1. FNMI -the land and culture

2. What is FNMI?
Stands for: First Nations, Metis and Inuit.

3. Indigenous
Group of people, with distinct cultures, who are spiritually and culturally linked to the land.
They have self identified in status.
They have some legal and economic standards that differentiate themselves from others.

4. Elders
Elders are very important members of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit communities. 
The term Elder refers to someone who has attained a high degree of understanding of First Nation, Métis, or Inuit history, traditional teachings, ceremonies, and healing practices.
They earned the right to pass knowledge on to others and to give advice and guidance on personal issues, as well as on issues affecting their communities and nations. 
They are addressed with the utmost respect.
Whenever traditional feasts are held in FNMI communities, the Elders and older people are often asked to offer prayers to bless the events or to do the opening or closing ceremonies.

5. First Nations
The First Nations are the various Aboriginal Canadians who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently recognized First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia.

6. Metis
The Métis are a specific indigenous people of North America, with their own culture and communities. While the Métis initially developed as the mixed-race descendants of early unions between First Nations people and colonial-era European settlers (usually indigenous women and settler men)

7. Inuit
Inuit (pronounced /ˈɪnuːɪt/ or /ˈɪnjuːɪt/; Inuktitut: ᐃᓄᐃᑦ, "the people") are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada and Alaska. Inuit is a plural noun; the singular is Inuk.

9. Mother Earth
The Turtle is the oldest symbol for planet Earth. It is the personification of goddess energy, and the eternal Mother from which our lives evolve. We are born of the womb of Earth, and to her soil our bodies will return. In honoring the Earth, we are asked by Turtle to be mindful of the cycle of give and take, to give back to the Mother as she has given to us

10. Spirituality and the land
From the realms of the human world, the sky dwellers, the water beings, forest creatures and all other forms of life, the beautiful Mother Earth gives birth to, nurtures and sustains all life. Mother Earth provides us with our food and clean water sources. She bestows us with materials for our homes, clothes and tools. She provides all life with raw materials for our industry, ingenuity and progress. She is the basis of who we are as “real human beings” that include our languages, our cultures, our knowledge and wisdom to know how to conduct ourselves in a good way. If we listen from the place of connection to the Spirit That Lives in All Things, Mother Earth teaches what we need to know to take care of her and all her children. All are provided by our mother, the Earth.

11. Belief about Environmental Degradation of the Land
Affects the health and well-being all peoples
First Nations peoples do not yet know all the ways harmful man-made substances affects fish, wildlife, habitat, and human beings.
contamination and disruption of wildlife habitat combine reduces the supply and purity of traditional foods and herbal medicines.
degradation erodes the quality of life dependent on the purity of the land, water, plants and animals, and further affects Indigenous people’s cultures, languages and spiritual health and well-being.

13. Medicine wheel teachings:
Black: West: reason: “figure it out” knowledge
White: North: movement: “do it” wisdom
Yellow: South: time: “relate to it” understand
Red: East: vision: “see it” awareness
These show the gifts of the four directions. You have to take knowledge and use movement to incorporate it all.

14. Sacred Medicines

15. Sacred Medicines Sage: Women’s medicine: strength and wisdom
Cedar: purification and attract positive energy, emotions and balance, healing medicine
Sweet grass: ritual cleansing –one of original 4 medicine plants
Tobacco: opens doors between worlds -earth and spirit world; offering is sacred

16. Smudging

17. Smudging Ritual cleansing As smoke rises, prayers rise to spirit world
Negatives lifted away
Stimulates healing
Customary to cleanse over eyes, ears, mouth, hands, heart and body and then brush over backs to lighten the load

18. Contributions to Modern Medicine
Petroleum Jelly -Vaseline
Iodine
Aspirin
Quinine –used to fight scurvy

19. Metis Sash L'Assomption Sash named after town in Quebec
Fringed ends served as emergency sewing kits for metis on buffalo hunts

20. Served as key holder, first aid kit, wash cloth, towel and emergency bridle and saddle blanket
All colours have significant meaning: black for 1870 where people suppressed, red and white metis hunting flag, blue and white are metis national flag, green and gold, fertility, growth and prosperity.

22. The Seven Grandfathers’ Teachings
Wisdom: to cherish knowledge is to know wisdom.
Love: to know love is to know peace.
Respect: to honor all of creation is to have respect.
Bravery: to face life with courage is to know bravery.
Honesty: is to be honest in action and character, be faithful to fact and reality, to walk through life with integrity is to know honesty.
Humility: to accept yourself as a sacred part of creation is to know humility.
Truth: to know of these things is to know the truth. 
These teachings originate from the legends of the Mohawk people.

23. Sun Rise Ceremony
Expresses thanks for life and nature; includes a smudging ceremony.
It is done to make everything strong and pray to creator
All races do some form of it; but done differently by different groups

24. Inuit -qulliq
 It is a soapstone bowl that has a constantly burning small flame containing seal oil and arctic tundra grass that was used for the purpose of light, heat and cooking in the igloo. It is now used symbolically to represent resilience and traditions