I used to work for a First Nation organization. This organization was a coordinating and advocacy body for the 133 First Nation communities in Ontario. There were many parts of this job that were awesome—I got to travel to other First Nations, hear the experiences of Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island and see the passion they have for their communities. But there were some parts of the job that were less awesome—this usually had to do with one of two things: the wretched relationship between First Nations and external governments, and the general lack of awareness that Ontarians and Canadians have about who First Nations are and what our relationship is supposed to be like.
Read moreAt Last, the Publishing Company Dream Comes True
At the start of 2014, I made a list of all the things that I wanted to write this year. I never thought that I would come close to achieving them, but here I sit on December 7 with over 175,000 words of unedited text next to me in the form of novels, novellas, short stories and draft blogs. Projects that will be transformed next year into living breathing stories with everything in mostly the right places and ready to be shared with the wonderful readers they are fortunate enough to find their way to.
Read moreTales from Turtle Island
In the very first blog post I ever wrote, I talked about how I live on Turtle Island (what others refer to as North America, the United States or Canada). I didn’t always think that way. My education was very colonized. I grew up learning history that more or less precluded my own people and I looked at things very differently as a result. It wasn’t until I went to university and took Indigenous Studies classes that I learned more about the true history of the Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous Peoples. It was many more years until I learned that my ancestors had a different name for this land, a name that also represented how we viewed ourselves in relation to the universe around us: through a series of interconnected and interdependent relationships.
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