Feeding our ancestors

Cherries from my cherry tree July 2025

This week, I went to sweat for the first time

in a long time. When the berries came around, the Elder told us how eating these berries feeds our connection to our ancestors, it closes the gap between us, brings us closer together.

Immediately, I recalled a ceremony I had done 2 winters ago...

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I spent the day in solitude and silence, taking the time and space to connect with the land, with my ancestors. I had recently moved across the country and it was my first holiday season spent away from my family. I called upon my grandmothers to hold me, to help me move through the heaviness.

I expected to fast that day, leaving space for everything to come through. As I sat with the energies of my grandmothers, I felt both acceptance and resistance. I could feel the hunger, the ache, the suffering that they endured. One of the feelings that came up was guilt. Guilt for all the abundance I have that they did not. Guilt that they had to endure such hardships for me to live this life. The guilt told me to fast, but my grandmothers told me to feast. My grandmothers held me gently in the knowing that I could be proud of my lineage; honoured by how far we've come.

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And this sweat, this teaching, had brought me back to that memory. The knowing that in feeding myself, my spirit, I was feeding my grandmothers, my ancestors. That each berry, every bite of salmon and bannock, every sip of tea, they aren't just for me, I'm feeding everyone who came before me. I'm closing the gap that separates us by nourishing our connection through food.

All my relations,

Ryan <3