ABOUT ME

Aaniin, Greetings, my name is Ozawa Giizis Ikwe (Yellow Sun Woman), Migizi doodem (Bald Eagle Clan), my other name is Diane Maytwayashing. I am an Indigenous land-based educator of the Whiteshell Petroforms and Whitemouth Falls. The Petroforms are stones or boulders shaped into patterns by my ancestors. These Petroforms are to be found in Whiteshell Provincial Park.

I live in the town of Seven Sisters Falls with my family. I am Anishinaabe with Scottish ancestry, a mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and in a partnership with a kind-hearted man. I’m a women’s knowledge keeper, a women’s pipe carrier, veteran sun dancer, keeper and conductor of a madoodison and jiisakaan. 

My story of how I became a Knowledge Keeper of these sacred stones, is not a romantic story, but rather, finding my way to the sacred stone site and learning their knowledge came at a time when I was in a deep depression and grief.

My friend suggested we take a drive to Whiteshell Park, a day trip to visit a special place. I didn’t know it then, but this place would forever change my life. In other words this place gave me a deeply spiritual life, a life of purpose and meaning.

This sacred place is known to Anishinaabe people as Manitouabee, meaning “Where The Spirit Sits,” an area where stones were set up hundreds of years ago by my Anishinaabe ancestors. These stones are set up into various shapes of turtles, water serpents, thunderbird, and sacred women beings – sky woman, spider woman, and a woman giving birth. The Anishinaabe people say that these stone formations align with the star constellations, and for this reason it is the stars that gave the people these instructions of how must live our lives in balance with Mother Earth.

My heart was deeply captivated by the mystery of this deeply spiritual place; it was how I felt on my very first visit nearly 30 years ago. Never had I ever imagined that a place like this existed on our Earth. It was a powerful feeling – as though I were stepping into another dimension. This special place forever changed my life. It felt as though I stood at the gateway to a Great Spiritual Domain, and that is just what happened that day. I stepped into a Spiritual Domain.

That day, my teacher, the late Leonard Martin from Mosakahiken Cree Nation, who brought me to this sacred stone site had also given me the gift of meaning and life purpose by sharing with me his knowledge of these sacred stones. He respectfully gave credit for this acquired knowledge of the petroforms to his elder and teacher, the late Peter O’Cheise.

Nearly three decades have passed since I first walked through the sacred stone site, and since that time, I have spent eleven consecutive years participating in vision quests for healing, knowledge, and guidance from these stones. This place had revived and healed my life on many levels, and in return for this legacy, it has become known to me that it is my responsibility to share this knowledge with the people, and most importantly, it is a responsibility to protect these sacred stones.