all things are related.

With this perception came the ideas of respect, kindness, patience and sharing. Not only were the people to behave in these ways with each other to create nurturing homes, but they also needed to behave in this manner with all things. When a human being lived this way, he or she was said to have achieved a harmony and a balance with life itself. Indeed, the path of a true human being was the path toward this end.

The arrival of the Europeans would mean a fracturing of the peoples' senses of harmony. Culturally, spriritually and philosophically, the people would suffer greatly but the elders reminded them of their focus on harmony and balance with all things because many would forget and become bitter.

Quite simply, it meant that respect, kindness, patience and sharing were total philosophies. One could not be called a respectful human being, for instance, if one were acting in a disrespectful manner towards anything. Similarly, with all the other virtues. So the Old One told the people that, despite the seemingly strange, sometimes confusing and painful ways of the new-comers they must show them the courtesy they would to any other member of the circle of life. "All My Relations" meant everything.

As I sat at that table laughing and chatting with my small circle of friends I realized how vital this teaching is to my life. Because there were many times in the militant days, the days when I spent more time incarcerated than I did being free, days I hated more than loved. I was far from living as a true human being.

There were no aboriginal people at this party except for me. But as I looked around and felt the respect, love and genuine gratitude for each of them, I realized that I've finally begun to practice what I'd been given years before. "All my relations."

Because my life is an often-turblent mixture of the brown and the white, there are times when it's the most difficult thing in the world to disappear into a mainstream institution five days a week. Days when my soul hungers for contact with my people and days when I grow afraid that my profession might change me.

Conversely, there are days when I worry that dedication to my people and their concerns might divorce me from friends like these; days when my very Indianness is my greatest enemy.

All my relations. I believe that a life based on this premise is
salvation for all of us, that political problems are nothing when nations remember their relatedness, that there are no colors or differences, merely one universal heartbeat echoing for all of us.

Eagle Feathers: to all my relations of every nation for their contribution to this life.