Intersectionality

This is from a Buzzfeed article imaging if men cheered for feminism like they are supposed to cheer for sports.

Reclaiming and Proclaiming - Christi Belcourt

I recently read an article in the Native Studies Review by Christi Belcourt entitled "Purpose in Art, Métis Identity and Moving Beyond the Self".  I knew of Belcourt as an artist and her writing was a continuum of her other work.  In this essay she works through the nature of art as a reflection of ourselves and in this case, as a reflection of a Métis person.  She speaks of the continued use of historical references in the work of Métis artists as "...a means of reclaiming of one's own personal history" and that "... it all adds up to a reclaiming of our collective history" while "...defining and proclaiming what it means to be Métis in the twentieth-first century."




From http://christibelcourt.com/featured-page-on-landing-page-home/

I have struggled with this use of references myself and where the line is between plagiarism and deeper reflections of cultural symbols.  As it is still so new to me, I am building up my cultural symbols as I learn about new artists.  I am building up a whole, but the whole is still very discernible as to the parts.  I don't want to take anything away from the work of others, but their inspiration pulls me to new places.  Her articulation of these interconnected threads provides a partial answer to these concerns.

Belcourt speaks about the use of a beadwork style in her paintings and the multiple roles this stylistic choice plays in her art as "a proliferation of all things Métis...joined with others in the nation to work to raise awareness and to strengthen our collective voice."  She uses it to infer a sense of history and to "celebrate the beauty within our culture" as well as to show that it is a living history.  She notes that she also sees it as a dialogue with the ancestors, telling them "you don't have to worry any more.  Our struggle is not as dire.  We have survived and we are celebrating ourselves even if Canada is not."

I find these words resonate with me as I do my bead work.  A part of me hates it.  It is so fiddly and slow - it is not me.  But I keep doing it.  I finish a project and start another.  I find meditating with a line of women who came before me.  I am inhabiting my culture.  I am slowed.  The whole world is in the piece.  I can make a thousand different beads into something beautiful and whole.

Belcourt asks herself if she contributes as an artist or is art inherently selfish as it is what she is called to do.  Do we need to accomplish something more or can the act of creation be enough in itself?  She responds that the act is enough, but that there might be a need for more from a deeper part of herself that is connected to a culture and a peoples and that while her art is part of her path to answer the question of who she is as a person, she can also be contributing to the larger dialogue of who we are as a people and as a culture that survives and is dynamic.  For myself, I can say her art has been a big part of building up that whole and thinking about what it means to be a modern Métis.

The last paragraph of the essay is a quote from her friend Jean Teillet "The only thing worth doing is to fully search out truth and knowledge.  In whatever field you are in, go as far as you can to feel out what it truth.  And I think you know it when you hit it, it rings inside you."  What rings inside me as I create is the tension of my path to remain in balance, in the middle of the circle.  Fast can be good, but not always. I matter, but I am part of something more.  Life is hard, but there is beauty.  I can teach, but I must learn.

I appreciated this essay on a lot of levels and I am excited that I am part of the dialogue in a small way as I create my things.  While I wish I could sit down with the author and talk to her, I feel so blessed that people are opening their minds and hearts and sharing their knowledge in these ways.  We may not be able to live in physical community as urban Métis, but I feel as thought we can still be in community.  Many thanks to those who share. 

200th Post - Still here

This is my 200th post.  Thanks to everyone for reading. 


I would like to share this Cris Derksen video "Powwow".


I feel so proud to be Métis and to have experienced all the amazing things indigenous people are doing and sharing with the world.  We are still here.

I'm a real girl now

I received my Métis Citizenship card in the mail last week.  I have been thinking on this for some time waiting to feel something big.  So much conversation and work went into that moment, but the moment itself wasn't the defining thing I thought it would be.  In the work was the claiming of the identity, in the living and decolonializing I became something else.  I am proud to have the paper, but I am prouder to have the life.  What were your experiences of claiming like?

Moon time - when life is not black and white

Our red teepee

Sophie phoned me at work last week, needing to talk as she wanted to know if her first moon time had come. I have to admit that I thought this would be a more binary discussion than it was.  I was very glad that I had done lots of planning already and was able to set out our special activities for the days.  In the way of our family, it did not go totally as planned.  The first ceremonial dress I made was too small as she had grown enormously in the last six months.  I put together a tent for us to sit in, and we did a smudge, prayers and some learning time, but then everyone wanted a break.  So, seclusion was not quite as I envisioned.  We came back to the tent later and I hope to do more over the next month and spread out the teachings.  It was not what I planned, but it was a special time together as women.  Even if the tent is made of sheets and not as glorious as in my mind.

I was really glad to have the book I made because even thought I felt very rushed in pulling things together, I had something written down to work from with the wisdom of a lot of Elders brought together.  And while this process did not unfold the way I wanted it too, taking more time will allow us time to think on the lessons a little bit more.  Maybe it is better this way.  The path to womanhood is not a clear moment when you move from child to woman.  Maybe it is just starting the traditions of coming together around moon time to learn and listen. What do you think?

Wisdom of the Elders

I have been pretty busy at work with not a lot of extra energy at the end of the day to write.  I am enjoying the new challenges but it is more tiring.  It is also forcing me to face some old demons. 

I am working my way through Richard Wagamese's book "One Story. One Song"  I am a big fan of his writing.  I feel like these are an opportunity to access the wisdom of an elder in easy to read bites.  I am trying to read one essay a day and think on it as I work through the day.  I feel so blessed that our elders are willing to put their stories down for us to access even at a distance.

Yesterday's essay is entitled "What We Share" and he speaks about wisdom shared by Ojibwa Elder "Jack Kakakaway.  The author writes that he was talking with the Elder about his feelings of displacement in the Canadian Mosaic as he came to better understand his indigenous roots.  The Elder told him "There are no pure cultures anymore."  The Elder said that as first nations people we let go of things like snowshoes and toboggans to get snowmobiles and trucks.  We let go of our languages to speak English.  "It was the same for everyone everywhere, he said.  The world asks us to sacrifice something in order to be included."

That paragraph spoke a lot to me.  I have written about this question several times here.  How do you find the balance of being you and being part of society?  What are you willing to give up to belong?  For some people it is not even a question if there are things we can't give up (disability, poverty, race etcetera).  In some things I could not be "normal" if I tried so where do I find the balance to that?  In extra education?  In enough money to get away with eccentricities?  Who do we leave out of society because they can't make that balance?  What about those people spending all their energy just getting by, who don't have time for the niceties?  Where do we leave them?  What does that do to the collective?

The essay goes on, " What we need to look for in this world, Jack Kakakaway told me, are the things we share.  There are as many things that make us the same as there are those that make us different.  The difficulty is seeing them.  The things that join us are as basic as breathing, as small as a tear.  We all began as people huddled in a band around a fire in the nights.  We all longed for the comfort of a voice in the darkness.  We've all sacrificed part of our identity to become a part of the whole.  What we've lost is what binds us, what makes us the same."

I need to stop thinking about the I in this question and look to the us.  Where do we find those shared moments and focus on those.  I need to stop doing my own personal math and start looking at the whole and where there are changes I can support to make that whole more inclusive.

Inspiration

I was very inspired after seeing a piece of art on this blog.  I decided to do a piece with just thread.  I started with the buffalo head and went from there.  I am so happy to have people share their work and to get to see what other people are thinking about.