First Raven: Tens Of Thousands Of Ancestors

 

 

 

I live on Syeelhwh Okanagan land.  I heard a version of the story of First Raven this morning.

First Raven created the world we live on and then, when he was all done, he started to get lonely.  It is said that he lured the first humans out of a clamshell he found on a beach.  (In some stories he makes the first humans out of clay.  It is also, of interest, that he made one out of ten bears white bear to honor the ice age. – the white spirit bears on the coast even today.)  In his loneliness, he made our ancestors.  Each of us has tens of thousands of ancestors who love us.  Ancestors who were brave, full of hope and vitality and loved each other.  You and I are made up of that strength, that bravery, that love that came from our ancestors.  Because of them we are here. 

It is said, Raven held a great feast and invited all his first humans to this feast.  When everyone turned to leave to go back to the four corners of the land, he gave each one of them a gift for coming and gathering and feasting and dancing.  Those gifts are passed down through us, their progeny.  Each of us is here for a reason.  The first peoples knew that each gift was a responsibility.  They lived it and passed it down to us...that responsibility each of us carry.  Those tens of thousands of ancestors loved each other and us.  We are loved.  Each one of us is greatly loved by our ancestors and it is our responsibility to live so that we are directed to pass on the gift that came from our ancestors.  All the way back to First Raven.

It behooves us to live knowing we matter.  If we did not, we would not be here.  The gift we carry matters.  We are greatly loved and so must greatly love each other.  That is what is wrong with the world today.  We forgot that love came first.  Raven was so lonely he loved us into being.  We must never not love ourselves.  We must never not love others.  Every one of us is loved by tens of thousands of ancestors. 

I love this story.  How hard it is to say to everyone we ever meet that we love them.  It should be a given.  My ancestors love your ancestors all the way back to First Raven.

May we remember that.

©Carol Desjarlais 3.30.24