Rembering the residential schools

Wanted to remember those who went to residential schools for the September 30 commemoration.  Couldn't find my orange t-shirt so I had to make do.  I was feeling really self conscious for some reason, and really appreciated it when a friend noted that I was "rocken my indigenaity".  Had a couple of good conversations with people about the residential schools and tonight we will set out a plate for our ancestors and those who walked on.  Had a good talk with the girls too.  How are you remembering today?  

Métis Hope 26

in-your-own-words. Stacey Rozich
Métis Hope 26: I hope your weekend will be full of unexpected pleasures and delights.

24th Century Indian - Métis Version

Inspired by a painting by Star Wallowing Bull named "24th Century Indian" which I spoke about in a previous blog, I created "24th Century Indian - Métis Version"  I went with an abstract style as I felt like the future was more of a feeling than anything concrete.  What do you think future indigenaity looks like?

Métis Hope 25

the period of sheep's woolcut

Photo by revolenka

 Métis Hope 25: I hope the fall harvest brings you an abundance for the cold times.

Métis Hope 24

La Monarisa. Cover for the book "La Monarisa" selection of Luis María Pescetti. A compilation of witty humor by Jose Rosero
Métis Hope 24: I hope the ducks in your brain only whisper gentle and kind things in your ear.

Urban Indigenous Futures

I am continuing steadily through "Me Artsy" by Drew Hayden Taylor.  I found a lot to think about in the essay "For Sisters" by Karyn Recollet.  As part of her PHD, Recollet she interviewed a number of indigenous hip hop/rap artists.  She speaks of these artists as working to "...spread Indigenous knowledge to create ways of moving us forward beyond present realities and spatial realms towards a future Indigenous condition..."  She highlights to the relevance of this work to urban indigenous lives and suggests that it is simultaneously documenting, "...our journeys into the future."  This language resonated particularly recent post on a couple of artists who are imagining what indigenaity might look like in a post-colonial world. 


Recollet  sees these forms of cultural expression as challenging current stereotypes of indigenaity, especially the one related to the static nature of indigenous culture.  She believes the working through these concepts can be a means of retaking our urban spaces.  Incidentally most of which are indigenous lands.  This  point also made me think back to a review I did a couple of weeks ago, looking at the possibilities for indigenous peoples in these urban spaces.  In that view it was important to challenge the idea that every indigenous person will find themselves by returning to their remote homeland.  That author challenged this concept arguing that some indigenous peoples may already be there, that this home may no longer exist or that it may not be a good place to be.


The nature of rap/hip hop, Recollet argues, with its roots in the fusion of sounds and visual images, can inspire each of us to imagine the remix in our own lives and to consider how these elements come together to create our urban identities.  She goes further, "This jumping off point produces a moment that allows us to reflect upon the ways that we use capitalism and commodities to express our own complex Indigenaity."  This actually brings me back to one of my favorite posts which explored how to bridge this dichotomy.  I want to show I am Indian/Métis, so I buy stuff to show that, which potentially undermines the ideas of indigenaity, especially where it enters into the capitalist and consumerist spaces.  I found my answer in the works of Judith Butler and Kent Monkman in their work on the conscious creations of per formative selves.  I think this performativity really does matter.  Passing someone on the street wearing their Neechi Geer, Tammy Beauvais clothing or beautiful beaded item, and there is a moment of recognition.  Even in the rush for a morning coffee, I am aware of these brothers and sisters working in the towers around me.  What I hang of my ears and wear on my body feels like it can really matter.  It can spark a conversation, bring pride or be a reminder.  This benefit is not even accounting for the value in supporting indigenous artists.


Recollet sees that in the creation and viewing of rap /hip hop, we can reclaim and occupy spaces that were perhaps previously taboo as well as those that are emerging.  Through this process we can produce a vision of the future which encompasses complex and lived indigenous realities.  We can perform and critique ideas of the authentic, historical versions of ourselves .


Recollet closes by speaking to the creation of, "a space of radical decolonial love," when love can encompass all the unique facets of ourselves, while supporting a full acceptance of difference.  She sees this a space where we appreciate each other for what we are and what we bring to the world.  In doing this we can come together to imagine and create new possibilities for existence.  For this to happen, she argues we will need to reject ideas like hetero-normativity, current ideas of ownership and ideas about bodies.  This rejection, she says, would support the development of a more inclusive vocabulary of relationships.  It would allow for radical self reflection and  a challenging of the role of colonization (internal and external) in the lives we live.  She closes with a quote by artist Peter Morin who asked, "Where do you carry your sacredness when you have been exiled?"  She responds that Hip/hop and rap are part of the practice that can bring us closer to home and as a "practice of embodied sovereignty."

Métis Hope 23

Elvis Presley Squirrel Art Print Illustration by bobogalerie,
Métis Hope 23: I hope your four legged brothers can bring you joy.

Trickster Metaphors

I recently finished "Culture and Language: The Political Realities to Keep Trickster at Bay" by Stephen Greymorning. This piece couldn't quite find it's place.  The title and ultimate argument of this article, that language is really really important in keeping our culture, was lost in the meat of the article which focused on all the ways culture was taken.  Now there were some interesting facts in this part of the text, but I found myself lost in the facts and I am not convinced that they really helped him articulate his point of view.  Greymorning spends a little time discussing the important of language as a means of preserving worldview and the rate of decline of languages.  The use of Raven to tell this story is dropped in the middle section or the article and returns only briefly at the end.  It was an interesting idea that did not quite work.

ᒧᐦᑌᐤ ᒧᓴᓯᓂᕀ The Return of the Slug

the frog and the snail by Mark Porter

Twice since writing about Slug woman last week I have come across products touting the wonders of snail/slugs in replenishing the skin.  So beyond her teachings, slug/snail can bring us beauty.

Joel also provided some additional slug teachings last week when I was having a down day

"Contemplate where you are rather than your designation.  Let your slide coat lube your passage through life."

I have never spent as much time thinking about slimy creatures until this past week.  How much of the world have I never really seen?

Métis Hope 22

Link
Métis Hope 22: I hope you take some time today to create something for your soul.

Learning from the plants

I have the pleasure of walking past a rose bush every morning with the most beautiful pinkish orange blossoms.  I learn a lot from this plant.  Some years it is cut down to nothing, but it always grows back and by the fall is full of lush blooms.  We watch these blooms, hoping for one more day before a hard frost to enjoy this plant.  Even once frozen the blossoms have their own kind of beauty.  The growth and death of this plant marks the changing seasons.  The hope of renewal.  The beauty in the fragile things.  As I pass the plant I am aware of how it has changed since the last time I took this path and how I have changed, or failed to change.  Once in a rare time, a bloom has fallen and we can take it home with us to enjoy for a little longer.

I also wanted to share this colouring journal I purchased with you.  On one side it has a picture to colour of one of the relations and on the other side are some questions about how we relate the this relation.  The one about Mooshum Sun asked us to think about the role the sun plays in our lives and how we feel when there is less sun in the winter.  It worked really well for a circle time discussion.  It was nice to have some discussion questions ready to go for circle time.

Métis Hope 21

Corelladesign - April Bear on Etsy
Métis Hope 21: I hope I remember to care for all me relations when I see a need.

Métis Hope 20

Rien Poortvliet |discussion about honey
Métis Hope 20: I hope you day will include many engaging and interesting discussions about honey or other sweeteners of your choice.

Métis Hope 19

Pawel Kuczynski
Métis Hope 19: we respond in time.

Métis Hope 18

Snail Scott
Métis Hope 18: your home is a place of comfort and not freaky wall extrusions (unless those give you comfort!).

Bent

Métis in the City - "Bent not broken"
I keep returning to this theme as it resonates for me.

Métis Hope 17

my family by Lena Revenko
Métis Hope 17: I hope your family brings you joy.  If not, don't be afraid to find new family.

ᒧᐦᑌᐤ ᒧᓴᓯᓂᕀ (mohtew mosasiniy) (Slug)

cinamoncune.tumblr.com

I came across this book "Keeping Slug Woman Alive: A Holistic Approach to American Indian Texts" by Greg Sarris.  Now the book looks interesting, but the title alone really got me wondering about Slug Woman.  So I googled slug woman and aside from references to this book I got a warning about restricted content (we speculate slut woman?).  So we were left to wonder, who was Slug Woman?  Why are we so attracted to the teachings of the less icky relations?  Bear and wolf are cool but does anyone spend time with slug?  What would they teach us?

The family and I talked about this and came up with a couple of possible teachings of the slug

1. If you try to be something else you will always be unhappy.  Slugs may not be cool, but there is honor in doing your job well.
2. You are more resilient than you think (apparently they can go over razor blades and their slime protects them.)
3. From Sophie - keep hydrated.
4. You don't always need to rush.
5. You don't need to be big to have an impact on others.

Do you have any teachings of the slug?  What would you add?  We had some teachings from a worm last year which you can read about here.

Then in the way of the world, the next day I read this article by Alanna Okun talking about some of the things she does to help with her anxiety, including a discussion about her pet snail and how it helps her to get outside of herself.  I have never really taken much time to think about slugs until this week.  I am going to try and take a little more time with my smaller family members.

Managing a career can be hard!

Métis in the City "Witigo contemplates Career Management"
How do you retool for the modern workforce?

Métis Hope 16

Link
Métis Hope 16: I hope any babies in nests near your houses are quiet and well behaved.  (Who gives a small child bells?)

Métis Hope 14

Redmer Hoekstra
Métis Hope 14: I hope that you can find a culturally appropriate way to wear your rabbit and not to be a slave to whatever the latest fashion is.

Star Wars Indians

Have you picked up "100 Days of Cree" by Neal McLeod?  I love the style of the book with short explanations/stories for some of the words.  I also love the inclusion of modern Cree terms so that you can discuss Star Wars and Tim Hortens as you learn Cree.   I thought I would share the word takwâkin (fall) today.

A couple of images are really inspiring me to create a new artwork right now.  The first is "24th Century Indian" by Star Wallowing Bull.  This piece really got me thinking with both the title and the style.  There is planning for the 7th generation, but this time frame is almost twice that.  What would we look like then?  Would the idea of Métis even make sense in that context? What do we want to leave for the future?

The second piece, also a new to me artist, is by Jonathan Thunder "Nuclear Descent #2" where he describes this Ojibway family as being dressed in the style of four different time  periods, one of which is the near future. 

I also began reading "Me Artsy" by Drew Haden Taylor.  I read his book of essays on indigenous sexuality, "Me Sexy" earlier in the year and wrote about it here.  He also wrote "Me Funny" which is on the to read shelf.  I have finished two essays so far and quite appreciate the format. 
The essay that most stuck me was by Monique Mojica who is described as an actor and playwright.  From the first quote of this essay I was hooked, "Art in not just for beauty but to make our knowledge speak.  Art is a defense and an action." (Argar Ricardo Arias Spit, Aligandi, Guna Yala)  The essay is entitled "Verbing Art" and it speaks to the role of action art as a vital part in the maintenance of society.  Mojica speaks to about the work of having to, "...remember things I never knew" and to "unlearn the fear of not knowing.  The fear of being called out for not knowing culturally specific information , language, songs, dances and ceremony has been used to silence and to deauthenticate from both outside and inside the Native community."


This quote strikes me fresh today.  Last night we went to a local lodge to do art therapy with Runa and then share the family meal and activity.  I was simultaneously soothed to be in this safe cultural space, but also feeling that I did not belong - I was too white, too rich, too educated - not needy enough.  By eating that food and being there, am I taking away resources from someone who needed them more?  Am I just falling back into my historical stereotype that you are only really indigenous if you are needy? 


While there, I had a very nice conversation with another lady and we talked about beading.  I felt embarrassed to tell her that I learnt from a book.  I can't come to their beading circle as it is during work time.  I had no Kookum who could teach me.  At the same time It felt good that we could talk about the coming of age ceremonies we had done for our daughters, both of whom were still on their berry fasts.  It was powerful to share that moment of reclaiming.  The Kookums were there.  I really need to unlearn this fear of not knowing.  I don't know so much.  That is ok.  I am learning as I can.  What matters is that we learn and then pass it on.


She uses the term "buckskin ceiling" at one point, which is wonderfully evocative.  Plus you can buy one for your home!  Outside of a tepee, a leather ceiling seems weird to me.  Mojica describes her moment of truth, when she had to decide whether to try to change theatre from inside or to support the creation of indigenous led theatre.  She choose the second and situated her choice with a quote by Winona LaDuke (Anishnaabe) "We don't want a bigger piece of the pie, we want a different pie."  She finished by asking what indigenous art look like if it was just art, not having to be labeled indigenous.  What if indigenous art was not longer created in response to the outcomes of colonization?  I guess that kind of leads us back to where we started.  What will that 24th century indian look like?

Métis Hope 13

Andrea Wan
Métis Hope 13: I hope we can all come to see how we fit into the bigger picture.

Buffalo and the china

Today I would like to introduce, "The Buffaloes are Gone" or "Return: Buffalo"? - The relationship of the Buffalo to Indigenous Creative Expression" by Tasha Hubbard.  Hubbard sets out to understand how the relationship between the plains indigenous peoples and the Buffalo changed since colonization and suggests that, "...by replacing the value of stories about the Buffalo, we can reinstate this animal and others as sites of learning, which can then result in a revitalization for creativity and literary expression."

I have an emotive relationship to Buffalo.  I remember my Mushum showing us his stuffed buffalo head that he kept in a giant dusty crate.  He never really talked about being Métis, so maybe this was his way of trying to show us where we came from?  It mostly scared us, with its glistening glass eyes set deep in that giant head.  Last year, I bought the girls a stuffed buffalo so that we could keep the story of that buffalo alive.

Hubbard begins with the history of the Buffalo, their decimation during colonization and the resulting impacts on indigenous peoples.  In building the myth of emptiness, settlers were encouraged to feel entitlement to the lands.  This involved the disappearance of both the people who originally occupied the lands, their ways of knowing and their animal relations.  She continues by outlining the continuing symbolic importance of the Buffalo to modern plains peoples with the, "education is our Buffalo," quote which she attributes to Glair Stonechild (Cree-Saulteaux).  She explains that the continued use of this concept, can be seen as a rejection of the belief that the plains peoples died out with the buffalo and that it is a reassertion that we are still here, ready to participate in the modern society.  We are not a historical curiosity like the buffalo.

Hubbard notes the challenges of education and indigenous peoples that I have written about already.  She also cautions that indigenous peoples not fall into the fallacy that western education is the only source for healthy economic futures.  Instead, she suggests, that we need to reintroduce older ways of learning.  We should not fall into believing that western education is our buffalo and we need to remain vigilant to the ongoing colonization in these institutions.  She notes that in embracing education, we need to work on multiple levels and spaces, in ways that honor the traditional ways of knowing and belief systems.




She suggest that perhaps we are better served to think that, "the Buffalo is also our education".  That we can take heart in our historical relationship.  As the number of Buffalo is growing, perhaps its role in our minds should also grow, so that by learning about Buffalo and renewing our relationship to it, we may access and support a rebirth of indigenous creative expression.  We can come to Buffalo as student and as those in need of healing.  We can be stronger by acknowledging our bonds to these animals.




She notes the persistent belief that the Indian and buffalo were similar.  Both were too stupid to resist the colonizer.  They both needed to be eliminated to make space for the "Civilized" folks who knew how to make "productive use" of the land.  Hubbard has a great quote from Len Findlay on the "vanishing Indian", where he notes that, " ..while the Indigene's otherness is savored most intensely at moments of its most acute endangerment and supreme rarity, as colonized difference splits into memory and décor."  The buffalo and Indian survive in this narrative as only a historically oddity.  Or a dusty box in a basement?




Hubbard feels that we need to access the animal teachings by removing the cages in our minds, and by reclaiming the sacred teachings of these relatives, so that we educate ourselves fully, as whole people, recreating that previous relationship and accepting the confusion that may exist in these spaces.  We should see them as containing challenges to create and be unafraid.  A challenge to exist as together and separate.  To be dead and renewed.  To be historical and modern and to use the Buffalo to teach us about the cycle of life that we inhabit. 




We can take to survival of the buffalo as a symbol of our own survival, a reminder that the Indian did not vanish.  We are still here and we can use the learning's of all our relations to re-imagine the spaces we now inhabit.  Hubbard reminds us that the buffalo bones were used in making fine bone china, and that people who used these dishes were really eating on the bones of a genocide.  It was all very genteel.  She asks us to question that gentility in our own lives, and enquire at how our patterns of consumption may rest on the backs of others.  (Here she is quoting work from Dana Claxton (Plains Lakota)).  This is certainly something I can do in my urban space.  Am I honoring the buffalo in making a purchase or using an item?  Perhaps she questions, buffalo can be our guide between the world we face now and the knowledge that we need to reclaim for a healthy future?




This genteel genocide discussion reminds me of Hannah Arendt, "Eichmann in Jerusalem".  It hits me viserally.  I like my cheap clothes and food, but I am going to think on Buffallo and make some changes in my life.  What has Buffallo taught you?

Métis Hope 12

KomaArt
Métis Hope 12: I can keep a healthy balance between my modern desires and the good red road.



Panic, the nature of god and rocks

Sky woman by JB Thomas

Tansi, had a hard couple of days with one child having a panic attack on Friday morning and having a comatose and very depressed Joel on Sunday.  He only got out of bed at 5 pm.  Better than the times he sleeps right through, but still I find these days hard.  He is so negative.  I got out for a while and did some shopping.  Why is that such a soothing activity?  Trying not to fall fully into old patterns and just start eating.

Had some interesting discussions about religion with my older daughter.  In particular she is thinking about whether there is a god and if there is, where did they come from and how do they manifest.  This proved a good opportunity to retell the story of when sky woman fell and how the animals helped her out.  She wasn't sure if that was how the world began, but we suggested that maybe there were different kinds of truth and that there is not going to be scientific proof about the nature of or existence of god(s).  She was skeptical.

Runa spent some time in a tree with a friend and got mad at her friend for not respecting the tree.  Those moment make my heart proud.  I see the little Métis child in between the video games.  I also got the chance to empty my purse of all the rocks she collects.  It really is a good lesson to remember how much we can change things by making little changes every day.  I am trying to remember that, just to do a few little things each day.  I think by the time she is grown she will have brought all of the rocks in the neighborhood to our front door.  She sure loves those rocks.  Hai Hai

Métis Hope 15

 Stacey Rozich
Métis Hope 15: I hope I can get in on this awesome stick ceremony.

Métis Hope 11

Rien Poortvliet
Métis Hope 11:  I hope that we can take good care of our relations.  Even the slimy ones.

Métis Hope 10

NINA TORR
Métis Hope 10: As an urban dweller, the care of our wilder brothers and sisters may be new to you.  Don't be afraid to refer to their instruction manuals.

Cosmopolitan indigenaity

This week I want to review "With these Magic Weapons, Make a New World": Indigenous Centered Urbanism in Tomson Highway's Kiss of the Fur Queen."  This article was written by Lindsey Clair Smith and given that the aim of this blog is to navigate the good urban red road, I was intrigued by this title, even as my interest in lit crit is low.  The abstract drew me in, as she promised to cover how Highway's work explores the possibilities for mapping a life that follows Cree ways of being, while diverting, "... the consumerist purposes of urban locations and claiming them within a Cree worldview, ultimately resisting assimilation and offering a portrait of transnational Indigenized urban space."  This exercise actually extends beyond the main questions of this blog and touches on some of the emerging issues that I am thinking about around the intensification of "corporate Buddhism" and the minimalism, deculttering, tiny house concepts, which in themselves are challenge to the expression of values and representativeness (the lack of non-well-educated-affluent-white people in the expression of these world views).


The article starts by situating the theory relevant to the paper and defining a number of terms including the "post-colonial" city, composed from the flows and encounters of people from different places, backgrounds, racial groups and languages.  She notes the pressures for pan-Indianess in this context and questions if continued application of this lens really supports robust analysis of modern indigenous literatures. 


She opens by setting out the common stereotype that native peoples are separate (not modern/assimilated), spiritual and close to nature.  So much so, that their true "homes" are remote and time in the urban space is to be endured or contrasted to their real lives.  To be truly Indian, one must return to where other "real" Indians are and to reject urbanization as urbanization is synonymous with assimilation.  Smith wants to explore a theoretical framework that rejects this narrative, and instead allows for an urban home that is consistent with indigenous beliefs. What is possible beyond the story of urban alienation resolved thought physical removal from that space?


Smith draws on the work of Tompson Highway and highlights his expression of a modern and healthy view of, "cosmopolitan indigenaity," where the flows of the modern urban space are not a barriers to the expression of indigenous world view, but may even provide opportunities for elaborating this expression.  She notes that, "...understanding of cosmopolitan Indigenaity has implications for urban space itself, as Indigenous writers reclaim cityscapes for their communities and undercut commodification of indigenous iconography for "civilizing" purposes." 


She speaks to myth of, "post colonization," in the modern realities of indigenous peoples.  Colonization still exists, internally, but also in the very spaces and systems we inhabit.  Shared urban spaces, especially in the Canadian context where these spaces are also shared with other historically colonized peoples, could support a conversation not constructed in the strict white/indigenous binary. (noting that even that is a gross simplification)  We could all work together to decolonize these spaces.


Having worked in multiculturalism and anti-racism policy, this is an appealing option.  We could widen the dialogue, attempting to address past issues that continue to affect us, but also to think strategically about how these issues (and new ones) will unfold.  This is not to simplify the array of diaspora experiences or to simply "find a middle ground" in order to white wash historical realities, but rather to make sure that all the players are actually at the circle (I wanted to say table, but I am decolonizing myself as I go!). 


Indigenous peoples lost community through forced relocations, residential schools and the resulting impacts .  Many indigenous peoples are now in cities, spaces were set up for the benefit of businesses and not inhabitants and are not supportive of health communities.  While urban is seen to be a contrast to indigenous spaces, many of these cities are based on what were once indigenous communities.  Home, but not home through the destruction of communities and environments.  Ignoring the role of cities in reclaiming identity may be short sighted.


In "Kiss of the Fur Queen", Highway constructs a sense of Cree self that is grounded in the urban space, with space for "creativity, community building and activism."  He can see a path to urban nativeness.  Many indigenous peoples have experienced relocations beyond those physical including those of language, religion, and even world view.  These things are not automatically reclaimed though a return to the "rural home" (if that even exists or is safe). 


Smith brings forward numerous Highway quotes where he applies the Cree world view to the urban space.  I particularly loved one about a mall, where he describes it as a Witigo/Wendigo that is always hungry and grasping.  I love this combination of unconnected ideas or tropes.  A lot of my drawings play with these ideas too.  Maybe it is the Métis in me and we just love to bring new things to life from two older things? 


Smith describes Highway as playing a role of translation, where the present reality is rooted in the past and the connections are clear to see.  It is a reclaiming of the possibilities of the urban space, for indigenous peoples to come together, and work and play in ways that might not have been feasible.  It is not about moving away or staying and assimilating, but articulating what was into a new space.  It is not an in-between state, but a fully experienced potential in which the indigenous ways and indigenous peoples can be empowered actors.  Perhaps even undermining some of these colonial spaces. such as the shopping mall.  (I am of course glossing over differences in opportunities resulting from the historical and ongoing legacy of colonization.)


Even after my acknowledged glossing, I do find this an appealing view.  Indigenous peoples are in the cities and pretending that everyone just needs to return to the land to find authenticity is problematic.  For some, it may be the answer, for others, having examples of how you can navigate these identity issues is heartening.  I am not sure there is a call to action here, so I will add one.  What am I doing in my daily urban life that embodies "cosmopolitan indigenaity"?  How can I leverage my urban spaces to further the dialogue on modern indigenaity?  What do I need to learn/do to operationalize this?

Métis Hope 8

Bear With Me Illustration Art Print A3 by LaurenMortimer
Métis Hope 8: Since it is my birthday today, I hope for a year full of family and boldness.

Buffalo Failures

I have been wanting to make a pair of leg wrappings for a while now and made a start with some reclaimed leather.  This project did not work on scale or size.  They fell down my legs and the buffalo looked silly rapped around my calf.  However, I did enjoy playing with the fabric paints on the leather and I really liked the intensity of the colour I was able to get and the fine details. 

Didn't know how to draw canned moosemeat....

Got very inspired by the last post on "Half-Breed Reasoning" and illustrated a couple of her thoughts.

Witigo and Rugaroo hanging out

Got very inspired by the last post on "Half-Breed Reasoning" and illustrated a couple of her thoughts.

Métis Hope 7

mammabanana.com
 Métis Hope 7: I hope to maintain balance in life.

Métis Hope 6

Ontwerp: Michael Sowa. Piratenschool
Métis Hope 6: I hope that I can keep up with the colonization that my children get at school.

Métis Hope 9

mammabanana.com
Métis Hope 9: I hope that we can face our fears.

Métis Hope 5

Worker Bee / Eric Fan illustrations
Métis Hope 5: I hope that the return to routine keeps a little bit of the wild in it.

Métis Hope 4

Link
Métis Hope 4: I hope I can remember to keep looking at things in new ways.

Métis Hope 3

Lim Heng Swee
 Métis Hope 3: I hope that Grandfather Sun will be a frequent visitor this fall.

Playing with Ojibwa flowers

Uncomfortable endings

I finished Lee Maracle's "First Wives Club" this week.  I wrote about this book earlier.  I am puzzled by the end of the book.  Most of the stories appear to be the voice of a woman in middle years, but the last two stories are young male voices speaking to this woman in her absence.  They are uncomfortable stories of the death of a mother.  I am not sure how I feel about this ending.  I suppose it made me think about things more closely and see the book as a narrative rather than just a series of stories.




A few final quotes spoke to me

• "The goal of every adult among us is to face ourselves, our greatest enemy..." page 24
• "Bias is not a reasonable thing.  It is emotional, conjured by those whose own life is rich with doubt and pain they have no idea what to do with, so they pass it on to those that society has deemed lesser beings.  It is a kind of crazy social contract that the colonized have unconsciously agreed to."  Page 61
• "Neither of them is culturally intact." (page 61)  What an evocative phrase.
• "It takes courage for millions to swim against the tide and the full length of an entire river, to scale series after series of falls for creation, knowing that death waits.  The gifts is not made for us but for the future.  It is not a fight against anything or anyone but rather a fight for creation.  We know creation itself is the only winner and we are satisfies, content with this knowledge." Page 63

Métis Hope 2

Link
Métis Hope 2: I hope that I can stop saying it.