Friday 30 November 2018

PPF: Mr. Potato

My client was cutting up cooked potatoes and an onion for dinner. I thought of Mr. Potato head!
I brought her the paring knife, the frypan and she did, as she has done for her family for many 75+ years, prepared a meal, which her daughter would cook.
Paint Party Friday

BOOK REVIEW: Talking Back to the the Indian Act

The significance of land:
"It is in land that culture, economics,
and identity coalesce into a complex whole." 

Talking Back to the Indian Act: Critical Readings in Settler Colonial Histories

It's a bit of a frustrating read, but an important one. I have prided myself on tackling contentious issues, a difficult read or not, I want to learn more. In the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation, I have endeavoured to read up on the past. My only criticism is the small font chosen for the paperback.

 I understand that the target audience is a younger, university-aged crowd. I am thinking, however, that it would work for those Truth and Reconciliation Committees, which exists in many communities. Here in Lanark County it is called: Lanark County Neighbours for Truth & ReconciliationPeople engage in education, ceremony, understanding, and learning about the past, and relationships between Indigenous and White Settler communities.

It is important, following the Truth and Reconciliation Act, to bear witness to the misogyny, the gender bias, and the stereotypical attitudes of those who wrote the Indian Act, and created abusive Residential Schools. First Nations have spent much time, energy, and willpower, fighting back peacefully, and in the courts.

The Indian Act (1876) is a disturbing means by which the Britain Crown rounded up First Nations, treated them like children, and banished them to reserves, where they were treated, at best, as wards or children of the state, or slaves, to endure violence, indignities, and abuse. This text provides specific letters and documents which demonstrate this attitude. Eventually, we understand, the Crown went from recognizing First Nations as an equal nation, to trying to eradicate and eliminate Indigenous Peoples.

The book is an excellent tool for a professor, charged with facilitating student learning, critical thinking and reflection. Certainly, an aforementioned committee, or a book club could use this as a reference. It contains the text of salient acts and letters, maps, footnotes within each chapter, lists of questions to stimulate thinking, a chronological list of Indian Act timelines, and an index. I think I would have appreciated a list of acronyms, as well.

Some salient points

5 C's of Historical Thinking
Five concepts that are the foundation of historical thinking: change over time, context, causality, contingency, and complexity.

4 Rs of Indigenous Methodologies
Touchstones of Indigenous methodologies–relationship, responsibility, respect, and reciprocity.

My conclusion, and that of many scholars, is that the Indian Act of 1876 was meant to remove Indigenous status of First Nation citizens, in which community can be preserved, to steadfastly eradicating all culture, traditions and values. The British government, and its white, male representatives, moved from an attitude of respect and protecting Indigenous Peoples from white settlers, to attempting to integrate them into white society, to using every means possible to reduce First Nations culture and society to rubble.

Speech made by Chief Deskaheh, March 10th, 1925

As Ottawa purportedly attempted an Indian Advancement strategy, and Washington managed to assimilate his people, the Chief made a powerful speech, in which he says rather than these, it is tyranny. Indeed, he stated,
"We are tired of calling on the governments of pale-faced peoples in America and Europe. We have tried that and found it was no use. They deal only in fine words...We want justice from now on. After all that has happened to us, that is not much for us to ask. You got half of your territory here by warfare upon red-men, usually unprovoked, and you got about a quarter of it by bribing their chiefs, and not over a quarter of it did you get openly and fairly." (p. 74-79)
 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. The 1876 Indian Act
2. Governance
3. Enfranchisement
4. Gender Equity
5. Land

APTN News
He worked with Amnesty International to examine the OPP actions. ... Hay is a former RCMP officer and former chief of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Police. ... They were taken on April 25, 2008 showing OPP officers with assault rifles ... other documents, that the OPP viewed the Mohawks as violent criminals...




Hereditary Chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nation

Thursday 29 November 2018

What's with this weather?

Monday, Nov. 27 – 20 mm rain. Our snow began to melt.



The deer are finishing up our pumpkins.




Tuesday, snow. They were not amused. "We changed our minds!"


Tuesday night was beautiful!


It kept on falling! I went on the deck, in the dark.


Wednesday morning it was a beautiful place, with snow coating all the branches.


Hubby and I went out to clean up.
snow from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.


UPDATE:
There might be progress with Daisy bullying Hooper. I continue to shove a pill down her throat every morning. It's not pretty. You wouldn't think it tasted like chicken. So they say. Who tested it?! She's been spitting it out. I shove it back in.

Annabelle has been coming to Hooper's rescue. Daisy keeps trying to let Hooper know she is boss. We watched TV last night with all three cats in the room. Fingers are crossed.



Wednesday 28 November 2018

Maggie deer, buck, coyote

Maggie

We've had this deer come around for several years now. Hubby is verklempt! She stood there, while he went and put deer food in the manger (you can see this on the photo series from the trailcam). She remembers him, and brought her yearling. In 2016 she had twins, a male and female. This year, a singleton.

JB adores this deer. She couldn't fight off the others, and was at-risk from the coyotes with her dislocated leg. She would wait around until the other deer had a bit of a feed. He would spot her, and go out to make sure she had some feed of her own.  You can see the bad leg in the sixth photo, below.

This is her archive:
Hunting season rolls around again... – Nov. 2016
Maggie, the dear deer – Dec. 2016
Maggie: Broken-legged deer video – April, 2017

May 7, 2016 – JB talks to her all the time. She's not afraid of him.
 

Deer scrape

Meanwhile, down at the other trailcam, with the buck scrape... Here is the freshly scraped spot. I'm thinking it's the big buck. This is where they mark their territory.


It's funny that the coyote frequently runs across this spot.


This morning, they were down at the scrape, and ran away when they heard me coming. I think, with the timing, it must be Maggie and her yearling.


Then there are the bucks playing at the scrape! I could see these two sparring from up on the deck. Happily, they pranced right in front of the trialcam! They were right beside it.

Tuesday 27 November 2018

Gramma Camp 3.3 Sunday

1. Gramma Camp 3.0! (Thursday, the pick-up) | 2. Gramma Camp 3.1 Friday | 3. Gramma Camp 3.2 Saturday

Sunday, Nov. 25th

OK, I carry on with our tale!!! I'd taped some shows. We eased into the morning. I negotiated with Josephine to do her homework at 11 a.m. Next, breakfast, then we could finish the movie we began at bedtime. Gramma suggested we tidy and pack, then we could be ready. This was acceptable.   That done, movie time!


A rainy day, I'm happy we played outdoors Friday and Saturday. We had to get homework out of the way. Firstly, I looked up tuning a ukulele! The strings are G C E A. I have a tuner, which helped. C was tuned to C#, and it wasn't right. We fixed it.

A group of students are being taught the ukulele at Jos' school, taught by students. It's for the December concert. I explained that we strum in a regular rhythm pattern, not the rhythm of the melody. It worked better.


Isabelle wanted to take a selfie in the mirror! I encourage their experimentation!

Swedish Irish Magic Viking Meatballs



There is a good story behind the Swedish Irish Magic Viking Meatballs. Grampa went into the bookstore in town. He didn't know what to choose for 11-year-old Josee. He consulted the three 11-year-old girls who happened to be there with a mom, and came home with this. Success! Josephine had accidentally left her iPad on and went from 50% power to zero, so she couldn't read her book.


Out we went for a play. We were captured on the trailcamera.


Notice the difference between the frogpond ice Saturday and Sunday.
  • Snow and ice Saturday. 

  • Sunday, lots of dirty water and the grass turned green, peeking through.




It was time to go. Grampa came down to the frogpond to say he'd spoken to Caitlin. We were packed, Isabelle prepared a snack: grapes and dried cranberries. The parental unit phoned when they made it to the station, and we all hopped in the car.


On our way, we were stopped in a R.I.D.E. program. They asked if Grampa had been drinking (no, not in 17 years, he thought, but didn't say aloud). Then, she checked that all of us, including the girls, had their seatbelts on. We sure did! With a smile, and a verbal pat-on-the-back, we were good to go.


On our way. Isabelle's preference was The Beatles CD, disk 2. Grampa searched high and low for it.


We made it to the mall parking lot, where Momma and Papa were sitting waiting. They'd gotten off the train in Barrhaven, where they had gotten on, and drove here to meet us. There were Close Eyes for all. Josephine made us recite the Swedish Irish Magic Viking Meatballs incantation. (It used to be 'Irish Swedish Meatballs' – it has evolved.


Souvenirs! My Dad's team. I remember going to the Maple Leaf Gardens.


Farewell!


I waved to you, Anvilcloud.

We had to visit our naturopath's office,  We had to pick up meds for hubby from the athletic facility. They are doing more renovations.




The big kids had a grand time in Toronto! I grew up there, in the inner city.



We went home, and all was quiet. We miss them!