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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Night Flying Woman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonization, Oppression, and Loss
Storytelling, Knowledge, and Culture
Deforestation and Urbanization
Money, Sharing, and Community
Summary
Analysis
When Oona is seven, she awakes one morning to find a piece of charcoal beside her bed. The charcoal marks her time to choose her destiny: she can either take the charcoal into the forest and become a dreamer, or she can leave it and become a medicine woman. Oona takes the charcoal, heads into the forest, and falls asleep for several hours. She has dreams about a man standing on a log by the big river, and others about men with pale faces. She doesn’t know what the dreams mean, but when she returns to the village, Grandfather tells her that their meanings will come to her.
This chapter focuses on Ojibway spiritual values and social dynamics. Ojibway children choose their future role in their communal society before they reach adolescence. Oona chooses to become a dreamer, which brings to light the importance of dreams in Ojibway culture. Oona’s dreams about pale men suggest that the settlers are closing in on the community.
Themes
As another summer passes, A-wa-sa-si moves deeper into the forest to meditate, knowing that she is approaching death. She only has one wish: to see her two sons again. Oona is sad and wants A-wa-sa-si to feel at peace. Oona keeps dreaming about the man on the log, and eventually, she realizes that the man has A-wa-sa-si’s face. Grandfather decides to send an old man, A-ki-wa-a-si, to scout the river and see if A-wa-sa-si’s son is there. Oona also dreams that A-wa-sa-si will be happy, and the adults decide that Oona is a special person.
Elderly Native Americans meditate in the forest as they approach death, a way to reconnect with nature. Dreamers, like Oona, also meditate in the forest to manifest their dreams. The previous chapter highlighted the practical resources that the forest offers the Ojibway. Now, the book reveals that the forests also have a strong spiritual significance in Ojibway culture.
Themes
Oona visits A-wa-sa-si in the forest. A-wa-sa-si tells her their people’s story, so that Oona can pass it on to her grandchildren. The Ojibway believe that a great spirit (Gitchi Manito) gives power to the earth, and that the earth gives gifts to the Ojibway. That’s why they follow the cycle of the land, planting in the summer and harvesting in the autumn. They strive to take only what they need and to thank the earth for what it gives them. The earth is like their grandmother, and the animals and trees are like their brothers and sisters. A-wa-sa-si will return to the earth and replenish it when she dies. This is the cycle of Ojibway life.
A-wa-sa-si’s traditional stories contain important information about Ojibway spirituality, suggesting (as before) that storytelling is an important way of passing on indigenous beliefs. The stories reinforce the close connection that the Ojibway feel with their forest habitat: they view the forest and its inhabitants as family members. The stories also underscore that the Ojibway strive not to exploit their ecosystem and try to replenish everything they take from it. All this suggests that deforestation will cause Native Americans tremendous cultural and physical losses.
Themes
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A-wa-sa-si continues, telling Oona that the earth loves the Ojibway children. When Ojibway children grow older, they receive their calling. The special girls receive charcoal, and the boys do vision quests. Some become hunters, some become dreamers, others become medicinal healers. They acquire feathers, drums, and headbands as their role in the community grows. A-wa-sa-si wants Oona to remember all these traditions so that she can pass them on. Oona promises to fulfill A-wa-sa-si’s wishes.
A-wa-sa-si wants to tell Oona her stories before she dies so that the indigenous cultural knowledge her stories contain lives on. Broker explains that Native Americans gain respect and honor (reflected in their feathers, headbands, and other symbols) based on their contributions to their community. This suggests that individual callings are meant to support the Ojibway community.
Themes
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A few days later, A-ki-wa-a-si returns with a stranger: it’s the man from Oona’s dream, and—as she saw in her dream—he looks like A-wa-sa-si. The man is A-wa-sa-si’s son, and his brother arrives a few days later. The villagers talk about Oona, and they decide that she’s special because her dreams predict the future. A-wa-sa-si dies a few days later, and the villagers whisper her name to the river. The river water is calm, meaning that A-wa-sa-si lived a good life and respected the earth. The villagers honor A-wa-sa-si with a feast. Oona repeats the stories that A-wa-sa-si told her, so that she can remember them and pass them on.
Oona’s experience shows that for the Ojibway, dreams are spiritually significant because they predict the future. Oona takes great pains to learn A-wa-sa-si’s stories, suggesting, as before, that they are full of important information about indigenous culture that the Ojibway want to pass on. The river is an important part of Ojibway death rituals, emphasizing once more that their spirituality is closely connected with the natural environment.
Themes
A-wa-sa-si’s sons say that the pale people have chopped down many forests to make logs. Many Ojibway people have fallen ill and died from a terrible sickness. The big chiefs have signed papers promising that all the Ojibway people will move to designated land, far away. The villagers decide to stay for two more winters, but they agree to move to the designated land if the pale strangers find them. The mood in the village grows oppressive and fearful. One winter night, Oona dreams about a pale man walking into the village, and she knows that the strangers are nearby. Oona is right: a few days later, a pale stranger walks into the village.
When Oona’s community learns about the lumber industry’s encroaching deforestation, they feel deeply worried: the forest, as explained thus far, sustains their people both practically and spiritually. It’s clear that settlers don’t share the Ojibway’s values, as they prefer to exploit the forests for lumber rather than live in balance with the forest’s ecosystem. The “sickness” is a smallpox epidemic that ends up killing the majority of the Native American population. Metaphorically, the sickness also represents the Ojibway’s suffering under settler oppression, which dramatically increases after Native American chiefs agree to sign treaties that force them onto reservations.
Themes
