11″ x 14″ Unframed Matted Decorative
(Fits standard 11″ x 14″ frame). Each item is packaged in an acid-free, resealable clear bag.
When we think of otters, it is easy to imagine what they might think about; perhaps days filled with the playful antics of running and sliding. We can see this in the picture, where the two otters conjure images of such days, seen in the circling otter forms (thoughts) surrounding them. Otter is a clan animal among the Anishinabek. And it can be said that their frolicsome natures also speak to their “roles” as healing animals; in fact, otter skins have been traditionally chosen to make pouches for the sacred items of the Midewiwin medicine society. It is not hard to understand how play is both a balancing and a healing balm, with its infusion of lightness and laughter into a world that seems to grow only darker and more sorrowful.
We can take this teaching of Negik (Otter) and think more broadly about what it is that we might carry in our own figurative individual and collective medicine pouches that might bring healing to ourselves and to the world. Certainly, this would include such practical tools as traditional teachings, the sciences, law, even our politics and economics. While it is true that at times, some of these have contributed to our modern predicaments, we have the ability and even responsibility to creatively re-invent those elements that have not historically been effective or forward-looking, and to turn them into positive agents for change. And as we set about this heavy work, let us never forget the importance of play and lightness; to always give form to our own “otter thoughts”!
Mark Nadjiwan is a self-taught artist whose chosen medium is pen and ink, working in archival acrylic inks on acid and lignen-free illustration boards. His unique style is a fusion of several artistic traditions, and includes the Indigenous inspired designs of both the Woodland and West Coast schools, as well as non-Indigenous approaches such as realism. Mark’s work can be found in numerous venues across Canada as well as private collections in Canada, the United States and Europe. In November of 2022, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. His First Nation roots are grounded in the Georgian Bay and Lake Superior Treaty regions, and he is a citizen/member of Neyaashiinigmiing Unceded First Nation. Mark lives on the traditional and current territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON), in Treaty 72, along with his wife, Patricia Gray, who is also an artist, working in acrylic mediums.
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