12/05/2024
When I reflect on the meaning of Mother's day I think of how this is a day to honour our mothers ... but also remember and celebrate all mother's including our mother's mothers and all of our grand mothers and the gifts they gave us... they are the ones who taught us our languages, our values, our customs, our beliefs, our medicines and our ways of being. I also think of the song by Don Freed that in many ways best captures the beauty and the spirit of our mothers... Below are the lyrics to his son and attached is a link to the recording.
Daughters of the Country by Don Freed
You’ve heard about the Métis men and how they lived their lives
It’s time that someone told about their daughters and their wives
Who made the meals and mended clothes and kept a spotless home
And tended to their babies while their sons and husbands roamed
And who did they have to thank for that?
May I tell you bluntly?
It was those shawl-wearing, rabbit-snaring, moccasin-making, bannock- baking, floor-mopping, wood-chopping, snowshoe-mending, garden-tending, berry-finding, pemmican-grinding, hide-cleaning, hair-preening, child-rearing, persevering…Daughters of The Country!
If someone had a headache, or a fever or the flu
A daughter of the country knew exactly what to do
She’d make a special medicine from a flower or a tree
That she learned from her grandmother who was a Chippewa or Cree
And who did they pass their knowledge to?
May I tell you bluntly?
(refrain)
A daughter of the country was the apple of the eye
Of any lucky voyageur who might be passing by
He’d travel up the river, through the woods and over hills
To win the hand of a maiden who had great survival skills.
Their working hours were many, their pleasures they were few
When one considers all the different jobs they had to do
The Métis men had nerves of steel and muscles hard as stone
But without a wife they were gibbering bundles of testosterone!
And who do you think they took pity on them? May I tell you bluntly…
(refrain)
Fascinating, scintillating, decorating, cultivating, educating, populating, H-H-H-H-H-hyperventilating
Daughters of The Country!
©Don Freed
