I’m buried in work here this week, but I wanted to take a moment to make a comment about American Thanksgiving. Many people ask me around here if we celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada, in part because of the dominance of the myth that “Thanksgiving” originates with the Pilgrims and that such an occasion wouldn’t have [...]
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In the news today: Inuit filmmaker Zach Kunuk and his co-producer Norman Cohn grabbed worldwide attention for their film “Atanarjuat” when it won a medal at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, but neither expected the accolades and attention to trickle down to others telling aboriginal stories.That’s why the two have started a new service allowing [...]
Border issues going in to Canada
Just to show that border frustrations go both ways, this story about hockey player Brandon Nolan (son of Ted Nolan) getting hassled and subject to racist insinuations at the Canadian border is worth reading. The fact that his status card was disregarded by the border guards is shameful.
Tags: borders Canada hockey
First Nations take to YouTube
Interesting to see First Nations activists taking to YouTube to bring attention to their very just cause in conjunction with the June 29 National Day of Action in Canada which will see people across Canada protesting the continued shameful treatment of First Nations people. This set of three videos on YouTube, which seem aimed more [...]
Adam Beach on “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”
I’m looking forward to seeing the upcoming “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” on HBO. (Not that I currently have HBO, mind you…) There’s an interesting interview with Adam Beach on the HBO site that will be of particular interest to English 182 students. Discovered this site and film thanks to a link today on [...]
Richard Van Camp on aboriginal comics
Here’s some info from Richard Van Camp on the current state of comics by aboriginal writers. Van Camp’s one of the writers I would love to have squeezed on to the syllabus this semester. His novel The Lesser Blessed is fantastic, as are his short stories. I’ll definitely be including him in one course or [...]
Residential schools and the Truth About Stories
(I posted this earlier tonight on the blog for my English 182 course, which wraps up tomorrow. I thought it would be of interest to the regular readers of this blog as well.) Over the last week or so, the Globe and Mail has published an important series of stories about the history of the [...]
Event this week worth attending
Center for Research on Vermont Research-in-Progress Seminar: “The Moccasin Village Project: Reconstructing the History of French-Abenaki Communities on the Winooski Intervale,” Judy Dow, Abenaki basketmaker and educational consultant, and Nancy Gallagher, historian and author, Memorial Lounge, Waterman, 7:30 p.m. This should be a very interesting talk. Here’s an excerpt from a longer an article on [...]
When you can no longer root for the Oilers….
you could do worse than root for the Islanders, the new home of Ryan Smyth and, of course, Ted Nolan. Great to see him back in the NHL where he belongs.
Where Are the Children?
Where Are the Children? Healing the Legacy of the Residential Schools is an incredible online multimedia exhibit that accompanies a physical exhibit touring Canada right now. I’d like you all to spend some time here learning more about the legacy of the residential school system. There’s lots of important information here that connects to the [...]