Bear Learns a New Game: Decolonization story for Chapter 4

 Bear Learns a New Game

So that Raven is a trickster eh? Always asking questions and getting involved in people’s business. So of course, that’s how this story starts! Bear was just wandering, looking poking for answers and pawing for questions when a voice whispered

“Did ya know? Did ya try it? It changed my life!”

Well Bear was all ears. Something new! Something transformative! And Raven let the expectations grow – stretching that silence like meat in hard times.

“It’s true. The answers to all your woes is close.” Raven hopped around the corner “Follow. Follow. I will be your guide.”

So Bear followed to a parking lot and with a very interesting shape marked into the ground in BIG BOLD LINES. Within the grid there were lots of those strange symbols that some folks stick together to say things on paper. Bear always liked the challenge of figuring out these new symbols and games. Bear spent a long time thinking about the patterns and rhythms of this new shape. Maybe too long.

When Bear finally looked up - dark was creeping close and Raven had disappeared. Bear was getting hungry and turning to leave when there was a voice sweet as a summer breeze from a shadow,

“It is a real beauty eh?”

In the dark it was hard to see who owned the voice but Bear didn’t really care. Bear’s mind was in love with this delightful new puzzle. Before long the voice sounded closer

“I could.. tell you.. what I know. I am just learning but then you could play a game with me… Just a fun game between friends.”

Now Bear knew lots about circle maths and teachings so they wanted to learn this new knowledge too. Maybe it would help them better understand circles! But Bear also remembered other sweet voices in dark places so they though deep before they replied.

“How do I know this is a good game? Maybe you just want to trick this hungry, tired Bear.”

The shadowed voice was silent. “You are a very wise Bear. I will teach you to play – and afterwards you can decide if you want to waste your clever mind on such a simple game. But it is just efun to pass the time.”

This seemed quite sensible to Bear who though the proposal fair. Movements were decided by a cube that created numbers to tell us how many squares to travel. If your new square had a vine, you could climb to the top and get ahead very quickly. But if you landed on a spot with a snake it could swallow you and transport the person far back in the race. The deciding cube was a fair speaker so the game was only of luck - the voice assured Bear.

Now Bear did some quick calculations and decided that the risk to try this new game was acceptable. Bear could always leave if the game was too boring but it looked like it could be fun. And Bear did enjoy the game. So after a while, when the voice suggested they make things more interesting, Bear agreed. When the voice said they should make the vines shorter so it was more of a challenge. Bear agreed. When Bear thought the Snakes had maybe grown longer they did not say anything. Sometimes Bear won and it felt amazing. A great abundance of blankets, baskets of berries and plies of sewing machines and clocks grew around them. When Bear lost, the piles moved to the other player. Bear started imagining how happy Grandmother would be to have some of these items. How much easier her life!

After a long time. Bear’s stomach reminded them that this game would not fill their belly tonight and that there were others at home who needed to be fed. But when Bear explained these things, the other player pleaded again and again for just one more game. “

Listen to your mind Bear not your stomach. Look at these fine machines. They will save you time.” And Bear would play another game.

After another long time, Bear’s stomach called an end to the evening. Bear really wanted to play a little longer and bring some of those lovely things back to their side of the magic square but a hungry stomach comes before all else.

“Thank you my brother/sister for the company. But having both won and both lost it is a good time to return to our homes. It was kind of you to share your knowledges. Let’s we meet tomorrow and play circle games.”

The voice was chilly “The magic of circles is pale and weak compared to the magic of the squares and lines. If you want to play more, learn more, number more that is the game we must play.”

And as Bear considered those words Grandfather Sun arose to show Bear who the other player had been. For that player was afraid of Grandfather and fled as soon a dawn gathered strength. In that moment, Bear realized that they had learned the games of the Wiitigo. The games of hunger, wanting more and making sure lines go up. Ho

 

Metis Creation Story: Decolonization story for Chapter 3

Metis Creation Story[1]

Let me tell you a story that starts with that Turtle, busy swimming across the waters, and the First Peoples and who lived on that big steady back. Littles and bigs. Flyers and swimmers. The slow ones and the fast ones – All the Relations – had their spots around the bowl. And all feasted and celebrated and mourned together. Now there were times the bowl was less full than others but overall, there was abundance. This was because of the Great Laws. Now there are many names to those respect teachings among the Circle Peoples but all knew they were equal around the bowl even when sometimes a relation needed a helping hand or paw to fill their bellies. But the Great Laws had ways to ensure that all were still part of the Feast.

After a long long time, the relations heard voices very far away. The Grandmothers sent out some of the flying ones to investigate. They reported that there were new two legged ones climbing up Turtles leg. The Old ones took council and prepared to greet these arrivals. At the feast, over stories and songs, the relations learned that some of the new Turtle travelers carried circle teachings from their places. These folks learned the bowl rules and joined in relationship with the community. This is how it always was. The Great Laws are adaptable. Welcoming and adopting folks who could work together to care for the bowl.  That’s what the Grandparents teach. When we have enough we share and when we don’t we adapt. These new ones became the Metis.

These new peoples were woven from the threads of the Great Laws and the Circle peoples caught up in Empire. We are the descendants of those who left or who were driven out of Europe for economic, political and religious reasons. Where sheep were given land and the people were starved. We are the descendants of Black Grandparents brought to Turtle Island as slaves or who travelled here as free folk. We are the descendants of the Chinese workers brought to tame Turtle Island with railways. We are the descendants of Sikh men who came to work the woods. We are resilience and adaptation just as our Ancestors showed us.

After more time, the relations heard noises far away. The Grandmothers sent out some of the swimming ones to investigate who reported that more unknown two legged ones were climbing up Turtles leg. The Old ones again took council before preparing to greet these arrivals.  But these new arrivals passed the Grandmothers and went straight to the bowl - even before the proper greetings – even before telling us about their people! They reached hands, still dusty from travel right into the feast. The Grandmothers explained the rules but some still didn’t listen. Some didn’t like the rules. They had other rules – better rules. Written down on paper rules. Rules in strange symbols that they trust more than relationships. But while we kept explaining how the bowl worked and who all the relations are – and why they matter, well something happened to the bowl itself. Less was going in, more was going out and lots of relatives were going hungry. Some weren’t able to get close enough to eat and some were trampled or forgotten.

Data Bear thinks that Metis folks are questions. That our very bodies carry those questions. Questions about who got remembered. Questions about assimilation. Questions about who get counted. But maybe our bodies also hold some answers. Maybe we can carve lobsticks to show possible paths? In the current moment, data is king. But this Bear thinks it is a false leader since it can often only show us paths of binary (0 or 1). But Metis folks, we are ∞ and we are circles. We are the people of the shared bowl who together with our First Nations and Inuit family and are part of the mending, setting things back to right and the care for those who have been hungry a long time. We are about remembering our shared histories of abundance. Ho

---

[1] Ninanaskomowin to Luc for his insightful comments

Snake shaped inspirations

Passing shadows
Illusssssssions
Seductions
LeonardCohens deep.
Sitten in the basement
Snake shaped inspirations
Boot us!
On necks
Or foots
Damages
Full of maths
Like
= can’t live like this any more

Akihcikewin Maskwa (Data Bear) Preparing 2024

Bear goes East: We have always been modern - Decolonization story for Chapter 2

 Bear goes East - We have always been modern[1]

Sometimes the Grandmothers send us to journey. Maybe for meditation. Maybe with message. Maybe with mission. Since we were now stained with the unknown symbols – the Grandmothers sent us to gain the knowledge of the markings. They instructed us to go towards the rising sun until we found answers. So every day we journeyed.  Oh, the stories we could tell of those times…. those we met, folks who fed us, those we who encouraged us, who waved us off as we headed further East. We learned many things in those days, but not the knowledge of the symbols, so we continues east until we ran out of land.

Ever spent time with a sea-sick bear? Imagine it for a moment… So unsurprisingly we made few friends during those days.  Weak and missing home, we were ready to give up the journey until a kindly Doctor of medicines visited furside. As he showed us the medicines he had to calm our stomach, we noticed the container had the same kind of symbols that stained our fur. So we came to understand that these were the symbols of great medicine!

In the following days, renewed to the mission and in health we asked the Doctor if he could teach us the magic of these symbols. The Doctor said there was no need for a bear to read and write. He told us that it wasn’t natural and that there wasn’t even any need, as we were a child of the “Great Mother”.  He told us that this Great Mother would ensure our safety. But the Doctor was eventually persuaded to share some magics after he found us learning letters and playing number games with the sailors who had been very glad to share knowledges for tobacco.

After crossing the big waters we arrived at “civilization” where all the great thoughts, beautiful things and best ways were kept. My companions were very proud to show off all their plunder and their ways. As the Grandmothers taught, we listened, we watched and we learned. They declared, even as I explained this was not truth, that we were surely a prince of our peoples. So they dressed us in silks, showed us off to their best and declared their peoples as great and eternally favored by the gods. The “Great Mother” kept me close in those days and we made a friendship with a teller of stories who played with the symbol letters to create great magics. Folks would come from all around to see these stories performed. I learned that he even had a special house for the telling of his stories, so great was his power.

We prepared carefully for the great gathering in our finest Bear regalia excited to see more of this civilization. But instead of joining the crowds of people on the floor, we were whisked to a high perch over the people. But the people of the floor rightly saw that we were apart and called for us to join them “Bear, Bear” they chanted, even as the play began. They were so loud that our friend eventually invited us to be seated on the stage so the people could watch a Bear watch the story. A chair was set on stage for us and the young man in black returned with his skull to continue his promise of vengeance to his father now passed to the spirit world.

The story is dizzying in color, intrigue and emotion. A true story for the ages. As the telling ends, the young Hamlet, vengeance fulfilled, walks the rainbow bridge as a warrior. His last request, that his story be shared. With the crowd below us, we stand to honor this retelling. Then as the crowd continues to clap and stamp their feet, the story teller himself came out to bow. Then our friend invited us to join him center stage. We were a little scared, but honored too, that a man of such magics over letters acknowledged us. Imagine it for a moment…

During my stay with the Great Mother, we spent much time with man who knew these magics and learned all we could with them. Then one night, we were visited by the Grandmothers in the dream time and we understood that our time across the waters was at an end. As we prepared to retrace our journey – now towards the west, our new friends gifted us with many nice things, papers of magic and of course – medicines for our time on the seas. No more sea sick bears! Our last goodbye was to the great teller of tales. We thought hard about what we could gift this great teacher who showed how those letters could be used to tell the most heart breaking of stories, could be used to make us laugh and how they could help us tell truths that might be hard to hear. As we were brothers through our friendship we gifted him with the spirit name that came to us in the dreamtime. We spoke this name before them in our language and his, “Exit pursued by a bear.” [2] Imagine it for a moment…

And so it was that Data Bear learned the meaning of those symbols on their fur, came to travel across the big waters and became brother with a holder of great story telling magics. Ho!

---

[1] Inspired by themes in We Have Never Been Modern – Bruno Latour and ``On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe`` Caroline Dodds Pennock.

[2] https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discover/blogs-and-features/2016/01/29/exit-pursued-by-a-bear/