Tipi Circle Model Transcript

TIPI CIRCLE MODEL

Our homes are sacred in our traditional way of life. Our Piikani Blackfoot system came from our tipis, where we sat in a circle. If we’d had a square structure, then maybe we would have had that kind of system, but in our case it was a circle.

We’re looking at a bird’s eye view of a tipi. If you were a bird sitting on the poles and looking down into the tipi, this is what you’d see in a Blackfoot tipi setting:

First of all, our traditional circle structure had a female side and a male side.

In the centre is a fire. And people sit around the outside and people sit in the middle, closer to the fire. Opposite the door to the west is a place of honour, where we put our sacred bundles, which represent our sources of authority and legislation for the community. To the north of the fire would be a place where we might look after a sacred pipe.

And then just in front of our bundles we had a place where we had the smudge altar. To the north of that altar was where the tobacco cutter sat. Closest to the door is where the helpers sat. And south of the fire is where we put the drummers.

And then sitting around the circle on the female side, we have the female ceremonialist, and then the host. Other bundle owners that represent the same kind of discourse sat on the female bundle owner’s side. And then former bundle owners and other ceremonial grandmothers sat next to the door. And it was the same on the male side: the host, other male bundle owners, and then male bundle grandparents, or elders, sitting next to the door.

That was pretty common across all the ceremonies, how you would see people sitting in a circle. And at one time all the people in that circle had a place in relation to the Blackfoot societies. The societies had the administrative roles: looking after policing and social services and education, and so on – all our Piikani processes.

A traditional Piikani Blackfoot process has four parts: venue, action, language and song. So if I say I belong to the Thunder Pipe society, for example, I need to be able identify myself to the Thunder Pipe community in those four ways: I need to be able to sit in their venues, to demonstrate my ability and qualifications through certain actions. I need to speak their language and sing those Thunder Pipe songs that give that authority. If I can’t do all these with respect and understanding, then I can’t be a part of their society or discourse. This is how we would protect or give authority to information, or to a concept.

So in that circle structure, there had to be respect, and that’s what we’re missing today; we don’t give respect to information. We’re so busy rushing through our tasks that we don’t take time to make sure that understanding happens with respect.

With the circle model, we conduct business with respect and integrity, as well as focusing on the task at hand - so that understanding and learning is a lot deeper than it is if we just take it as a task.