{"id":9601,"date":"2021-07-02T23:10:41","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T03:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=9601"},"modified":"2021-09-09T07:25:59","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T11:25:59","slug":"episode-379-memories-of-indigenous-people-canada-day-2021-look-theres-an-indian-get-your-camera-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=9601","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 379 MEMORIES OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE , CANADA DAY 2021″ “LOOK, THERE’S AN INDIAN…GET YOUR CAMERA.”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Beginning\u2026short series on my meetings with indigenous Canadians )<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 379    MEMORIES OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ON CANADA DAY 2021: \u201cLOOK, THERE\u2019S AN INDIAN\u2026GET YOUR CAMERA.”<\/p>\n


<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
July 1, 2021<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
In my ten years of summer work in mining exploration I met many indigenous Canadians and two indigenous Americans.  In retrospect<\/div>\n
the experience is unsettling.,,but also joyful.  Mostly joyful.<\/div>\n

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This is the closest photo I can find to illustrate a strange experience in late summer 1967\u2026Northern Quebec.<\/div>\n

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My experience with indigenous Canadians is episodic \u2026 i.e. discrete stories unrelated to each other<\/div>\n
but collectively important to me on this Canada Day 2021.  <\/div>\n

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1) Summer 1957:   I had been working in a tent camp near Chibougamau, northern Quebec for two months.  Outdoor work<\/div>\n
slogging through our Canadian coniferous forests.  Tough work.  No time for the niceties of civilized life<\/div>\n
like a haircut or a bath in soapy water.   Our crew was flown out to an old logging camp on the Opemiska<\/div>\n
road\u2026a wide gravel road where mining trucks had the right of way and precious few cars ever travelled.<\/div>\n

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Early One  sunshine filled evening I climbed up on a rock outcrop overlooking the roadway.  In a cloud of dust<\/div>\n
a car came barreling along.   Passed me by.  Then braked and backed up.  A priest got out along with<\/div>\n
some well dressed passengers with cameras.<\/div>\n

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\u201cLook up there\u2026that is an Indian\u2026take pictures if you want.\u201d<\/div>\n

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They were looking at me then snapped a few pictures. And then they were gone.  That was my earliest experience<\/div>\n
with native people.  I was the native person.  I was caught on camera as if I was a moose or black bear that had<\/div>\n
crept out of the forest.   Yes, it was amusing.  But in the back of my brain it was also unsettling. WhyWere native people<\/div>\n
treated this way\u2026i.e. \u2018Things\u2019 to be photographed then ignored?<\/div>\n

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And what made me look like an \u2018Indian\u2019?  My skin was now dark\u2026like leather.  My hair was uncut.  My skin a bernished leather.<\/div>\n
I had given up the war with insect cannibals\u2026let them have their victory if they could chew their way through smoke filled pores.<\/div>\n
I was part of the forest.  An oddity\u2026a shadow.  My existence was entertainment\u2026captured then forgotten.<\/div>\n
That moment in 1957 remains crystal clear in my memory.  There was something about the moment ,,,those  cameras snapping.  <\/div>\n
Something disconcerting.   At the time, however, it was just amusing. \u201cLook, there\u2019s an Indian up there on the rock.”<\/div>\n

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Our crew of ten men were all Anglo-Canadians.  That is we were all English speaking.  Our linecutting crew,<\/div>\n
on the other hand, was all Franco-Canadian.  French speaking.  Our two crews did not talk to each other.  We lived<\/div>\n
in the two solitudes of Canadian life.  <\/div>\n

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What was missing?   There were no indigenous Canadians on either crew.   At least none to my mind.  Yet not many<\/div>\n
miles to the North West was the Mistassini Reserve\u2026a large population of English speaking native people..<\/div>\n

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Chibougamau was a boom town.  Miners\u2026lots of them.  Young men mostly with a few prostitutes available at<\/div>\n
$20 a throw.   All this was very surprising to me for I was just a Grade 11 high school student from Toronto.  Voltaire\u2019s<\/div>\n
Candide as it were.<\/div>\n

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Where were our  indigenous Canadians in this hurly burly world of Chibougamau?   Where were they? They were not present.<\/div>\n
They may have been here and there in the forested fringe but I never met one\u2026never saw one\u2026.then I became one.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Where were they?   This is\u2026was… their land.   Why were some of them not working the bush trails they<\/div>\n
must have known so well.   Why was a Toronto high school student doing the job.<\/div>\n
 Now it is year 2021 and I have never heard an answer.  Where were they?<\/div>\n

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NEXT:  PART TWO \u2026 BARREN LAND OF WEST ALASKA<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
THE ONLY time we were ever armed as geophysical exploration teams was the Alaska job.<\/div>\n
But I remember meeting two Yupik indigenous people more than I remember this<\/div>\n
rifle meant to scare off Kodiak bears.   The memory of first contact with Yupiks does not<\/div>\n
reflect well on me.   Remember I was just a kid.  The contact was fleeting but in retrospect<\/div>\n
disconcerting.   Coming in Episode 380<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Beginning\u2026short series on my meetings with indigenous Canadians ) EPISODE 379    MEMORIES OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ON CANADA DAY 2021: \u201cLOOK, THERE\u2019S AN INDIAN\u2026GET YOUR CAMERA.” alan skeoch July 1, 2021 In my ten years of summer work in mining exploration I met many indigenous Canadians and two indigenous Americans.  In retrospect the experience is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}