A Diné Woman's Weapon Against Poverty and Hunger: Navajo/Diné Stirring Sticks/ 'Adeestsíín.

good afternoon this is navajo grandma today we have a wonderful subject dinner stirring sticks if you can see there's seven of them here's some notes like grandma always does the dines stirring sticks are called here it is right here ada adas they're also referred to as mush sticks and i just kind of drew them right here there's seven shafts here i like to take notes because i want you to learn and you can kind of stop this at some point and and re-learn what grandma's teaching you now these stirring sticks are from the greasewood plant and the greasewood plant in navajo you call it and scientifically its name is sarca sarcobidus vermecula vermiculitis okay so much for science grandma also drew you if you can look at this this is the drawing of the greasewood i wanted you to see what it looks like if you notice it has like one inch uh green leaves it usually goes straight up look at how they grow it's not an easy picking look at this you look at these thorns look at that and i'll tell you i remember i went through a one of these bushes and ran into this and it can jab you and hurt you remember that that it has really sharp thorns it's a beautiful plant look at how beautiful but i wanted you to see what it looks like the idea of these seven shafts one of the mythological you know there's a changing woman and you've heard of her i'm sure the story is that she wanted to uh be with her husband who is the son and she saw him come up in the morning and go down in the evening and so she goes to him and realizes that she hadn't left a blessing for her children so she comes back and gives him seven blessings and these seven shafts represent what she gave to them the oddest sin is considered a weapon here is my writing here addis sin is a woman's weapon and we'll just talk briefly about that the reason why it's a woman's weapon is basically thus these sticks and i did you see remember you looked at the picture and then you saw the sharp uh thorns and i think he kind of references that that's my opinion um it's supposed to be a weapon against hunger hunger is a as a being in the in the dna uh mythology and it is true to most uh dna people that hunger and poverty and anything that's negative laziness is negative and this is what this fights against the it has the thorns and it's considered and i believe that some say that the now the native americans or the dna people used to make arrows out of this and in the when you listen to the elderly folks who are wonderful and precious they present this and say that this wood came from because of the thorns i believe that it they referred to ah that it was an arrow that this possesses an arrow and because it possesses an arrow that it it defies and kills poverty and when someone has a blessing or uh you're newlywed or whatever or your grandmother will hand this down because this is like a woman's arrow you know your shafts and like your quiver or shaft here you have to fight against poverty against hunger and some people put it over the door uh but it usually hangs up in the house and it should be used and it's their stirring sticks and when you do that when you use it and you use it prayerfully that you actually consecrate that poverty and and hunger will never exist in your home beautiful concept and how important this is and some say it completes the home because the woman you know carries it and this is her weapon against hunger uh you know poverty and laziness this has nothing to do with negativity they're arrows that you use and then it has its own arrow they say that these sticks have a song and a prayer now i don't know those but the elderly speak of that and this is what i was going to teach you here it says the teachings say the sticks have a song and a prayer and that hunger is afraid of the sticks because they are like weapons as well as the sticks have um arrows and prayerfulness you have to have prayer to use this and being in possession in uh these of this others 10 that your household will never be without food and it is a common household item we have and it's also used for the puberty ceremony when a young girl reaches her puberty and they do the ceremony for her and she is called a canal da and then they make the the cake the quinoa duck cake with this and that's called al qaad the cake is called alkant and there are seven shafts it's a beauty way ceremony given from changing woman when you have this it makes your your home complete so this addison remember it's called addison this is so important to have and women like i said they hand it down to their daughters for protection these are beautiful sometimes there's five now i don't know why i mean i'm i'm not um a professor in this but i know some have five but i've always only been told by my grandfather that you have seven and that you need to have seven and you stir and i'm going to be making the blue corn mush with this and you can make your oatmeal you stir it and then when you clean it you just don't rinse it off and just leave it there's a way to prayerfully clean it with your hand you clean it with your hand and you take every one of them these are precious this is your protection and when you know you just don't throw something that protects you around and and then you clean it off you wash it off and then what i do is take my olive oil and i always use olive oil i guess you could use coconut oil i'm not sure it's up to you whichever you eat prefer and you can even you use grape seed oil as well but you keep your addison your stirring sticks you you need to make sure they are oiled but don't over oil i mean just so that because it can break it dries out and it can break and beautiful i the symbolism of all of this a protection a woman i mean i just always feel like going like this you know because you're just holding it's like your arrow against hunger and poverty laziness i i chuckled and i thought to myself i can see my mother whacking me over the head when i used to lay down and sleep sometimes you know i could see her smacking me with this but that's why it could be a a help uh you know stopping laziness but no it's uh that was a silly thought but you know sometimes the mother feel like that you know ask me i know i had seven children but anyway so here is addison you will see me making this with my blue corn mush it's a beautiful beautiful item uh the sticks its representation and that this completes your home and how wonderful to have a strength like this to protect you as a woman and that you fight hunger and when hunger comes around you know i i used to my it was funny i used to drop my food sometimes and my grandmother's one of my elderly grandparents said oh hunger just grabbed it you know don't let hunger take your food you know they're like um and i used to look down and think what and they would say well you know what that's why when you drop your food there is hunger and it's trying to grab your food so you know these are things that we're taught in our in our uh as as children so it might it seems different to you but what you did is you ate all your food and you didn't drop and dribble and because you if you do you let hunger take your food and how important it is and um so that's my presentation for you today addis sen one more time addis sen here we are a woman's weapon against hunger and if you have this you will never hunger in your home what a wonderful blessing a beautiful concept so uh this is the end thank you for watching and learning and trying all of the things that i'm teaching you i get wonderful comments and and i send my blessings and my gratitude to you and keep subscribing spread the word grandma is here and we'll see you again ha gone there you

Channel: Navajo Grandma

Views: 6,428

Rating: 4.963964 out of 5

Keywords: 'Adeestsíín, Navajo, Diné, Dine, Women, woman, warrior, weapon, hunger, poverty, Changing Woman, Tradition, Story, Stories

Id: 9XMTmUE7Pps

Length: 12min 30sec (750 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 05 2021