Mixblood

Black Powder

The hot topic of Indigenous Identity - one fact is true: fake claims will soon have criminal consequences.

Opinion | The violence of pretending to be Indigenous The recent call for organizing a Canada-wide dialogue about Indigenous identity by the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) is a solid step tow...

If you're writing memoir and looking for a one-on-one mentorship, this is an excellent opportunity with Jowita Bydlowska.

Her memoir, Drunk Mom, was hailed by Lena Dunham as an "intense, complex and disturbing story, bravely and beautifully told. I read Drunk Mom with my jaw on the floor, which doesn't happen to me often." While The New York Time's Book Review said “While the title suggests a simple autobiographical autopsy of motherhood marred by alcoholism, Bydlowska’s memoir delivers far more – a human portrait of the disease.”

“Old Fashioned Sneak Up"
From the creative series Re:Appropriation - Canada 150

For some reason, in my own work, I'm not a fan of clean or austere, I like messy, and I'm compelled to be dangerous. Perhaps it's simply in my DNA or perhaps it's about a story that just absolutely has to be told - and that story is anything other than clean and austere. The story is a dirty blood-soaked tale drenched in tears, and expressing it for anything else is just a lie, a pathetic fallacy.

As a child, I loved these images of "Indians" as painted by Charles Russell, they impressed upon me a kind of Indian you could be proud to be, they also impressed upon me the harsh reality of Indian and White relations, and in my later years the distinct disillusionment of our mythology. What happened in those years that life was so wrought with turmoil that we had to live every day fighting to survive? We moved camps constantly, we watched every single population of wildlife disappear right before our eyes and we got caught up in the frenzy of competing to carry forward, to live on, to be prosperous in spite of losing every inch of soil under our feet.

As tensions tightened and living our lives on the land was no longer possible many died and anyone who stood in the way of colonial progress was quickly put down. It's was a slow silencing and as the fences went up the freedoms went down.

"No Fast Elk, hunting is not permitted here, you and your group have to go back to the reserve, or there will be harsh consequences"...

Keep in mind that telling this story doesn't reflect anything other than an incredible power of perseverance, adaptability and an irreverent spirit to thrive and live well - as one of the most important values in all indigenous society is LAUGHTER - we must - absolutely must laugh in the face of adversity - we must laugh at ourselves - we must laugh at the absurdity - and most importantly we must laugh together out of sheer joy, irony, or sadness.