Here we are: Another June. Another Indigenous History Month. Another National Indigenous People’s Day. And media outlets and organizations everywhere are pushing us into the forefront to be the “voice of the people.” Land Acknowledgements will increase in frequency as a reminder that this land is indeed stolen—but institutions, governments, and individuals are not going […]
Rebecca Thomas
Posted inNews + Opinion
Totem poles and online threats
In 2017, I wrote a poem called “What Good Canadians Do” for the Canada 150 events that were held on the Halifax Common. It was a part of my official duties as the city’s poet laureate. I was tasked with writing something celebratory about a country that was built on the removal and eradication of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Football and Canada’s duty to consult Indigenous nations
As problematic as football is, with the Washington R*****ns and the Kansas City Chiefs, the game holds a special place in my heart. For those of you who don’t know, my father is a residential school survivor and without getting into the nitty-gritty traumas of his experiences, it left him with a deficit when it […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
White noise
This summer, I was walking along a street in the south end of Halifax with a few pals. As we walked down the tree-lined streets next to houses I couldn’t fathom of ever owning, they started hollering and causing a ruckus. It was late, they had been drinking, I was DD and I immediately felt […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
DNA does not define us
I’m ambiguously brown. By that I mean I have brown skin and almond-shaped eyes. I get those from my dad who is Mi’kmaq. I also have curly hair, freckles and thin lips from my mom, whose grandparents came from Scotland. “Where are you from?” is a very common question in my day-to-day as people try […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Canada needs more space for Indigenous people in academia
Last week, Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax came under fire for assigning a white professor a course about the residential school system that housed Indigenous children for forced assimilation. The university picked a knowledgeable and well-meaning ally. And I am not here to discredit her. But I have long been a proponent of Indigenous […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Smudge for sale
I learned to pick my medicines from my white, Acadian stepmother. I was around 14 years old when we walked out to the salty marsh grass with a handful of tobacco. As we walked to the spot near her home where sweetgrass still grows, she explained to me the concept of respecting Mother Earth; how […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Five steps for making that dreamcatcher you liked on Pinterest
You’re a good person who really cares about diversity, inclusion and the plight of historically oppressed people. You have at least three tattoos from other cultures on your body, you do yoga, you don’t wear headdresses to music festivals (we won’t talk about that bindi or those white-people dreads) and you really appreciate and respect […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Getting blamed for our own murders
I was 18 years old the first time I drank—three years older than Tina Fontaine was when she was killed. It was at a party in university held in my residence dorm. It was one of those parties where the house leaders mix together a big vat of mystery booze in a plastic garbage can […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
A Creation Story
Today I’m going to tell you a creation story. Many of you have heard them before, or at the very least have heard of them. We tell stories to pass on our knowledge, teach lessons and morals. This story is going to be a bit different than any story you might have heard before. It’s […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Our people refuse to be broken
When I was a kid, I used to play “Indian.” I would put a feather in my hair, wear whatever fringed leather jacket my mother had kicking around from the ’80s and I would run around war-whooping outside. When I was a teenager, I dressed up as Pocahontas for Halloween. When I was in my […]