Category: Under the Northern Sky
I took a short walk this early spring afternoon. Even though I was surrounded by huge snow-banks, I had the feeling that spring was in the air. The sun was shining bright but a cool breeze reminded me that winter was not leaving without a fight. On the ground, the ...
read more ››
Adam Had’em is known as the shortest poem ever written in the English language. It was written in 1904 by American poet Strickland Gillilan. Oddly enough it was given the title “Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes”. This little bit of writing was once a small series of words but ...
read more ››
During the day, whenever I can, I take the time to open the blinds and let the sun shine in while I sit at the table to have my breakfast or lunch. The sunlight lifts my spirits after weathering sunless days and gloomy storms. It also keeps me warm without ...
read more ››
It is another cold winter evening in Attawapiskat and my friends and I are gathered outside passing the time. I am 10 years old and my buddies and I are considering our options on another quiet, unexciting evening in our community. Actually, there really is only one choice and that’s ...
read more ››
I shovelled the driveway on a recent afternoon just to get some exercise. It was one of those bright, sunny January days with a temperature at a bone-chilling minus-30 degrees Celcius. The dry, cold air made it difficult to work. The harder I worked, the more air I had to ...
read more ››
Television is our window into the greater world. It is a view of our planet that we may never get to see in person during our lifetime, showing us places we may have read about or heard of from other people.
I remember sitting at home in Attawapiskat in the evenings ...
read more ››
I visited a local hardware store the other day in search of something that I consider to be an important part of my culture, a traditional wooden toboggan with five or six wooden slats laid in a row, strapped together with cross braces and two short chains to tie down ...
read more ››
Recently, I visited one of my favourite breakfast restaurants in Timmins. I ordered my usual serving of eggs, sausage, home fries and toast along with a bottomless cup of coffee. I am still trying to watch my diet and this heavy morning meal is an indulgence that I take in ...
read more ››
Winter seems to have arrived early this year. The big freeze hasn’t hit us yet but there sure seems to be a lot more snow than last year. I recently spent some time finishing up some pre-winter chores that I was not able to complete before the snow fell.
Any type ...
read more ››
Television is an old friend. I was born in Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast at the same time as the first television signals were being beamed into our small isolated community during the 1970s. So TV has been part of my life as long I can remember. We had ...
read more ››
Fish has always played a part in the traditional diet of my people on the James Bay coast. When times were tough and the hunting and trapping was not bringing in enough food for the family, fish provided a way to survive those lean periods.
While I was growing up, having ...
read more ››
Several weeks ago I saw a gaggle of geese flying south. It seemed to me that the end of August was a little early for them. They made their presence obvious with loud honking while flying in that familiar V shape.
I learned early on from my Elders that the sight ...
read more ››
There is a lot of activity happening in Canada’s northern regions. We always knew that resource development would happen some day near our remote First Nation communities. After all, we are surrounded by millions of acres of untouched forests. Very few people know what lies under the rock and the ...
read more ››
I sat in the back yard the other night to enjoy the warmth from a southern breeze blowing into town. I had noticed, a few days earlier, that a flock of geese had been flying high in the sky on their way south. Even though it was warm, I had ...
read more ››
There is a jumble of images, sounds and moments I remember from my childhood. Yet I am sometimes surprised at how a distant moment in time can appear in sharp focus in my mind. From time to time a memory will suddenly awaken in me when I hear a song ...
read more ››
In the early morning hours the other day, I awoke to the sound of light rain outside my window. It felt good to stare into the dark and listen to the familiar rattle of rain falling on a tin roof. I was warm and comfortable and thought about all the ...
read more ››
When you stand alone in a vast forest or by the great James Bay, hundreds of miles from the nearest village, there is at first a great sense of loneliness. However, when you are from a remote Native community that is full of chaos and confusion, the loneliness and silence ...
read more ››
Can you imagine an orphan surviving in the wilderness along the James Bay coast near the turn of the last century? Can you then imagine that same orphan ending up with a family of eight children of her own, 52 grandchildren and over 50 great grandchildren? Well, that is the ...
read more ››
There are only a handful of animals that we fear on the James Bay coast. Most of these creatures are strong and powerful. These include the black bear and polar bear mainly because they can easily outrun a person on just about any terrain. Wolves and wolverines are considered dangerous ...
read more ››
It is that time of year again when we all head out into the warm weather to soak up the sun and get some fresh air. It is also a fact that we have to put up with a multitude of biting insects. I am a bit of an expert ...
read more ››
My friend Emily McGrath was like a bright beautiful flower. For someone in her 80s, she had a lot of energy.
Emily woke early every morning out of a habit she kept after retiring from the Abitibi paper mill in Iroquois Falls. Her days were filled with keeping the kitchen clean, ...
read more ››
It is the end of another long and exciting year of high school in the south and myself and my teenage cousins and friends are flying north. It is 1989 and I have just completed my first year of secondary school in Timmins. Forty of us are crammed inside an ...
read more ››
The strongest and fastest individuals have always stood out in our Cree culture. After all, back when we were a nomadic people, the strongest survived through cold winters and lean summers. Life out on the land meant you had to have some strength in order to hunt, trap, fish, travel ...
read more ››
School was always a place of refuge in our remote community. I almost always looked forward to going to school. I remember one special day in particular that changed my perception of Attawapiskat. Our teacher started every morning with daily announcements. This day got off to an exciting start with ...
read more ››
Someone asked me the other day if it was time for me to get a hair cut. As a matter of fact, I have not had any shears, scissors or stylist touch my head in over a decade. I understood why my friend asked me about getting a haircut. After ...
read more ››
Young boys share many common fashion trends and wearing a cap probably tops them all. Most boys in the north consider wearing a hat as a normal part of the dress code. It is almost a necessity to wear a cap at one point in your life up here in ...
read more ››
