issue 10

Article 11: A Long Healing Process for My People: Indigenous Art and Narrative

Jasyn Lucas Yellow Cedar Mask I carved this mask out of yellow cedar during my time at the Studio Art Program at Capilano College in North Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2003. The yellow cedar tree was salvaged by my art instructor and brought to the college. The extreme weather washed it ashore to the beaches…

Article 10: From an Experiencer’s Perspective: The Story of a Saskatchewan Day School Survivor

Nateshia Constant This is the story of a child survivor of who attended Indian Day School (established in 1892 and closed on September 1, 1979), Shoal Lake and Red Earth (established in 1902 and closed on September 1, 1980), Saskatchewan. The interviewee wishes to be anonymous, but she felt it was important to share her…

Article 9: The Environmental Impact of Over-Harvesting in the Fur Trade

Kelly Laybolt It has been universally accepted that the Canadian fur trade caused extreme environmental degradation as fur bearing animals were over-harvested to near extinction; however, there are many different opinions about the causation of this ecological damage. Traditionally, Indigenous people have been associated with the environmental wisdom worldview, and they are thought of as…

Article 8: A Search for Healing and Reconciliation

Taylor Flett The following poems were inspired by my search for healing and reconciliation. They are expressions of the frustrating feelings of a young Indigenous woman who has dealt with the after-effects of colonialism, Christianity, and intergenerational trauma. The product of my search did not come easy for any Indigenous peoples in North America, especially…

Article 7: Healing Involves more than Drum Making: An Interview with Robert Lathlin

Nateshia Constant Notes from the interviewer:             Some of the content shared by Robert Lathlin may trigger emotionally negative feelings to the reader.  Robert Lathlin (Bob) is an intergenerational victim of the residential school system and a survivor of Indian Day School, Manitoba.  Bob has experienced trauma, and he would like to share his experience…

Article 6: Residential School Days

Alicia Stensgard (Disclaimer of the playwright: This play portrays traumatic experiences of residential school survivors. All the names, characters, places, events and incidents in this play are either the product of my research on residential schools in Canada or my imagination based on the stories I have heard about the residential schools.  or used in…

Article 5: The Power of Indigenous Women

Madison Gurniak Indigenous groups were mainly traditionally matrilineal as women in the societies existed as sacred in numerous Indigenous communities. Women were honoured and respected from time immemoriable, and their divine power has been well understood and held up high since then. Several Indigenous stories and myths in the required readings of the course, Indigenous…

Article 4: We are not numbers

Nateshia Constant I feel as if we are still proclaimed as numbers Just like before, our names still translate into a number which resides in our treaty number The government is still counting First Nations as numbers Filing our life into its growing statistical list of nothing but growing numbers First Nations children in Residential…

Article 3: An Interview with Elder Kelsey Bighetty on Indigenous Philosophy and Culture

Jefferson Cook This interview was conducted on March 31, 2021 to fulfill the assignment of the course “Philosophy and Culture” (ANS 3400) by Dr. Jennie Wastesicoot. K.B: You’ve got some questions for me (laughter)? J.C: Yes; ok; so, it’s recording right now; they’ll hears us. Interviewee Kelsey Bighetty, interviewer Jefferson Cook. The three questions I…

Article 2: Poetry and Reconciliation

Madison Gurniak 1 Louise Erdrich’s “Indian Boarding School: The Runaways” and Marilyn Dumont’s “Helen Betty Osborne” and Calls to Action             Indigenous communities in Canada have endured decades of oppression marked by racial discrimination, relative deprivation, socioeconomic marginalization, and victimization, among other forms of social injustices. The oppression subjected to these Indigenous communities has adversely…