Category: Rez Notes

Shopping: the new reality

I’ve been traveling quite often to the south lately. Each and every trip, I go to some mall, looking for that good deal. In every mall or Walmart, I’ve bumped into hundreds of Cree, roaming and searching for the things we can’t get back home for the Christmas Season. I’ve tried ... read more ››

As the earth moves…

The world as we know it changes constantly. There’s nothing static about it, nothing remains the same. Paradoxically, even though we complain all these changes happen too slowly, we resist all change. Take, for instance, the rate of change with relation to time. We were relatively unchanged for thousands of years ... read more ››

Forgotten heroes

War is something we all wish would not happen, but sadly, war is part of life. Today, literally hundreds of conflicts around the world are eclipsed by the big war against terrorism, in which a constant media barrage downplays the fallen soldiers who return home in caskets. This hasn’treally affected ... read more ››

Sugaring off

I switched on the news the other night and beheld a glimpse of our possible future, one right out of the film Escape from New York. Yes, I’m talking about a futuristic Orwellian state, in which someone else can tell you what to eat, for health’s sake. The future, apparently, ... read more ››

XX vs. XXX

To my knowledge, I was born from a woman. She was born from a woman, who was born from a woman, who was born from a woman, who was…. That gets me wondering how those facts affect the argument between the supporters of creationism and evolution: was man created first, or ... read more ››

Women’s work

When I was a kid, women were some kind of superheroes to me. It was nothing to see a little old lady slash her way through the bushes to set a snare, or topple an ice-age old tree into cords of wood, ready to be snowshoed out and ferried across ... read more ››

The ups and downs of Cree TV

The latest buzz around is the CREETV concept. Yep, Crees on the boob tube. It used to be just about everyone’s dream to be on TV, with Canadian Idol and all that, but just imagine what could be done with CREETV. Bingos, if aired on TV, would be a big boost ... read more ››

All agog at the AGA

While listening to earnest debates on whether or not we are Eeyou or Eenou at the Annual General Assemblies over the past three decades, I have often wondered whether or not we would ever settle on anything. Sure, we compromise often, but when do we really get to see something ... read more ››

Talk is no longer cheap

As an avid Star Trek fan since childhood (I even made a model starship, only to find out years later that it was a Klingon ship), I often wondered whether or not those neat items like the Tri-corder would ever come to be in the real world. Well, what do ... read more ››

Bustin’ myths

The bodjagee, or boogeyman, is a myth designed to keep children quiet at night, even though some kids have probably suffered nightmares as a result and are certain that the scary dark figure in the black night lurks in their closet or under the bed, waiting… In the north, the bodjagee ... read more ››

Sand between my toes

The beach is a place of dreams and liquid laughter spills from the mouths of all those who bathe in the waters of time, making the swimming hole a favourite pastime for those in need of cooling down and old-fashioned fun. Beach time was always one of my favourite ways ... read more ››

Music to my ears

The beat goes on throughout the night, the spirits have been sated by loving subjects, songs that have been passed on for millennia, thoughts that have rung out for generations, tradition remains unbroken… Then one day, thousands of years after the first primal beats of the chest, Ed Sullivan brought out ... read more ››

Quench for Fire

After having often watched, mainly for the education mind you, Quest for Fire, in which fire was revered and carried about in some pre-historic gadget to guard an eternal flame long before our trusty Bic was around, now I’m finding fire to be somewhat more of a nuisance. Forest fires blazing ... read more ››

The evolution of Cree justice

Back in the day when comic books were the only things we had to stimulate the imagination, a hero always emerged to deliver justice. He would track ’em down, call the verdict and put the bad guy away for eternity on some desolate planet in the dark reaches of deep ... read more ››

Longest day, toughest sleep

The best part about National Aboriginal Day in the past was that it was fishing day. Since it was also the longest day of the year, naturally, it was the longest day of the year to go fishing. One year, we combined fishing with some twilight duck hunting and, on ... read more ››

On occasion, I receive a blue screen of death on my computer.

On occasion, I receive a blue screen of death on my computer. Sometimes, it infuriates me, but then I remember, I’m still alive, and it’s just a machine that was created to break down so that hundreds of thousands of repair people can remain gainfully employed. If this machine didn’t break ... read more ››

Horses, bows and arrows

Tourists. They came prepared for all the usual emergencies and had a solution for every eventuality. The one that made me wonder about these new strangers who trampled over beautiful blackberries, succulent cloudberries and nicely flavored blueberries and insisted on chewing on juniper berries instead for the distinct aftereffect, (I ... read more ››

Making much ado about…

I once picked up a worm and held it squiggling and squirming to my sibling’s face. Of course she screamed until she noticed that I was having fun with it and she insisted on playing with it. “No!” I obtusely declared to my little sis. “This is a boy’s territory. ... read more ››

Blowing in wind

Bob Dylan never really met any Crees, given his age and stature as a musician and entertainer, but his famous song is starting to ring true in Cree world. Another fluid dynamic is proposed to be harnessed by the Cree, not in a sail but in a rotating wing that ... read more ››

Job Nation

It’s funny when you write out a resume and you recall all the things that you did or didn’t do. In my long history of working, since 1972, jobs were scarce but available to those with an education, like me. Some jobs I had didn’t make it to my resume, ... read more ››

Great Scot!

One thing that many Cree and Inuit have in common is an ancestry that comes from across the ocean. Some have French, some have Scottish or English, but most who do have some European ancestry are not even aware of it. I like to keep in touch with the other half ... read more ››

Hair raisers

The roar of the winds escalated until the chairman yelled to us that he was afraid we were in hair-raising times, and the high-ceilinged boardroom at the CRA Office in Montreal offered no reprieve from the howling sounds of air escaping at high velocities from the nooks and crannies of ... read more ››

Heart knockers

The whims of love send whitewater rapids along the rivers that flow through the veins of my heart, pounding a primal drum beat that threatens to excite all my calm common sense into a violent sea of insanity. Yes, I’m talking Cupid’s quivers and heart-to-heart nonsense. Valentine’s is still days away ... read more ››

Playing Stormy Weather

The weather was stormy. The waves were cresting, foaming over the rocks and hurled upwards to curve downwind out on the James Bay islands. The sea never looked worse from this angle, so I was glad I wasn’t out there in a canoe. I had drifted off course by 40 ... read more ››

Tradtekno TM

In the old days, nothing was ever paid for, except with sweat. No effort, no gain, no life. It was that simple. If you didn’t make those snowshoes, you’d sure be a lot skinnier come springtime. If you didn’t cut wood, you’d have to change your name to baskins or ... read more ››

The weatherman’s blues

As we pretend to be in charge of our lives and go on living in the relative comfort of our minds, in a flash the weather can change that comfort zone by FEMAtic proportions. I’m not much of a meteorologist, but I can say that the weather is indeed different ... read more ››