I’m still in the United States and with limited access to phone and internet on the reservation. I’ve been out of the loop with several important events that have transpired in “Kanata” (the Wendat Huron word for Canada, which actually means settlement. Yes, we are on Native land) so I’ll play the catch-up game soon.

For now I want to leave you with one of the things I’ve been up to here. My partner and I decided that on my visit here in his territory of Oneida, Wisconsin we would only eat traditional food and do as many traditional things as possible.

What is traditional food you say? Well we are both Haudenosaunee, which in English means Iroquois, or 6 Nations. The 6 Nations are Mohawk (me), Oneida (him), Onondaga, Tuscarora, Seneca, and Cayuga. We have an ancient lineage of unity and one of the oldest forms of law called the Confederacy. As such, we have similar traditions, customs, and teachings. Corn and strawberries are some of our most sacred foods and we revere them more than just foods, they are life sustinence and you can do so much more than just eat them.

For us it means eating food grown on our territories, by our own peoples. Culture is such an important part of both our lives, and we want to honour our Mother Earth as much as we can. It has been a showing of solidarity across these borders we did not create, and also proof that youth can be part of the fight to get what we lost back.

We created a blog to record our journey here and we invite you to share with us as we go back2traditions!

Talk to you soon!

My partner DJ making some yummy traditional corn mush!

I’m back in the US but not without a story to tell yet again from what it was like to cross the U.S. border as a Native-black-haired-darker skinned-young-woman-travelling-alone.

To give you some background, I have been stopped and questioned repeatedly in higher security levels when I bothered to tell the whole truth about why I was crossing. And let me tell you, they sure don’t like fighting for reproductive freedom or working for Native American rights.

In fact, last year when I actually said that I was going to do some work with the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center, I was told to move to the next security level where I was fingerprinted, photographed, and had to explain my ancestry and why I would want to do “work like that”.

So I’ve learned to say the lesser activist reasons as to why I’m going to be in the US.

This time around I’m driving, and what do I see when get down to the long lineups for border crossing but 3 border patrol officials who are standing around amongst the plethora of cars, looking all stern and serious. This is new to me, I thought if you were going to be “randomly searched” it would happen when you at least get to the official in the booth.

Not anymore.

(more inside…)

Canadians for Choice Toronto crew at the International Women’s Day rally

Yep, it’ll be a full six months that we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of abortion legalization in Canada tomorrow, June 28th!

20 years and 6 months ago, Dr. Henry Morgentaler won the Supreme Court of Canada case striking down the abortion law that criminalized women who exercised their inherent reproductive rights.

And since it’s Pride weekend in Toronto, what better way to go out and PARTAY for our bodies to be with whomever we want, than to honour and remember the hard-fought battle that now legally guarantees women the right to choose what we want to DO with our bodies in Canada! (Actually accessing abortion services and quality of care though is a whole other story, you need look no further than at the 2006 REALITY CHECK report we did at Canadians for Choice to see that.)

We are one of the few nations in the world with no legal restrictions on abortion, and we should be damn proud that choice is an important matter generations young and old are continuing to fight for. It’s estimated that approximately 80,000 women die every year around the world due to complications from botched illegal abortions.

It’s been one helluva year defending choice in this country that I’ll actually detail when my latest Rabble article comes out soon, but for now I’m going to march with Pride this weekend that I live in Canada, and that I’m pro-choice.

(We’d love to have you join us at Canadians for Choice marching at the Dyke march, click here for the Facebook listing!)

Some Shameless self-promotion, I’ll be doing an interview on CIUT Radio 89.5 FM in Toronto this Thursday, June 26th in regards to the 20th anniversary of abortion legalization this year and what this means for young activists involved in the pro-choice movement now.

I’m on at 9:40 a.m. You can listen live here.

Wish me luck!

Me at the December 10th 2006 Rally for the Status of Women

While reading this Montreal Gazette article entitled “Harper’s failure to woo women could hurt him in the polls” I’m inclined to ask YOU Shameless readers, how has our Conservative government been doing so far with women in Canada?

Sure, we’ve passed the whole cuts to any women’s groups that “lobby or advocate”, the Court Challenges Program, and removing the word “equality” from the mandate of Status of Women, but I still don’t feel any safer and I’m actually still angry we have this government in power.

So before I painstakingly list off all the things that have happened since then, what say you?

Update: This post originally stated that June 13th was the initial date of National Aboriginal Day and that it was later moved to June 21st. It has been updated to read that June 21st was the designated date from the beginning.

Governor General Roméo LeBlanc signed the proclamation formally on June 13, 1996 designating June 21st as National Aboriginal Day. This date was chosen for its cultural significance - it marks the summer solstice, which is the first day of summer and the longest hours of sunlight we see during the year.

Every day to me is National Aboriginal Day; I’m a proud Native woman when I wake up every morning and when I go to sleep every night. I sort of equate it to the whole celebrating love only on Valentine’s Day kinda thing, but it’s good to take a moment to reflect on the rich heritage of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples of this land.

Are you doing/thinking/reflecting on anything for this year’s National Aboriginal Day?

Click here for a full listing of events across Canada.

My sister and I, proudly representing the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations, Iroquois peoples)

This is racist food for thought from the Vancouver Courier:

“Mass immigration, mainly from the Third World, threatens to irrevocably alter the culture of western nations. In his article, Steyn compares shrinking western populations with exploding birthrates in Muslim countries. “Islam has youth and will,” he writes, “Europe has age and welfare.”

So, if changing demographics sweep Canada’s dominant Euro-centric culture into history’s dustpan, why should we care?

Here’s why. European culture spawned the now-universal tenets of democratic rule, personal freedom and Christian-based virtue—not to mention many of civilization’s greatest scientific and technological achievements. Immigrants flock to Canada not because it resembles the land from which they flee, but because of our liberating Euro-centric society.

Quebecers understand. Last year’s “reasonable accommodation hearings” officially acknowledged widespread anxiety in la belle province. Quebecers lined up to voice their concern about foreign influence on Quebec culture, thus demonstrating that the altering affects of immigration should be discussed openly—for the benefit of immigrants and residents alike.”

As the full article will tell you, the author is referring to immigration rates in Canada and actually talks about the lawsuit against the oh-so-right-wing Maclean’s from the Canadian Islamic Congress. In 2006 Maclean’s published an article by Mark Steyn entitled “Why the Future Belongs to Islam”, which they correctly allege discriminated against Muslims on religious and racial grounds contrary to Section 7 (1) of the B.C. Human Rights Code.

(For the record, that whole situation in Quebec I personally think unfairly represented what is also true in the rest of the provinces and territories)

Last time I checked, EVERYONE IS AN IMMIGRANT, and unless you are Aboriginal, the differences lie a few generations away from each other. And even then our First Peoples have varying stories of where we came from.

In the light of all this Hillary being a woman supporting, I’m wondering why we haven’t blogged about the blatant racism that Obama has faced.

So I found a good one from West Virginia, in case you had any doubts about racism being alive and real and that this has everything to do with having REAL feminism in office.

So now that I’ve crossed the border back to my friendly, eccentric home in Kensington Market, Toronto (although not for long) I’m having some pensive reflections on the awesomeness that is the ACLU Minnesota and Wisconsin that I had the honour of discovering at this year’s membership conference.

A 24-hour bus ride to and from Washington D.C. and shared hostel saw both our groups intermingling and activisting to the max. Most of us didn’t know each other and I can safely say now that in just four days we’ve not only learned a lot, but been sincerely inspired and greatly moved by each other’s presence and being.

I heard tales of prejudice, realities of oppression, and musings of forward-thinking by these brilliantly tuned-in young people. Interesting nights out coupled with ridiculously fun “truth-telling” games were the recipe for some of the best activist times had by all.

I want to thank all the participants for their honesty, candor, and all-around amazing selves that definitely made this trip an adventure I’ll never forget. We write off the US too often in Canada for the backwards policies that obstruct their international image and forget about how much good work is going on there by determined people like these who are refusing to give up and fighting back for what they believe is right.

More partnerships can be made across our borders and we’d be crazy not to remember that the extreme U.S. right-wingers have a direct affect on Canada (ahem, Bill C484, no-fly list anyone??) This is a great example of how we can get together and make change happen, even if it’s just amongst ourselves.

It’s important to recognize when cool young people you’ve just met are inspiring you, that’s definitely news I want to hear more often.

Anyone do that to you lately?

The “best group” as named by attendees of the 2008 ACLU membership conference!