The fiddlers are getting everyone’s feet moving and tapping to the tune of “Soldier’s Joy”, one of my all-time favourite reels. The stalwart fiddler of the old days has been replaced by a stoic-faced musician with only his foot keeping time, a loud rhythm guitar and a booming bass to keep everything tightly paced.
The jingle of coins as they were placed on the kitchen table clashed with the growing mound of money. The cards clicking and the rapid shuffling of the deck and the sounds of air whooshing out of pursed lips were all strong indicators of a good hand. The dealer, an expert from years of handling a deck of 52 cards, and the players, regular Friday night participants, either threw down their rotten hands or stayed on for the growing pot.
When I was a teenager attending high school in Timmins in the early 1990s, people from the James Bay coast were just starting to get accustomed to the modern way of life in the south. There were not many people who had drivers’ licenses and even fewer who owned vehicles. It was a special thing to see someone from the James Bay coast driving a vehicle and even more so if they owned the car or truck they were in.
I’m dedicating this column to my late brother Philip Kataquapit, who passed away on Christmas Day in 1990 at the age of 16.
Through rain, sleet or snow, the mail must be delivered. That’s certainly not true right now and it hasn’t been for a while. The timing of the 2024 Canada Post strike is disheartening and very Grinchy.
I was raised knowing many people in my circle of family and friends who dealt with troubles that they had no control over. Tragedy and trauma seemed be a normal part of life as I grew up in Attawapiskat.
If there is one thing that we can say about social media is that it connects us all. While social media can be seen as something lacking objectivity, it can kickstart looking for the truth. It can raise awareness of what’s happening in your backyard as well as halfway around the world.
Every year at this time my partner Mike and I recall the devastating losses our families have suffered from war. Remembrance Day is always a sad day when we honour the veterans of both world wars and other conflicts. Those memories have been compounded with more sad truths through the research we have been doing over the past few years. We are working on media projects concerning the two world wars and some of our discoveries have been shocking.
I didn’t watch all the hoopla about the US elections as I knew that the American public, no matter how much it shows to be a grand circus, can elect someone worthy enough to be their chief honcho. As the masses collided and a fairly transparent voting system showed the world that, hey, democracy does work when it needs to.
We at the Nation didn’t expect to become a controversial topic during the Cree Health Board election. In our last issue, we published interviews with two candidates, the current chair Bertie Wapachee and challenger George L. Diamond.
