I have just come in from doing some repair carpentry to my front porch. It needed it but I have been busy for months and just did not have the time. When I am not sitting at my desk in my office working on writing or video projects I escape to the world of wood, saws, hammers and cutting tools searching for creative solutions to making things fit in an old house.
A few months ago if anyone told me I would have to be staying at home, stopping all travel, dealing with most stores and services shutting down right across the entire world and being terrified of catching a virus and dying, I would have thought they were nuts. This is the extraordinary reality that everyone on the planet now faces. It is like we all went to sleep and had a bad dream that we can’t wake from.
Asking people to wear a mask in public during a pandemic sounds like a straight forward piece of logic. Unfortunately, this is an idea that has had much contradictory information and views. However, medical experts are now starting to support the idea.
We are in a world wide war with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We are now at a critical stage in Canada and here in Ontario. If we take this threat seriously and listen to the experts who are telling us to stay at home, cancel events, close schools, work from home if possible, practice safe hygiene and quarantine ourselves if we get sick, we just might come out of this somewhat intact in a few months. If not we might be facing many more months of dealing with this deadly virus.
Recently, my great uncle Peter Kataquapit passed at an old age home in Timmins. My family, myself and many people up the James Bay coast and in northern Ontario remember Peter as a rock that we could turn to when we needed someone in the outside world to lend a hand or in introducing us to the non Native reality. He was a friend to so many Native and non-Native people in northern Ontario.
I have had a few very bad flu bouts over the past few years and come to think of it almost once a year for the past 10 years. Some of these respiratory issues were probably colds but most of them were flus due to viruses.
Often when I am sick, doctors prescribe an antibiotic because they believe I have also developed some bacterial infection. Some of my friends experience strep throat and pneumonia often these days and I have been stricken with these complications a couple of times.
I am very lucky to be able to speak Ininimoon, my traditional Cree language. The word starts with the word Ininew, which is the word for ‘people’ and the last part ‘moon’ refers to the action of speaking words or phrases. To me, Ininimoon literally translates as ‘the people’s language’. This is a very big deal for me as I have found over the years in wandering around Canada that not many Indigenous people like me in this country can speak their mother tongue.
A Great Year To Get Sober
Maybe 2020 would be a good year to get sober. If you think you have a drug or alcohol problem or an addiction that is affecting your life and also the lives of loved ones, family and friends maybe getting sober would be a good idea. I fully realize that many people can have alcohol in their lives and that medical marijuana is proving to have some benefits in health care so I am directing these words to those who are negatively affected by alcohol and drugs.
Welcome to 2020
Mino-oosh-kee-poo-poo-n – This is the Cree way of saying ‘Happy New Year’.
Well, our short summer up here in Northern Ontario is beginning to fade. Summer is so precious to all of us in the north and this year we started very late with warm weather. Even the blueberries are holding back but hopefully they will be ready for picking in a week or two.
When I was a boy growing up in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast, I was deathly afraid of looking at the full moon.
I grew up...
I’m happy to see the ongoing support and assistance in our northern remote communities to help our people cope with so many lifelong and generational issues...