One Single, Holy Moment

Posted on December 29, 2020 by Blog Woman!!!

She took her last breath at 6:30am on September 6, 2020. She was my little sister. Funny how we do that, no matter how close to seniors’ stage we are – little sisters will always be little sisters to the older.

Reva was beautiful; exceptionally beautiful. She certainly had no problem turning heads and often invoking envy. She was smart, a doer and a dancer and she was funny too. She held our family sense of humor, honed in the history of pain and endurance, in doing whatever it took. She wouldn’t have recognized how that humor and ability to persist was ingrained through many generations reduced to survival.

She didn’t much talk about our Indigeneity; it was not something we consciously talked about. We just were and mostly, we tried to forget about it. Mostly we had associated every awful and humiliating moment of our childhood with it.

We went through the fostering system together, until the day I ran away from it and she aged out of it. Even then, we weren’t really free. We still had the weight of all we’d gone through before, during and even after. In our own ways, we decided the only path out was to pursue the model of success that was firmly impressed on us throughout those years. We only had to just work hard; very hard. We only had to have a nice home and maybe husbands and kids and maybe a car too. We only had to be respectable.

My journey with that empty misconception ended with several years of help to undo those generations of trauma. She sought help where she most felt at home. I don’t know how stable or even healing that was for her. I think it mostly hurt her, really. Yes, she was beautiful and smart and so, so complicated.

It wasn’t always easy to love her. I suppose they would say that about me too. I just like to think all that therapy gave me some measure of genuine peace she didn’t have. It’s in that, as a big sister that I find most painful. It’s not much different really, from all those earnest wishes for happiness and safety we have for our babies.

We achieved those goals to similar degrees. In the end, it was our children and homes that mattered most, but the ugly monster that was our childhood never really left her. She never quite found the combination that would allow her to be, to just be, in ease and in the ability to admit failure. That sometimes made her a pretty tough judge and not everyone was interested in hearing the verdicts. Sometimes other events hardened hearts indefinitely. It’s one of the most miserable of human experiences to simultaneously love someone so deeply while fighting the soulful wish to feel only indifference. Hopeless dreams.

Still, she held out her hands, arms and whatever resources available to help anyone she could. Generosity was hers too. Her heart would melt at the sight of impersonal suffering. She was a force and it was a good feeling if she was on your side.

As a sister, there was plenty of special too; the way we knew what the other was thinking by locking eyes. Breaking into gut-busting laughter over things only we could understand. It was an indescribable comfort to know she was there when I was scared. It was gut-wrenching when her pain became mine.

I hadn’t been talking to her for some time when her boy found her on the floor. She’d been rushed into surgery to remove the discovered brain tumor that they said was going to take her in a matter of months, and that’s when I got the call.

It doesn’t seem real; not then and not now. One moment often replays in my mind. It was when I arrived at her home and saw her sitting in the corner of her couch, so small and quiet and beautiful, even with all those metal staples down one side of her head. She didn’t say anything, but I felt it all. I felt her fatigue and confusion; I felt her fear.

I could only go to her and take her in my arms and tell her that I loved her. In only a moment, all those years of trying to figure out life and our issues were done. One single, damned moment. One single, holy moment.

We had her for eight and a half more months; somewhat short of the 24 they told us was possible. I think we just knew, this time the possible was not an achievable goal. We were back to survival mode, where the practicality of what had to be dealt with in undoing an entire lifetime was paramount.

Her sons and I packed up boxes and tried to plan as best as possible for her youngest son’s eventual move to his father’s and her older son’s grappling with the baggage of the past and the infuriating circumstances of the present. Broken hearts can’t be boxed.

We spent the last few weeks just talking until she lost most of the ability. Then she would mostly just look at us as we’d try to regale her with any stories of normalcy.

Two days before she passed, I obsessed over the thought that I needed a sign when she was on the other side. I asked her to please show me something purple. “I don’t know why I picked purple, but will you”? I pleaded. She nodded, yes. She knew why I picked purple, but she wasn’t able to tell me. I didn’t even remember until she was gone, her birthstone is an amethyst. Anyway, when she nodded, I knew she would.

Eight and a half months to live what matters and even if she couldn’t say it often, I know she loved us hard and no one as much as her sons and grandson. I know this is mainly what she thought about in that time and if she could have made everyone’s wishes come true then, she would have. She had so many dreams…

In the end, she lived up to that final promise to me and I know she will for others. I can promise that. Another thing you could always count on her for was, keeping her word.

A couple weeks after she passed, I went for a walk. It was late September and the leaves were turning color. The wind that rustled fallen leaves was distinctly cooler. I plodded on, lost in thought until I was stopped in my <insert whatever cliché>.

Even if they had noticed, it might not have made much of an impression on anyone else. It was unusual to me though, and it happened to be one of my favorite flowers; a Lupin, a flower that blooms in spring. Of course, it was purple.

I didn’t have a thought. Not that I recall. I do remember the way it felt. It was like my entire being was suddenly filled with warmth that I find hard to describe. I instantly and absolutely knew my little sister was home and she was safe. That was all I really needed to know since I first got that call, and of course, she knew that…

Sisters know.

Natural Progress

Posted on July 31, 2020 by Blog Woman!!!

Summer haikus; poetic respite in between the cares and the concerns of Spring and the prep work for Fall…

Photos from my first attempt at a deck garden.

Delicacies reign
Effortless sustenance hails
Tendril-loving care

Seedy flirtations
Lusciously coloring life
Carelessly strewn joy

Allium cepa
Flavorful accessory
Verdant stems of pride

Goth petunias
Black velvet grows in boxes
Textural wealth

Future offerings
Seeds of faith, promise & love
Gratitude’s bounty

‘Reconciliation’ by Palatable Replacement: the ‘Pretendian’

Posted on June 25, 2020 by Blog Woman!!!

Race-shifting to Indigeneity is so prevalent in Canada, that to say it’s rampant wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration. The big question is, who’s going to be responsible for halting these destructive behaviors? The Canadian Government; the Indian Act department, CIRNA; every Indigenous nation encroached upon? Where do employers, educators and media fit in?

Over the last few years, I’ve learned “pretendians” vary in reason for their desire to be Indigenous and that they cut a wide swath in professions, learning institutes, and even within Indigenous communities.

When we point out an uncovered discovery publicly, this is about far more than ‘shaming’. This is more than ‘gate-keeping’. This is protection and an effort to stanch the continuing effort to dilute, diminish and degrade the teachings & traditions and resources of entire cultures.

The sheer numbers today make the fight against race-shifting feel futile at times because Indigenous peoples are striving to re-educate an entire country that has decades of deliberate mis-education and obfuscation about them. While they pursue that, they also have to put out as many of these current fires as possible; it’s a constant, agonizing game of whack-a-mole.

How do the Indigenous fight the enormous numbers of non-Indigenous who have chosen to speak over them and for them because of reasons like this:

They want part of the mythical ‘free money’ they were told repeatedly by Canada that the Indigenous receive.
They want the hard-won restoration of harvesting rights of the Indigenous.
They want the hard-won land titles, such as they are.
They want to act on behalf of Canada as “consent givers” for resources extraction.
They want to make claims on those big money resources.
They want to receive the jobs, grants, scholarships, and awards set up to lend a helping hand to the marginalized.
They want the acclaim of being an ‘Indigenous success’.
They want to write governance policy for the Indigenous.
They want to continue to re-write history to wash over the truths.
They heard they had an Indigenous ancestor somewhere in their background and now they are suddenly fulfilled as a whole being and must dance to the drums of ‘their ancestors’.
They are bereft of culture and need to be fulfilled emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.

These people aren’t readily identifiable as terrible trespassers. They are neighbors, co-workers, friends and sometimes, family. Many are exceptionally friendly, articulate and some are very charismatic, which makes for frustrating, vigorous protection by those around them when questioned.

Some of the roles where we’ve found these people are:

Politicians
Professors
Lawyers
Senatorial assistants & policy writers
Facebook “Educator” pages, some with several thousand followers
Radio show hosts
Students in all levels of education
Teachers
Counselors
Prison and medically centred “Indigenous Elders”
Ceremonial Elders / Spiritual guides
Authors
Actors
Musicians
Artists
Other social media accounts for various “Indigenous products”

The list continues to grow.

What we often hear, when this is brought to the attention of an employer or a position of authority is, “what are we to do about it”? The efforts of the 2015 “Truth and Reconciliation Report” with its 94 calls to action have yet to be realized in a substantial way by the Canadian Government and its citizens.

This isn’t to step over those who are making an effort to follow-through, but how can that follow-through be meaningful and effective if the very people they’re turning to for direction and education are not Indigenous; are not involved in any community in a genuine way; and certainly have no idea of the issues and needs of the many and various Indigenous communities?

How is this not a national concern by this time? How is Indigenous identity still managed by the Canadian Government and its ‘self-identifying’ citizens, those who believe any claim of blood quantum is their entitlement?

Residential schools all finally shut down in 1996, but their teachings are still being readily applied. The point of those schools, to Canada’s great shame, was only about re-imagining and shifting who the Indigenous are. They wanted the Indigenous to be demeaned enough to be easily cleansed away. Canadians do not like the term genocide applied to their country, but hiding it isn’t making any of it go away. It only changes its shape until it’s palatable enough to ignore.

Now there are thousands of Canadians who’ve shifted their identities, insidiously continuing the legacy of removing Indigenous voices for gain. They are indeed very welcomed as a seemingly more palatable “Indians”.

2020 has been a year for critically exposing our societal failings and as a catalyst for revolution and evolution. What a revelation it would be, if we all started to seriously assess and question why it’s normal to assume the Indian Act system, with its +4,500 employees is still a reasonable normal in the 21st century? Surely at a minimum, we could ask why the Indigenous aren’t overseeing Indigenous identity and citizenship themselves on a national level?

Addendum: For a fuller picture of the race-shifting phenomenon, I recommend the book, “Distorted Descent”, by Dr. Darryl Leroux, along with the works of Chris Anderson, “Métis” Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood; and “The Northwest Is Our Mother”, by Jean Teillet.

Also published at Medium.com https://medium.com/p/22fe175f4d60

First Thought

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Blog Woman!!!

This could be a Spring of retreat; a step or two toward the past. Maybe time on our hands and loads of room for reflection. My own longings lean toward the masses questioning all the holes in all the systems that Covid-19 surged right up to our every sensibility.

My next prayer is that all this new-found realization of what matters, this renewed knowledge of what essential is, will not get tossed and lost for good by most.

Reflection choices can be simple too; in fact, the majority of mine certainly are. I can’t believe how much it means to walk in the woods right now. All the smells of Spring are especially entrancing, and I am so in beyond land when I look at the tender shoots that replaced the tiny seeds I planted weeks ago. I’m so excited to be a back deck farmer this year. Small things. The every things.

It was within these lines of thought on this lazy Thursday, I was reminded of a sweet and lovely moment of 3 years ago, when we were allowed more fearless touch.

Wishing all a gentle and inspiring weekend.

I am the first thought
On his mind as daybreak blinks
Sunday morning bliss…

Gently smudging pain’s traces
Sweetly replacing facades

Haiku / Tanka

Inspired by the artwork of: aaronpaquette.net and prompted by: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/heal/

The Metis Nation, The MNO, and a Jarring Report On Identity

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Blog Woman!!!

As a matter of noting impactful history as it’s occurring, a report presented at the March 9/10 Metis National Council’s (MNC), “Métis Identity, Citizenship & Homeland” conference in Saskatchewan, shocked many in attendance. It uncovered a troubling history that has led to serious issues for the Metis, now currently embroiled in what amounts to a ‘hostile takeover’ of their nation.

I shouldn’t have been surprised, let alone shocked about what we learned, because I am already well-aware of the immense issue for the Metis Nation in having to defend its identity and rights again. I’m well-versed in the history of the thousands of Canadians who more recently claim to be Metis, although many are seriously mistaken at best and others are purely fraudulent at worst.

The report presented wasn’t about those thousands of claims outside of the historical Metis communities, i.e.) those from regions in, and east of, Quebec. It concentrated on the claims of the legitimate Metis Nation’s own affiliate, the Metis Nation Ontario (MNO), one of five MNC affiliates.

Many already knew the MNO was fraught with membership filled with illegitimate claims of Metis ancestry and in 2019 they admitted to an overwhelming number; perhaps 90% of their membership, they said.

That was an astounding statement and regardless of the accuracy of that estimation, what percentage would they consider acceptable? That wasn’t the only issue at hand. The affiliate was also called into question after working unilaterally with the Province of Ontario government in 2017 to grant ‘historical Metis settlement’ status to 6 regions in Ontario outside of the Metis Nation historical homeland boundaries. The MNC, its other affiliate presidents and the Metis citizens were not included in that process.

(Update: in 2021, the MNO published approx. 77+% were non-Metis, thus they coined a new term, “Ontario Metis”, while continuing to use the cultural artifacts of the Red River Metis Nation).

Essentially then, the MNO is therefore mainly comprised of Ontarians of various ancestry who self-declared they were Metis and were accepted and seemingly legitimized by the MNO. If there are enough of these individuals in a particular region, this is taken as proof of the existence of a historical Métis “community”.

In November of 2018, the MNC and the other affiliates, with the exception of Alberta – which apparently has serious leadership [and membership] issues according to statements made at the March 10 meeting – voted to put the MNO on probation for one year to allow time to sort and re-register their members to fit the criteria of Metis Nation identity. Incidentally, that criteria aren’t different from any other world nation, which include immediate relation to the ancestry of the known Metis Nation families. The criteria was unanimously ratified by the Metis Nation in 2002. The MNO participated in that ratification and in its affirmation in 2013.

Back to 20 years later, and the one-year MNO probation term is over. The MNC, for which leadership is voted for & provided by its affiliate presidents, requested to review the new registers. The MNO responded with an incredulous refusal, stating they had their own ‘independent oversight’ and that the MNC were unwelcome ‘outsiders’.

They’d essentially announced they were a nation unto themselves and they went to Canada directly to try to create that into fact. They called it a ‘self-governance agreement’, which the government called ‘a step toward self-governance agreement’. What that will turn out to be is another story, but a main point is a clause in the agreement that states the MNO will get to decide for itself who is “Metis”.

An easy out compared to having to tell thousands of Ontarians they’re not Metis, some of whom hold influential positions in general society. There are also millions of dollars at stake in annual funding to oversee programs meant for the Indigenous, and specifically for, the Metis. If the MNO were to fail at attaining a new, unrelated pan-Indigenous nation recognized by Canada, that would make some of those members, not Metis, but non-status First Nations. Likely a good number would simply be recognized as non-Indigenous Canadians.

That’s the background to the March 9/10 MNC meeting. Here’s part of what’s stunning. The background historical research used by the MNO and the Ontario Government to justify inclusion of Ontario-based regions/people sometimes reads like a middle school copy & pasted book report. The conflations of ancestral claims are so flimsy in places, that at one point they barely bothered to provide evidence before bestowing the Metis flag to one region.

As is commonly practised by ‘self-identifiers’ in the further east, the Metis titles given by the MNO were based on claims of ancestry in nations unrelated to the Metis; on ancestors who were Europeans re-made into Indigenous; on ancestors that were and still are known as First Nations, whose descendants still live on the same reserves; by claiming First Nations villages were Metis; or as one person at the meeting stated, if a picture of their grandparents ‘looked Native’ to the registrar, they would be accepted. These people now outnumber the legitimate Metis in Ontario.

Excluding the MNO, the fight today is from within, from those who would allow anyone of any Indigenous ancestry to claim to be Metis vs. those who denounce the pan-Indigenous idea over their own unique, rich and richly established history, which included the herculean win in 1982 to achieve the recognition and rights to Section 35 of the Constitution for that nation.

Update: On September 29, 2021, the Manitoba Metis Federation, known as the heart of the Metis Nation homeland, withdrew from the Metis National Council in protest of its affiliate’s re-acceptance of the MNO into the MNC without proof of a Metis registry. Since then, the MNO has removed some of their more problematic membership claims, but has openly published its new version of identity parameters that extend their membership to over 77% unrelated to the Metis Nation. Unfortunately, they continue to call that registry, “Metis”.

August 6, 2025 – The Chiefs of Ontario are calling on the province to release all the evidence and analysis used to justify the 2017 identification of the six “so-called historic Métis communities” in the province.

Province must release ‘evidence’ used to justify Métis communities’ existence_ chiefs – Barrie News Download

July 23, 2025 – Wabun tribal council released yet another academic report that challenges the MNO claims of historical existence of politically and culturally distinct “Métis” communities in northern Ontario/Great Lakes region.

May 22, 2025 – New research, Assessing MNO Historical Claims to Rights in SON Territory, released today: “The Chiefs of Ontario stands in full support of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation in their release of Assessing Métis Historical Claims to Rights in SON Territory Report, which serves to protect their homelands and the assertion of their inherent rights and jurisdiction on their traditional and Treaty territories,” said Ontario Regional Chief Abram Benedict.

The report, prepared by two award-winning scholars, Dr. Heidi Bohaker, Professor of History at the University of Toronto, and Dr. Chandra Murdoch, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School, was initiated in response to concerns from the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) about claims being made by the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) and the Historic Saugeen Métis (HSM) in their territory.

A worthy note made by Dr. Darryl Leroux – “There have now been 9 academics from fields as diverse as history, law, sociology, Indigenous studies, anthropology, and political science who have independently examined the MNO’s claims. Each time, they have found that the 2017 recognition of the MNO’s 7 new communities was a serious mistake by the Government of Ontario.”

Historical-Report-Assessing-Metis-Historical-Claims-to-Rights-in-SON-territory-April-2025 Download

May 20, 2025 – Manitoba Métis Federation and Chiefs of Ontario renew calls for government and institutional action in addressing Indigenous identity fraud

May 20 2025 – Manitoba Métis Federation and Chiefs of Ontario renew calls for government and institutional action in addressing Indigenous identity fraud – Chiefs of Ontario Download

September 20, 2024 dated letter from Glen McCallum, MNS President to MNO President, Margaret Froh, appearing to set up backroom collaborations is discovered and made public. The letter undermines the MNS resolution of September 19, 2024; media attention; and the MNS constituents.

MNS letter to MNO Sept 2024Download

September 19 2024 – Final MNS resolution to resign from the Metis National Council (MNC) citing the lack of verifiable Metis registry of the MNO

Final-MN-S-MNC-resolution-Sept-19-24 Download

September 18, 2024 – a new research study on the MNO’s “new historical Metis communities” for the Metis Nation SK presentation to the MNC finds the same conclusions by previous research reports looking into the MNO claims.

The MMF invite citizens and the public to read the report provided by Dr. Darryl Leroux, doctorate in Sociology and Anthropology, Assoc. Prof., Department of Social Justice and Community Studies at Saint Mary’s University, Prof. Darren O’Toole, Metis, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Métis scholar Dr. Jennifer Adese, and professional genealogist, Gail Morin

leroux-otoole-adese-morin-final-report-re-mno-march-2020 Download

An update to on the added communities by the MNO was prepared in October, 2020, which can be viewed and downloaded here:

October 2023 – The Sault Ste. Marie “Métis” Community and “Halfbreed Petition”
Prepared for Robinson-Huron Waawiindemaagewin
by Drs. Celeste Pedri-Spade & Darryl Leroux

This report was commissioned by Robinson Huron Waawiindamaagewin in August 2023 as part of the research they’ve been leading
about the Métis Nation of Ontario’s (MNO) political claims in Robinson-Huron territory. The purpose of this latest project is twofold:

to assess to what extent historical reports and academic literature on the so-called Sault Ste. Marie Métis
apply a consistent definition of “Métis” (specifically one that reflects more than just the presence of “mixedblood” individuals); and
to establish whether and/or to what extent this same research engages with Anishinabek history and governance in the MNO’s discussion of what it calls the SSM “Halfbreed Petition.”
Our findings confirm that the research reports and academic literature that are often cited to legitimize the existence of a distinct Métis
community in the Sault Ste. Marie region lack scholarly rigour in their use and understanding of the term “Métis.”

September 2023 – Examples of the false evidence used bythe Métis Nation of Ontario and the Province of Ontario to invent the historic Métis communityof Killarney & Environs

Sep 2023 – Adele Loosemore – MNOs_False_Metis_History_of_Killarney Download

Statements by MNC November 19, 2020: Tri-council says it’s not leaving Metis National Council, but stalemate continues

February 3, 2021 Claims of ‘new’ Métis communities in Ontario rejected by MMF’s research document

February 5, 2021: Statement on the MNO “root ancestors” by Gail Morin, noted genealogist of Metis families for 30+ yrs and author of over 80 books

“Like it or not the majority of MNO root ancestors are French Canadian, status or Non-status”

“It took me a year or so to even get past the list of root ancestors available online c2018, but about 14 months ago I started looking. The MNO root list isn’t particularly user friendly and probably someone inexperienced in genealogy or research would never be able to sort it out. They use phrases like verified Métis ancestor for people who were born in Quebec and with no indigenous ancestry. Many of the families who were mixed bloods were living on Indian reserves. When the “rules” on enrollment started, the mixed bloods who stayed in Canada became non-status. Often these mixed bloods met and married US citizens. Some of them assimilated to the south, but many of them became part of US reservations. They aren’t Métis. Yes, there are some Métis in the mix. The list for Mattawa includes the well known Favel family. There is a Lhirondelle branch in Georgian Bay. The Rainy River families definitely had a connection to Manitoba. Considering $600,000+ was spent on this root ancestor project, I’m guessing it was commissioned to “let” people become Métis and to produce numbers. I know some of the grandfathered MNO members were eventually disallowed membership. They must have been part of the pre-1730s families from Quebec or in some cases had an Indian grandmother who was a white woman born in France or someone who was made up on the Internet. What a mess!”

September 1, 2022 a new report commissioned for the Wabun Tribal Council of Ontario in defense of their territorial titles against the MNO is published.

leroux-wabun-tribal-council-paper_final_aug31 Download

November 27, 2022 Link – Government must reject exaggerated claims of Métis heritage: