A Cree view

painting by Shirley Cheechoo from her 52 minute film, Pikutiskwauu / Mother Earth, 2002. Produced by the Cree School Board of James Bay.

Cree author/playwright Tom Highway, interviewed by Noah Richler, in This is My Country, What’s Yours? p.135 :

"…in the Christian mythology there is a heaven and there is a hell. Heaven is up there and hell down there, just as there is a male up here, and female down below, and the rest of Nature is around us here. It’s a vertically linear system. But…. [our view is that] there is no God up there and Nature down here. It’s not a line, it’s a Circle, and we all exist within that Circle…. we all have a voice at the meeting – men, women, God trees, rocks, birds, sunlight, sound, water, the earth – even Death has a place at that table. Everything is equal, and when you die, your soul does not go to heaven or hell. It stays in the Circle."