Medicine Wheel Symbolism

Aboriginal culture plays a very large role in the province of Saskatchewan. There are the Metis people, the non-status indian groups, and many others scattered not only throughout the province, but the entire country. With many Aboriginal cultures come many symbols, some of which may mean something different to each aboriginal group. One symbol that has been found scattered across Saskatchewan and can have multiple meanings is the Medicine wheel. Through history the meanings may have been altered for a better understanding, and the meaning once again is understood differently by each aboriginal group. Some people can glance at the Medicine wheel and have a full understanding of what it means, where others may need a full explanation. The …show more content…
From the beginning of the medicine wheel, until present day, it is true that history may have changed the meaning. This would occur through the sharing of each culture and their own knowledge of what the wheel represents to them, but the general idea of the wheel’s meaning remains the same. One representation, starting with the North quadrant of the wheel, the messages attached to it are “do it”, wisdom and movement, and the color attached is white. The East and red quadrant give the advice of “see it”, vision and awareness. The direction of the south is yellow and expresses “relate to it”, time and understanding. Finally, the last quadrant to complete the wheel is the west which also represents black, “figure it out”, reason, and knowledge. Another Medicine wheel might represent something a bit different like the north is still represented by white, but it has the meaning of balance and respect. The east and red quadrant is attached to wholeness, south and yellow represent inter-relationship, and to finish off the wheel, the west, black quadrant represents inter-connectedness. Although there are many other interpretations of the medicine wheel that may have been tweaked through the years, the original meaning is still behind each quadrant and still aims for a complete wholeness. …show more content…
“Medicine Wheels are still used today in the Native American spirituality, however most of the meaning behind them is not shared among Non-Native peoples.” (www.medicinewheel.com). It would be very difficult to just look at a symbol such as this and try to figure it out since it is already full of so many meanings. Without someone explaining the general meaning to a person, the symbol cannot be fully understood. It is beneficial that the Medicine Wheel is not such an obvious symbol to interpret. This gives an opportunity for elders to pass on their own knowledge of what the wheel might mean to them and their culture, keeping the Aboriginal culture and language alive for years to