Blog # 135…November, 2022

In a recent New Yorker piece by Jonathan Rothman, he wonders “Are you the same person you were as a child?”  and “What can we learn by asking if we’ve always been who we are?”   It's the old game of nature vs nurture.

I'm thinking about the past and my childhood these days...and also, lots about that baby woolly mammoth discovered on June 21 as miners dug for gold in the Yukon (sidetrack to Robert Service!).   

              A life interrupted 30,000 years ago!

Nun cho ga

She’s a month old female, perfectly formed, preserved and named Nun cho ga (Big Baby Animal) by the Tr’ondek Hwech’in who rejoiced when she was found, recognizing a spiritual link with ancestors. Resembling a baby elephant, she was noticed by a keen eyed place miner who stopped digging immediately when he moved a large piece of permafrost and there she was! What followed was an amazing collaboration of scientists, Indigenous people, miners and politicians (who hadn’t always agreed on matters in the past to put it mildly) each playing a role in getting the precious baby  respectfully into a safe place. One of the scientists acknowledged how the spiritual implications were equally as important as the scientific facts.                                    

And the discovery was made on Indigenous Day!

Kent Monkman is also looking back in his latest show Being Legendary, just opened at the Royal Ontario Museum. Not sure if it's intentional, but the entrance passes through a display of medieval armour and I felt myself taking off a layer of emotional armour as I went into the exhibit hall - where Miss Chief  Eagle Testickle waited to take me on a journey through time.  Monkman's familiar alter ego, the glamorous trickster Miss Chief  (get it) shifts the colonial gaze and casts Indigenous people in familiar historical scenes.     

Miss Chief  Eagle Testickle

Monkman imported objects from the ROM's collection to illustrate points in several stories...a giant dinosaur rests in a glass case and he points out that they were discovered on Indigenous land, then brought to be displayed in cold halls in museums. "Our people read the stories of the land in the giant bones of long ago" 

In a conversation about taking down monuments, Murray Sinclair said " Let's create monuments to our own heroes." Monkman has done just that and presented hope for the future with Shining Stars, paying tribute to Indigenous artists, activists, academics and knowledge keepers in a series of portraits.

There's a movement to encourage museums to return objects to their rightful owners. A technical firm in the UK has produced replicas of the marbles that Lord Elgin pilfered over two hundred years ago and offered them to the British Museum. They're shown in their original perfect condition and would give visitors Museum a better idea of what they looked like... more important, the originals could be returned to Athens where they have a huge significance for the Greeks and democracy.

Makes me hope that Nun cho ga will be cuddled up somewhere near Dawson city amongst her spiritual protectors, and a cleverly replicated version will introduce her to us,                                                                                                                                                  

One review of Monkman's show said that he "tried to do too much." He admits at the start "There's too much to say and so much I can't say." Maybe I tried to say too much in this blog too, sometimes it's a good thing to do.

 Blog # 134...October, 2022

About fifty years ago I was dating a doctor who ran a medical service for indigenous communities across northern Ontario. Our dates consisted of him coming here (Toronto) letters and phone calls, and more significantly, me visiting there.

With so much attention on indigenous matters, and how they matter, I often think back to those visits, how uncomfortable they made me then and how I now have a much clearer idea of why.

As I’m putting this together, the CBC is dedicating its programming to the Day of Truth and Reconciliation and I’ve just heard a piece on reclaiming and preserving languages that the residential schools attempted to extinguish.

Language contains and reflects our culture, it also presents us and has a lot to do with our perception of ourselves…if you’re learning to speak  a new language and having to operate in it, you know what I mean. It’s the frustration of saying what you can rather than what you mean, feeling stupid at not understanding, and at a loss to find and get what you need. Removing language from the generations exposed to residential schools was one of many ruptures in relationships, families and culture. 

Going back to my time in the north, visiting Indian (as they were called then) communities, I was struck by how disengaged many of the Settlers (we weren’t called that then) were from nature, seeming to prefer sitting inside playing bridge. Our direct confrontations now with nature’s disruption of our lives highlights how important it is to regain that connection…hard for those of us who live surrounded by concrete!

But, look at this - Indigenous Tourism Alberta promises that you’ll  “Discover once-in-a-lifetime nature experiences that you will carry with you always. Look nature straight in the eye. Hear legends and tales over tea around a campfire in mystical heritage sites." 

Seems that areas of the country west of centre are doing a bit better in recognizing and giving indigenous people their due - Wab Kinew, broadcaster and author leads the provincial NDP in Manitoba. Anaesthiologist Dr Alika Lafontaine, newly elected  president of the Canadian Medical Association, of Cree, Anishinaabe, Metis and Pacific Islander descent, was born in Saskatchewan and practises in Alberta.

And, internationally, museums and galleries around the world are beginning to return artifacts to their indigenous origins…most recently, the Buxton Museum in the UK returned a number of important pieces to the Haida Gwaii Museum in BC. “It seemed the right thing to do,” said the curator.

I've just been reminded that the Maritimes too, when they're not dealing with climate devastation, are making a number of efforts to right the wrongs of the past...and in the centre also, we're all in this together.

So, although it seems that we’ve not accomplished enough in telling the truth and reconciling, taking the long view back to 1972, I can see a lot of changes. I wish I'd had the idea for indigenous tourism 50 years ago...and btw, the doctor and I didn't get married but are still good friends.                                  A la prochaine...