If this is your land......

Aanii! Boozhoo!

I was going through my friends list and remembered when I saw this, what a great idea I thought it was. Now, it's a little sad that nobody has posted a story, but that's okay. I'm sure it will pick up. While I was in the big "Chapters" bookstore in Winnipeg looking for some books that are seemingly more and more difficult to find, perhaps because they deal with activisim and people that mainstream North America wish would go away. Dennis Banks book "Ojibway Warrior" was my prime target and I was informed by the happy little way-too-cheery-for-the-minimum-wage-gig-she-had clerk that that title was not being carried by that chain of stores. I didn't get into any sort of discussion with her since I realized that she was in no way responsible for anything going on there, and I went on over to the tiny little "native studies" section and found a book that caught my eye. (This is where this story I'm telling becomes relative to this community)

The book was called "If this is your land, where are your stories?"

This title said so many things to me that I can't even begin to explain here. It's best explained by this quote from the introduction:

"It happened at a meeting between an Indian community in northwest British Columbia and some government officials. The officials claimed the land for the government. The natives were astonished by the claim. They couldn’t understand what these relative newcomers were talking about. Finally one of the elders put what was bothering them in the form of a question. “If this is your land,” he asked, “where are your stories?” He spoke in English, but then he moved into Gitksan, the Tsimshian language of his people -- and told a story.

All of a sudden everyone understood . . . even though the government foresters didn’t know a word of Gitksan, and neither did some of his Gitksan companions. But what they understood was more important: how stories give meaning and value to the places we call home; how they bring us close to the world we live in by taking us into a world of words; how they hold us together and at the same time keep us apart. They also understood the importance of the Gitksan language, especially to those who do not speak it."

So, let's share our stories! This is an inspired ideal and captured in those nine words is everything that needs to be said about this land we are now forced to share.

I just wanted to share that with you and hope it opens some dialogue and starts the story-telling.

Miigwetch!