hello friends, fans, foe and lovers,
i hope you are well, and life is treating you just as well. things are going a better over in my camp, i finished some obligations i had made last year, and was looking forward to doing. now i'm settling in for a nice bit writing and so on. it is serious business. i remember one day i came home from a reading, and one of my family members went, "So, how did your little thing go?" whilst waving their fingers in the air as they said "little thing" like it was superfluous and meant nothing. guh.
that pisses me off so much, and i replied, "That "little thing" and repeated the action in their face, paid my rent this month and nearly a 100 people showed up." Thankfully, they shut up, and that was it, but you'd think after 20 years of doing this, and the past several years doing it professionally, as in, no safety net, no E.I. or swellfare, just making my way as i go along, you'd think they'd get it? i make my own way, people support and believe in what i'm doing, and it's on my own terms. every now and then someone in my family will say, "Why don't you collect E.I.?" or "Go on welfare?" Can you believe it? I probably make more than they do, but that's our secret, okay lovers?
so, anyway, i did a couple workshops this week, and i look back on the photos, and what i've learned afterwards, is how one of the schools i went to this week, was 98% First Nations, even though it was a public school. then i went to another community, that was 99% non-Native and learned that non-Native kids from one community get driven by bus every day an hour and a 10 minutes just so they can go to a school that's mainly non-Native. harsh. that's segregation. racism. colonialism. fcuking stupid.
it just goes to show, nothing has fcuking changed in our primitive governmental, institutionalized racism based system. this news actually made me sad, because the kids at the 98% First Nations school were awesome, they were great kids, and inspired me because these little gaffers were already doing digital art and making films and they were as young as grade 4 ! how inspiring! then i found a video on a camera from one of the schools that showed a couple non-Native kids jumping around with handdrums going "Hyah Hyah Hyah!" and laughing about us. that really fcuking hurt. it made me livid. it burned my eyes.
despite co-existing for more than a century in BC, we're still made fun of by the dominant society. marginalized, excluded, and nearly forgotten except for as a pain in the ass. fcuk you colonial canada. fcuk you.
anyways, i got a photo forwarded to me from the workshops, and i'll always remember those great kids and the awesome Teachers and Administrators that were working hard to make a difference. i thought i'd post it, and you could see how technology brought together 3 classes in three different towns for a presentation i did on digital art, native art, and being a native artist in todays world.
then, after i saw that video, and thought about that workshop, i realized how important it must have been for those First Nations kids to see someone like myself doing what i'm doing, talking in our language, writing in our language, making films in our language, art in our language and so on. i hope it inspired them as much as i was amazed and inspired by them and their bravery.
anyways, back to writing, i've got a new book to work on, and creative energy to burn, and i'm gonna make it burn bright.
until next time lovers,
cb
