My family and my home community of Attawapiskat takes great joy in celebrating Halloween. The traditions of scary stories, spirits, otherworldly beings and monsters work well with the legends that our parents and Elders taught us. The whole idea of Halloween celebrations being just a holiday for children and to have fun was also something that my parents and many of our Elders thoroughly enjoyed.
Halloween on the James Bay coast has only been around for a few generations, however. When I was a boy in the 1980s, most were still unfamiliar with what it meant or why it was even around. No one understood if it was religious, anti-religious, good or bad. All anyone realized was that children got to dress up, have a bit of fun and go to door to door to collect candy at people’s homes at night.
Back then, there didn’t seem to be an age restriction, either. It wasn’t just small children that went door to door. Everyone seemed to join in, including teenagers of all ages and many adults. Most of the older people who went out didn’t do it for the candy, they just wanted to dress up in disguises and costumes to surprise a grandparent, their relatives or an Elder in town.
My parents always enjoyed serving candy because they wanted to guess who was behind the mask of the person at their door. Often, an oversized giant would appear, refusing any candy and simply stand looming over people in a frightful way. Then, without going too far, one of our cousins would jump out of the costume and mom and dad would have a good laugh.
Halloween was important for us for many reasons and most of it had to do with being able to just forget for a brief time all the chaos, challenges and difficulties we lived as a result of colonization, residential school, racism and oppression in general. We got to disguise ourselves and become someone or something else for a day.
In the 1980s, the community often hosted an unorganized Halloween dance but after a few years it evolved into a Halloween party and costume competition. In the 1990s, it became a major event for the community as it allowed everyone to join in for a bit of fun and games while dressing up to surprise and scare friends and relatives.
I was never that great at designing or creating a costume. I remember a few attempts that failed when I arrived at the dance, as everyone knew immediately who I was.
There were others in the community who were masters of disguise. My cousins from Uncle Leo Kataquapit’s family were famous for making elaborate costumes that seemed to grow in size every year. Others constructed huge monsters or strange creatures that didn’t seem to follow any theme. Half the time these huge monsters were known for intimidating everyone.
This Halloween is a genuinely scary one for our world. The pretend monsters, ghosts, witches and demons pale to the critical events happening in our world right now. Thousands of people are being killed and wounded with cities being destroyed in two wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East. Both these conflicts have the potential of escalating towards a wider conflict or even a nuclear exchange which would be devastating to everyone on the planet.
Another scary reality is the ongoing opioid epidemic. The fentanyl crisis is hitting our Indigenous communities in a big way. We are losing many people due to this tragic drug problem. Likewise, none of our make-believe Halloween monsters are as scary as the reality of global warming that is resulting in heat waves, destructive storms or droughts that are making life difficult for people all over Mother Earth.
As children make their way door to door and attend Halloween events, I am happy that they can have a lot of fun and forget about the difficulties they might face. I hope the adults also join in and celebrate this day.
I plan on giving out as much candy as I can and hope that we don’t end up with a lot of leftover chocolate, chips and other munchies – that really does scare us. I will be dressing up and playing some spooky music and enjoying the excitement of colour and fantastic costumes running down my street. I will try not to think of the really scary things right now.