Midewiwin: Understanding Anishinaabe Spirituality and Medicine

The Midewiwin is one of the most important and ancient spiritual traditions still practiced by several Anishinaabeg peoples.

It is sometimes translated into French as the “Grand Medicine Society” (Grande Société de Médecine), but this translation alone does not capture its full depth.

The Midewiwin is not just about physical healing. It also touches upon knowledge, spirituality, relationships between beings, responsibilities toward the land, and the way a person chooses to walk through life.

It is also important to clarify from the outset that the Midewiwin is not a tradition common to all First Nations. It is particularly associated with the Anishinaabeg, notably various Ojibwe communities.

What is the Midewiwin?

In Western translations, the Midewiwin has often been described as a medicine society, a spiritual fraternity, or even a secret society.

However, these expressions can provide an incomplete picture of what it actually represents.

The Midewiwin is, above all, a path of knowledge and transmission. It gathers teachings that may pertain to spirituality, healing, plants, songs, human conduct, community, and the relationship with the living world.

Some people also speak of the Midewiwin as a path of the heart: a way of learning to live with respect, truth, courage, honesty, humility, and responsibility.

The ceremony is part of this tradition, but it does not represent the whole of it.

The way a person treats their family, respects others, cares for their territory, and uses the knowledge they receive is also part of the path.

A deeply Anishinaabe tradition

The Anishinaabeg form a large cultural and linguistic family present around the Great Lakes and in several regions of Canada and the United States.

Among them are the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples, although each nation and community maintains its own traditions, histories, and ways of transmitting knowledge.

The Midewiwin is particularly well-documented among the Ojibwe.

For generations, its teachings have been transmitted mainly through speech, songs, ceremonies, observation, and the guidance of people who themselves hold this knowledge.

Medicine: Much more than a remedy

To understand the Midewiwin, one must also broaden the understanding of the word medicine.

In a contemporary Western vision, medicine generally refers to treatments intended to prevent or cure an illness.

In many Indigenous traditions, the notion can be much broader.

Medicine can be associated with what helps a person or a community regain balance: a plant, a teaching, a relationship, a song, a ceremony, a word, or a way of living.

Healing is therefore not always separated from the spiritual, family, or community dimension.

A person does not live in isolation from the rest of the world. Their health can be linked to their relationships with others, with their land, and with what gives meaning to their existence.

Knowledge transmitted with responsibility

One of the important dimensions of the Midewiwin is how knowledge is transmitted.

Not all knowledge is necessarily taught in the same way or at the same time.

Some can be shared publicly. Others are passed on gradually through a specific journey. Some belong directly to ceremonial contexts and are not intended to be reproduced in an article or on the Internet.

This way of learning may seem unusual in a world where we have become accustomed to believing that all information should be immediately accessible.

However, in a tradition like the Midewiwin, receiving knowledge also implies a responsibility.

It is not enough to know.

One must understand when to use this knowledge, why it was transmitted, and how to carry it with respect.

The land as a teacher

The land holds a central place in many Indigenous traditions.

The forest, the plants, the water, the animals, and the change of seasons are not just a backdrop for human beings.

They are part of a set of relationships.

In the traditional knowledge associated with the Midewiwin, plants can notably occupy an important place. But knowing the name of a plant or its use does not automatically mean possessing all the knowledge surrounding it.

There may also be a way to harvest, to give thanks, to respect the place, and to understand what one receives.

Knowledge, therefore, does not reside only in the object used. It also exists in the relationship maintained with it.

Handmade creation

Dreamcatcher - Mother Earth Spirit

Hand-fashioned with genuine moose leather and natural feathers, this dreamcatcher evokes grounding, balance, and the connection with the living world. A symbolic creation inspired by the relationship between human beings and the land.

See the creation

Birch bark scrolls

Among the best-known historical elements associated with the Midewiwin are the birch bark scrolls.

Symbols and representations could be inscribed on the bark to support memory and the transmission of certain songs, stories, journeys, and teachings.

It would, however, be incorrect to consider them simply as books in the Western sense.

A symbol does not necessarily reveal its meaning to the person looking at it. Its interpretation can depend on knowledge received orally and the context in which it is used.

In other words, seeing is not necessarily understanding.

Songs, the drum, and the ceremony

Song and rhythm also hold an important place in many Anishinaabeg traditions and in certain contexts related to the Midewiwin.

However, a ceremonial song should never be considered a simple song that one can freely perform after hearing it.

Certain songs have a specific context, a function, and a precise way of being transmitted.

The same principle applies to objects used during certain ceremonies.

A drum, a plant, or another object may have a very different function depending on the person, the community, and the context in which it is used.

This is why one must avoid automatically associating any Indigenous handicraft object with a specific ceremony.

Why do people sometimes speak of a secret society?

Some older Western texts describe the Midewiwin as a “secret society”.

This expression, however, can be misleading.

The fact that some knowledge is not public does not necessarily mean it is hidden to create mystery.

In many traditional systems of transmission, certain things are simply taught when the person is ready to receive them and understands the responsibilities that accompany them.

Respecting a tradition therefore sometimes means accepting that one cannot know everything.

Curiosity alone does not automatically grant the right to access ceremonial knowledge.

The Midewiwin and colonization

Like many Indigenous spiritual traditions, the Midewiwin had to endure a long period of colonial repression.

For generations, governments and various religious institutions sought to replace the languages, traditions, knowledge systems, and spiritualities of First Nations.

In Canada, certain Indigenous ceremonies were prohibited or heavily restricted by the Indian Act.

Residential schools also separated thousands of children from their families, their language, their land, and their culture as part of an assimilation policy.

Despite these pressures, families, Elders, and knowledge keepers continued to pass on what they could.

Some traditions had to be practiced with great discretion.

Their survival to this day is therefore a testament not only to spiritual continuity but also to immense cultural resistance.

The Midewiwin is still alive today

The Midewiwin should absolutely not be presented as an extinct ancient belief belonging only to history books.

There are still lodges, families, and individuals today who continue this tradition and pass on its teachings.

Some communities are also working to revitalize their language, ceremonies, and traditional knowledge systems after generations of colonization.

The Midewiwin therefore belongs as much to the present as it does to the past.

It continues to evolve through the people who live it, while maintaining its ancient roots.

The Seven Grandfathers teachings

Several teachings that are now widely known in the Anishinaabe world evoke seven major values:

respect, love, truth, courage, honesty, humility, and wisdom.

Their formulation and transmission can vary, and one must avoid claiming that a simple list can summarize an entire spiritual tradition.

But these values allow us to understand something essential: spirituality does not exist only during a ceremony.

It also manifests in one's way of living.

Respecting others. Speaking the truth. Recognizing one's mistakes. Acting with courage. Not placing oneself above others. Using what one learns with wisdom.

Knowledge then becomes a daily responsibility.

The Midewiwin is not the spirituality of all Indigenous peoples

This distinction bears repeating.

There is no single Indigenous culture nor a single Indigenous spirituality.

The Anishinaabeg, Innu and Ilnu, Atikamekw Nehirowisiwok, Cree, Haudenosaunee, Mi'kmaq, and many other nations possess their own histories, languages, and traditions.

Certain practices and teachings have circulated between peoples over the course of encounters, alliances, and generations.

This, however, does not mean that all traditions can be mixed or presented as if they originated from the same people.

Correctly recognizing the origin of a teaching is a form of respect.

Why does the Midewiwin still resonate with us today?

In a society where many people are looking for meaning, slowing down, or finding spiritual bearings, discovering traditions like the Midewiwin can lead us to look differently at our own way of life.

It is obviously not about appropriating a sacred practice or believing that a few readings allow one to enter a tradition that has its own keepers, ceremonies, and rules of transmission.

But we can listen to what its existence reminds us of.

The Midewiwin places at the heart of life the relationship with the land, the community, healing, transmission, responsibility, and the spiritual world.

Knowledge there is not simply something one accumulates: it engages the person who receives it.

In a world where we are constantly solicited, where everything moves quickly, and where many people feel a form of disconnection, this way of conceiving life can lead us to ask ourselves simple but profound questions.

What space do we still give to silence? To nature? To elders? To transmission? To the gestures that give meaning to our existence? And to what transcends us?

Discovering the Midewiwin does not mean seeking to become a member of a tradition that does not necessarily belong to us.

It can simply be an opportunity to discover another way of thinking about the relationship between human beings, the community, the land, and the spiritual.

And sometimes, discovering that another people has preserved for generations a different way of understanding the world is already enough to make us reflect on our own.

Another way of understanding knowledge

The Midewiwin ultimately invites us to reflect on our own relationship with knowledge.

Today, a few seconds are enough to find a definition, a photograph, or a text on almost any subject.

This ease can give the impression that understanding simply means having access to information.

Transmission traditions like the Midewiwin offer a different perspective.

Some knowledge requires time.

It requires listening, observing, building a relationship, and sometimes traveling a long path before truly understanding its meaning.

And above all, receiving knowledge raises another question:

What will we do with what we have learned?

Because knowledge is not just something one possesses.

It can also transform how we live, how we respect others, and how we walk upon the Earth.