Seven Sacred Teachings

Abstract

Andrea Currie, Green Turtle Woman (Red River Métis) speaks to world-making as the collective work of Indigenous peoples for generations in the face of apocalyptic destruction of their worlds. She positions Traditional Teachings as what will enable her and other Indigenous Peoples to survive, heal, reconstitute themselves, and continue to be who they are in the new reality: “As the world around us dis-integrates into intensifying divisiveness and despair, and our connection to, and interdependence with, our Mother, the Earth, is either denigrated or completely forgotten, I ground myself, every day, in these Teachings.” Andrea then shares what she has learned about living a good life through the Seven Sacred Teachings given to her by the late Murdena Marshall, beloved Mi’kmaw Elder from Eskasoni First Nation. These land and nation-based Teaching are contextualized within community and relationships. Elder Murdena Mashall taught her that Love is the most important of the Seven Sacred Teachings, followed by honesty, respect, humility, truth, patience, and wisdom. All seven are interconnected, and none can exist without the others. As a storyteller Andrea weaves these Teachings together with her lived experiences; her embeddedness Indigenous communities; and her ways of being and relating as a psychotherapist who has worked in the Mi’kmaq community for over twenty years.

Co-Authors

Andrea Currie (she/her), MEd, CCC, is Green Turtle Woman, a Red River Métis from the historic Métis homeland in southern Manitoba. She currently lives in Unama’ki (Cape Breton). She is a psychotherapist, writer, and musician. She is the Indigenous therapist at the Kiknu Centre (St. Francis Xavier University), has a private practice working with Mi’kmaw and Wolastoqiyik individuals throughout Mi’kmaki, and has been the facilitator and therapist for the We’koqma’q Residential School survivors for the past twenty years. She is a founding member and now part of the Elders and Knowledge Keepers Council of the Indigenous Circle of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association in 2004. Her newest book is Finding Otipemisiwak: The People Who Own Themselves.

Citation

Currie, A. (2025). Love in the midst of apocalyptic loss. In S. Collins and M. Jay (Eds.), Decolonizing health, healing, and care: Embodying culturally responsive and socially just counselling (Chapter 5.1). Counselling Concepts. https://doi.org/10.71446/yt64134253