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Week 11  

Citation - Boyer, Bob. The Batoche Centennial. 1985. Saskatchewan Indian Federated College. 

Materials - Oil, acrylic, enamel, quilted fabric

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Family tree. #week10post

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Week 10 - Novel II

Like Vermette, I created a family tree early this year. Since I was born I haven’t had a relationship with my father or that side of my family at all. For a while now I’ve been really interested in figuring out my heritage and where my blood comes from. Not knowing anything about the other side of me for 24years was really hard so, I decided to send my DNA samples into Ancestry.ca to get some of the answers I was looking for and wow ... did I ever. Although I have a very close relationship with my mother’s family, I really wanted to touch on the side of me I didn’t know for this assignment. My name is Sierra Clancy, my biological father’s name is Ronald Lopez and my Great grandfather’s name is Bernardino Lopez. Today, I’m going to focus on my father who was born in Managua, Nicaragua, my father and his sister (my aunt) had to leave at the ages of 10 and 12 to travel alone to Los, Angeles because of the corruption in Nicaragua. I’ve been told stories by my cousins that my father and aunt travelled through rivers, lakes, walked through forests for days and hitched buses to get to somewhere safe. Although, I don’t have the best relationship with my father, I have a better understanding of him and his trauma’s through his adversity to migrate alone to a country where he doesn’t know the language or anyone around him. They later ended up finding their way to Ontario, Canada at the ages of 16 and 18, where my grandparents were able to meet them. 

Our family is apart of the Indigenous Central America’s, as I know this does not relate to Indigenous North America’s I can see a piece of the struggle they also went through having to claim their land from colonizers. DNA and ancestry really gives you a birds eye view of how our families moved and what they were influenced by. Having pieces of Senegal, Cameroon and Mali but also pieces of Spain, France and Northern Italy in my ancestry story, I can see where settlers were dominating certain countries and the families within them. It’s a really sad story but I also think its really important to learn about other peoples family stories and struggles so that we as a society don’t make these mistakes again. 

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Week 7 - Visual Culture and Indigenous Non-Linear Narrative Form

“We Will Stand Up”, is a story about a young boy named Colton Boushie who was shot in the head by a White Saskatchewan farmer. This story follows his family who fight for justice surrounding the broken legal systems for Indigenous peoples and the not-so secret systematic racism that still exists in Canada. Hubbard also touches on what it’s like raising children in a hostile environment, where society is built up upon white preferences and settler narratives trying to keep First Nations and other racial groups down. Hunt and Starblanket share an example of racism even in the supreme court, where Colton’s family was not even seen as human being’s but as dangerous, despite being the victims in this situation. Even though First Nations peoples have been victims for hundreds of years, the legal system continues to shine light on them as if Indigenous peoples are going to turn around and do the same them as their ancestors did to theirs. I believe it’s very sad and inhuman to change the narrative on a group of people assuming that their suffering will turn into violence (Indigenous peoples do not want to be unjust like White settlers were to their people). All First Nations peoples have wanted is peace, equality and justice for their peoples to live on THEIR land safely and to explain the racist truth that lies behind Canadian legal systems.

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Week 4 - Indigenous Women's Literature

In Indigenous community’s women are the backbone, they’re mothers, healers, caregivers, providers and gatherers. Indigenous women are like mother earth, they take care of everyone whether someone is hungry, sick, pregnant, cold Indigenous women did it all. They read the stories, made the quilts and told the rituals, in Beth Brant's "A Long Story" the grandmother keeps the fire burning "to let the flames die is taboo, a break of trust."(15) Indigenous women were trusted, looked to for advise and the speakers of ceremony's/rituals they were (are) very important to Indigenous communites.

Indigenous women’s prominent place has been affected negatively by the westernized culture, women are forced to follow the man’s lead and have fallen victim to abuse and discrimination. Mental health has been a huge contributing factor for the unwellness of Indigenous women. Especially during Covid-19 right now, pregnant Indigenous women aren’t getting the proper treatment (especially concerning their religious views on pregnancy and the health care system). Pregnant women are having a lack of access to essential services and sanitation like soap, water, disinfectants. There needs to be a place where pregnant women can go and get the proper treatment and supplies regardless of their traditions. We should be able to account for their needs and make sure their are specific services, facilities and languages for them to reach out to and feel safe without any stigmas or discrimination.

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Week 2 - Analysis Blog

Complex Family -

The word I've chosen to describe my family, is complex family. The word "complex" is derived from the latin word complexus or complecture, meaning embrace or comprise. The word family also derives from the latin word famulus or familia, meaning servants of a household. This etymology doesn't align with what I think a complex family is because were not embracing being servants to our house but we embrace the differences that each family member brings to our family. I think it's very interesting how words have deeper meaning beyond what we think they mean. For instance I thought the root of family would mean togetherness, working as a whole together. I think it's interesting how over time words change their meaning to each person and generation. For me a complex family means bringing together all our differences (i.e. step family we are of all different cultures Philippino, Nicaraguan, Guyanese and Scottish) regardless of where were from or what we like, we are complex but that's what makes us such a close nit family. We understand that our complex differences make us stronger. #complexfamily