July 1st 2022 - Half-Way

I've had a number of July 1st ideas.  For example,   those whose birthdays are  between Dec 25th and Jan 1st  should celebrate their birthdays on July 1st so that they get a real birthday celebration.  And that given July 1st is half-way through the year, there should be fund-raising festivals on the theme "Christmas in July".   These are based on the days of the year, and not the ceremonial importance of this day as a celebration of nationhood. Canada's "Day" has been contentious throughout our history.    Last year things halted as the many graves at the residential school sites made clear what the colonialists did, and how long colonialist behaviours with residential schools lasted.  Last year there was a call to scale back Canada Day and to cancel Canada Day.   So here we are a year later, with a bit of progress towards resetting our views of history. In April  2022 Ryerson University  was renamed Toronto Metropolitan University.   After reading Egerton Ryerson's biography, my view is that there could be no other course of action.  His role as "father of public education" was so lauded that his other actions were ignored.  They were very significant.  He was a primary architect of the residential school system.  He was persuasive in his writings - supporting converting Indigenous people to Christianity in order to assimilate them.  He wrote that it was "a fact that they could not be civilized".   And much more.  He was prolific in his writings.  We weren't prolific in our readings, being tone deaf to what doesn't match up with a colonialist view.    So I am back to my Christmas in July idea.  Hallmark is already on it.  It starts July 16th with three new movies.  It will feature 24/7 Christmas movies throughout the Fourth of July weekend.  Here are a few of the titles: Sense, Sensibility and Snowmen Dickens of a Holiday Christmas Comes Twice The Santa Stakeout So this isn't a flag picture day.  We've soured a bit on the Canadian Flag when it got conscripted to the Convoy protest.  That is supposed to be underway again today.   So instead, we look at the Christmas scene below - it is an amazing contrast to our colourful summer scenes.

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July 4th 2021 - Love Food with Bertha Skye

 

What is Canada's cuisine?  We have lots of well-known chefs and restaurants.  What about our Indigenous cuisine?  One of our most celebrated chefs is Bertha Skye. This is an excerpt of her biography at the Hamilton Public Library site: "Skye was born in northern Saskatchewan where she began to hone her passion for traditional cooking. At the age of 17 she began her culinary career as a cook for the Prince Albert Residential School. At the 1992 World Culinary Olympics, Skye competed on a team of Indigenous chefs that won 11 medals, the most of any team, including the Grand Gold Medal.  For over a decade, Skye has served as an Elder for McMaster University, Sheridan College and Mohawk College, which recently recognized her as a Distinguished Fellow. She has guided students through the sometimes turbulent and delicate experience of post-secondary education, with support, guidance, laughter, friendship and, of course, healthy meals.  She moved to Six Nations of the Grand River more than 50 years ago, after meeting her husband Hubert Skye, and today she is the mother of three daughters and two sons and the grandmother of six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She is also a volunteer board member with the Six Nations Health Foundation. Throughout her lifetime, Skye has educated, supported and fostered understanding among Indigenous and non-Indigenous colleagues, earning wide respect in all her communities." At the Culinary Olympics one dish she made was the Three Sisters Soup.  Who are the three sisters? Corn, squash and beans. The term “Three Sisters” refers to the three main crops of some North American tribes: maize (corn), squash, and beans. The three plants were planted close together and like close sisters, aided one another in their respective growing processes. There's a recipe that references her in the description HERE.

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June 26 2021 - Writing History

 

History is always written wrong and needs to be rewritten ~George Santayana What do you imagine Canada's history timeline should be?  I found the timeline taught when I was in school at dummies.com. By Will Ferguson Part of  Canadian History For Dummies Cheat Sheet  Canadian history is a lot of fun. There are heroes and villains, tragedies and triumphs, great battles and sudden betrayals, loyal refugees and long struggles for social justice. The interpretation of Canadian history may vary – radically, at times – but there are still core events from our past that every Canadian should know. Brush up on your Canadian history with the following timeline of important events. 30,000–10,000 BC Prehistoric hunters cross over into Canada from Asia circa 1000 AD Leif Ericsson leads a Viking expedition to the New World 1451 The Iroquois Confederacy is formed (aka Haudenosaunee) and so on for lots of rows and row of colonist events. Yes - Ferguson's history is about the colonization and then confederation of Canada.  It is so selective that the question immediately arises:  What are  all the events that took place and who are all the people that lived here? So I found a Canadian history timeline about Indigenous peoples HERE.  The Canadian Encyclopedia presents a storyline that covers the indigenous peoples and events. Here are samples: NOVEMBER 30, -1 ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES  Evidence of Human Occupation in North America Irrefutable archeological evidence of human occupation in the northern half of North America, including in the Tanana River Valley (Alaska), Haida Gwaii (British Columbia), Vermilion Lakes (Alberta), and Debert (Nova Scotia).   JANUARY 01, 1450 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES  Haudenosaunee Confederacy Try Resolving Disputes in Lower Great Lakes Region The Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois League), organized by Dekanahwideh (the Peacemaker) and Hiawatha, tries to provide a peaceful and equitable means to resolve disputes among member nations in the lower Great Lakes region JANUARY 01, 1493 LAW  “Doctrine of Discovery” is Decreed The papal bull Inter Caetera — the “Doctrine of Discovery” — is decreed a year after Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to America. Made without consulting Indigenous populations nor with any recognition of their rights, it is the means by which Europeans claim legal title to the “new world.” What draws me in is the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee Confederacy referenced in both history timelines.  I looked it up in Wikipedia - it has an extensive entry on the Iroquois Confederacy.  But I can see that there are two different storylines about Canada's events of the past.  And who writes these? Is the Wikipedia entry on the Iroquois another storyline from the colonist point of view? What might be the story from the Indigenous point of view?   I guess it is time to start somewhere  - at Raven Reads with Canadian History Books by Indigenous Authors.  It is HERE. It is time to find out what the Canadian storyline is.   Lilycrest Gardens blossom period has begun.  Here are two from the field yesterday.