June 16, 2025

George Laliberte is a Cree and Métis Elder who has dedicated much of his life to receiving and sharing traditional teachings. In honour of National Indigenous Peoples Day, we sat down with Elder George to hear his story and learn from his teachings.

A childhood teaching revisited

When George Laliberte was a young boy, his grandmother shared an important teaching with him—though he didn’t know it was a teaching at the time.

Each morning, his grandmother would wake up, light a fire, and pray to the Creator. She would then lay out a small feast of bannock, tea, and berries. “I’d sit there with her, watching this, but she never did tell me what it actually did,” Laliberte recalls. It wasn’t until decades later, in his mid-thirties, that he began to understand.

His path to that understanding was marked by deep challenges and reflection.

Reconnecting with culture after loss

After surviving residential school as a child, Laliberte experienced the loss of a daughter when he was 19. Grief and trauma led him into a period of substance use and homelessness. Eight years later, he began reconnecting with Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing, which marked a turning point in his life’s journey.

It began with listening and observing. Laliberte received teachings from seven Elders representing diverse Indigenous cultures—from the Anishinaabe and Cree in the north to nations in the U.S. and as far south as Mexico.

But he explains that real clarity didn’t come until he began to fast and Sun Dance. “When you go fast, that’s where the answers come,” he says. Laliberte spent 14 years fasting and participating in Sun Dances in pursuit of understanding.

Learning and sharing core teachings

From these experiences, Laliberte learned that, across all teachings, common themes emerge. “Respect each other, take care of each other, tell the truth, be honest with who you are and what you do.”

Many First Nations cultures, particularly in the Prairies, follow teachings rooted in the four directions—North, East, South, and West. These directions are sometimes understood to represent people from across the world: the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. This worldview reflects the idea that all people are equal, often symbolized by a circle divided into four equal parts.

From this foundation of equality emerge seven guiding principles, which include truth, respect, courage, and humility. Together, they are known as the Grandfather Teachings—or the Seven Directions.

But Laliberte emphasizes that these teachings are not meant to be learned in isolation. All seven of the guiding principles come together to offer a single way of knowing and being. At the heart of this way is self-respect. “By respecting yourself, you’re reflecting that back to others,” he explains.

Understanding his grandmother’s teaching

After many years of learning, fasting, and ceremony, Laliberte came to understand the meaning behind his grandmother’s quiet morning ritual. Lighting the fire, offering food, and praying to the Creator was her way of teaching him how to care for himself so that he could then care for others.

“The teaching that she gave me was how to take care of myself first, and then I could take care of everything else—respecting my responsibilities in life, my family members, and taking care of them,” he explains.