Star gazing,”Canadian” constellations

First of all, I use the term “Canadian” conservatively and in quotations: These are the constellations of the Ojibway, Cree, Blackfoot, and other First Nations of what is now known as Canada.

The chart you see here is the first-known all-sky view of many of the characters from this land as seen as patterns in the sky thousands of years ago in pre-European times..

When Indigenous Peoples look to the night sky they do not see the Big or Little Dipper,North star,Vega ,etc.

They see; Sweat-lodge birds,Star Chief/King star,Coming Down stars,Bigfoot Giant,Wolf,Buffalo,Loon and Turtle…

Names are tied to place , they define and give substance to the peoples of a place, their cultures, their history,their stories .

On a side-note ,its also worth pointing out that…

Decolonization & reconciliation  is not only about land-claims & respecting treaties.

It also involves remembering and reapplying the original names, that give this  the northern half of Turtle Island meaning, indeed its own history. A history that is not only valid but differentiates this place, that some call Canada,  from all other places.

In fact the arrogance of some people namely settlers, who run around the country-side  re-naming  mountains,rivers,special places etc  as if the original inhabitants no longer exist or indeed ever had, can be truly disheartening to witness.

No matter what some people might think or believe, history did not start when Europeans/white-people discovered first became aware of  the existence of  Turtle Island.

O,arrogance thy name is a white/European settler.

h/t Ojibwire

Resistance is futile,you will be assimilated

Not…

I was deeply heartened to learn this weekend that in South Dakota women of the Yankton Sioux/Ihanktonw Oyate nation have revived the traditional Isnati coming-of-age ceremony for girls: four days after the onset of a girl’s first menses when adult women of the community nourish, bathe, teach, and rename girls and guide them in rituals of self-reliance like gathering their own medicines, making their own ceremonial foods, and erecting their own lodges. Young boys too play a role in Isnati, by keeping fires burning in the camps day and night.

After decades when traditional indigenous religious ceremonies were banned by the federal government or punished and disrupted by government boarding schools, the revitalization of traditional ceremonies and indigenous languages has been a key part of the agenda to restore indigenous well-being and sovereignty.

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There’s Reality and then there’s cliche,”eh”

Can somebody please  tell me where I can find all those supposedly typical Canadians ,that end their sentence’s with “eh” ?

Because frankly having been born and raised in Canada I rarely hear anyone saying “eh”.  And this despite the widely held  perception that the use of “eh” is so wide spread as to be synonymous with Canada/Canadians,eh.

Is it just me or are there others that can’t help but roll their  eye’s when ever someone flogs this tiresome cliche,eh  ?

Not only that  it’s  contagious ,eh.

Now don’t get me wrong in the grand scheme of things this is a non-issue,eh. That said it still bugs me,indeed  I can’t help but roll my eyes,eh.

Truth be told Americans use  “eh” much more frequently,at least that’s been  my experience,eh.  If you doubt me just watch American news programs etc ,particularly those segment in which ordinary young people are interviewed,eh.

In fact I believe “eh”  to be more a youth thing, rather than a Canadian thing,eh.

Injun Olympians;Some people just never get it…

I had to do a double take when the above picture, of Russian world champions Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin,first  came to my attention. In fact they will be bringing their ”Aboriginal dance” to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics . Should go over good with the local “aboriginals”…lol

But then again after VANOC’s public display of cultural “respect” its  fitting in a kinda, some-white-people-will-just-never-get -it, way.  Yes indeed VANOC just oozes respect .

Bizarrely enough ,Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shabalin are not the only Russians performing such an act. An act that is sure to remind folks,although evidently not everybody, of the infamous blackface acts of 19th century America.

Below we have Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov ,stereotype of the month award winners,doing their bizarre routine  “Last of the Mohicans”.

And so it goes…’the more things change, the more they stay the same’.

Yellow Quill First Nation;Who’s Justice will be served

A sentencing circle has made several recommendations for , Christopher Pauchay the Saskatchewan father whose two young daughters froze to death last year — but none of them involves sending him to jail.

One can only hope that the Judge will heed & respect the recommendations of the community,which are as follows ;

[1] allow Pauchay to be reunited with his wife Tracey Jimmy and their child.

[2] Pauchay take drug and alcohol treatment

[3] assist elders with cultural and spiritual activities.

Nothing can possible be gained by sentencing  Christopher Pauchay to jail. Indeed justice has no meaning if the needs and wishes of the community are not respected and adhered to.

Yellow Quill chief Larry Cashene said the community supports Pauchay and Jimmy.

“Our people continue to fail when they enter the justice system due to the systematic barriers that exist,” Cashene said in a written statement. “Rarely do they find healing and rehabilitation.”

He said the community has been working to improve programs on the reserve and wants to build a “healing centre” to aid that process. [ @ ]

If ever there was a time to embrace new thinking & “allow” First Nations cultural traditions & sensibilities to begin playing a bigger role that time is now. In fact it is long over due.

Probably one of the most serious gaps in the system is the different perceptions of wrongdoing and how to treat it. In the non-Indian community,committing a crime seems to mean that the individual is a “bad person” and therefore must be punished…The Indian communities view a wrongdoing as a misbehavior which requires teaching or an illness which requires healing.’ [ @ ]

UPDATE: read more about this in The Toronto Star

Quintessential Canadian

I can see the headline now,:Separatist join unity coalition”

If that,rather counter intuitive equation does not say more about what Canada is all about,than I do not know what does.

We squabble,we shout,what family doesn’t ? But in the end we do the right thing,we find a balance,we recognize the diversity that is Canada,we make it work.

Gawd I love this country,all three founding pillars of it,indigenous,francophone and anglo.The experiment continues…

“Curiosity did not kill this cat”

Stud Terkel’s self chosen epitaph…

Studs Terkel, who made his name listening to ordinary folks talk about their ordinary lives — and who turned that knack for conversation into a much-honored literary career — died Friday. He was 96.

“I think he was the most extraordinary social observer this country has produced,” said Dr. Robert Coles, a Harvard professor of psychiatry who considered Terkel a friend and inspiration.

Though Terkel did interview the rich and famous, “he recognized the need to pay attention to the poor, the vulnerable, the ordinary people,” Coles said. “I pray for the day when American universities will understand that Studs Terkel is worth many departments of sociology. He’s an institution in himself.”

RIP;Stud Terkel(1912-2008)

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In defense of religion,Amen

There is satire and there is ridicule.

Sarah Dreier,of Faith and Progressive Policy an initiative of the Center for American Progress,reviews Bill Maher’s  film ‘Religulous’. She demonstrates,quite convincingly,that the film is just faith bashing of the most pedestrian kind.

She writes  how Maher cherry picks,using religious fanatics to illustrate how believers are supposedly feeble minded.

In one scene of Bill Maher’s much-discussed new movie, Religulous, Maher talks with a zealot tourist at Florida’s Holy Land Experience Jesus theme park who assured Maher that she will triumphantly return to Earth after the Rapture—adorned in seraphic attire, no less—to help save the souls of non-believers. This is just one of many interviews with a cherry-picked religious fanatic that make up the movie. Maher, the crass and (at times) very funny comedian and HBO talk show host, travels around the world to talk to Christian, Muslim, and Jewish votaries about their faiths. Although Maher makes some good points about the bad effects that proselytizing can have on public policy,

The voices and views of a few fanatics does not a critique of religion make. For example…

A recent poll showed that 92 percent of Americans believe in God, and 70 percent of those who believe in God reject dogmatic approaches to belief. But you wouldn’t know that from watching Religulous. The whacky characters Maher interviews, like the founder of the Kentucky Creation Museum and the former gay man who is now a Christian gay conversion “therapist,” display ignorance of their own faith, extreme and contentious literal interpretations of sacred texts, and an inability to consider theological complexity.

Amen…

Maher’s interviewees disregard basic theological tenets—caring for the poor, refraining from judgement, or working to strengthen the common good. Maher should have talked to Christians volunteering in hurricane disaster sites, students committing nights and weekends to inter-faith dialogue, or congregations supporting the poor during the economic crisis. Faith-based communities and activists have been at the forefront of progressivism, from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dedication to civil rights to the National Association of Evangelical’s commitment to addressing climate change. They have led the nation to frame its domestic and international policy in terms of our moral commitments to equality, alleviating poverty, and sustainable development. Unfortunately, Maher misses the opportunity to make this important point, because he is too married to his own fanatical pursuit—the case against all religion.

Amen…

For whatever reason there seems to be a trend of late,Dawkins,Hitchens,and now Bill Maher of all people,aimed at ridiculing people of faith.

The question being why ?

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