Dedication And Persistence Through Nanabushu In Ojibwe Creation Story

Dedication and Persistence Through Nanabushu’s Eyes

As we gaze up at the vast expanse of the universe and all the glistening stars, it's hard not to feel small and insignificant. Sometimes, it’s difficult not to feel unwanted and helpless. The feeling does not simply go away. But perhaps, there’s something worth everything, after all. No matter how small and fragile a being is, there’s a reason for its existence. In the Ojibwe Creation Story, Nanabushu knew that.

Although Nanabushu was shown as a trickster figure, it does not mean he was reckless with his decisions. However, it’s still questionable how he chose to sacrifice another duck despite the first one’s fate.

This questionable choice brings the ultimate question: why did Nanabushu

Yet, Nanabushu chooses not to use his abilities and targets animals he has aboard his raft.
To choose a duck out of all the animals, who were much better at diving in deep water, must mean that Nanabushu knew it was achievable through dedication, and more importantly, he must have genuinely believed the duck was the most suitable for this particular mission than any other animal aboard. With this in mind, Nanabushu never displayed his discontent with how the first few animals couldn’t fetch little of the Earth.

Aside from that, In the Ojibwe Creation Story, the ways particular aspects of the text speak to us signify a more complex meaning than we think. When Nanabushu initially employed the first duck, later in the text, the reader would find that it was, unfortunately, drowned.

And when Nanabushu sent the second duck to capture some of the Earth, the second duck drowned, too. However, even though both ducks drowned, there seems to be a darker setting in their

If you fetch it to me I would create an earth.”
“Now, he first employed the duck, but it was not able to come within reach of the earth; it was drowned before it got there.”
“And when it came floating up to the surface, then another Duck,”
“And next he had the Beaver dive, but it also met the same fate, it drowned before it reached the bottom.”
“Thereupon, after Nänabushu took the Muskrat up in his hands, he breathed upon it, whereupon he revived it. Now, that was what he had done to them