I need a topic for a thesis

Hi all,

So it turns out that I am writing a CSP thesis, and I am happy about this, but I am not happy that I do not have a topic nor access to books or libraries or other people who go to kings.

Would you all be able to help me? I've been watching bits and pieces of "The Bachelorette", and what would be great is if each of you could send a thesis topic and a pitch, and say why it would be a good thesis and why it's right for me and how I could spend the rest of my life with it (academically), and then I can narrow down the candidates week by week and finally select my soul mate of a subject.

I'll bet your brains are teeming with stuff you'd like to think and write about but not as much as something else, or maybe you just don't have time to do both, so send me that stuff, and I will run with it.

On the camp side of things, we have finished in our first community and leave Monday to go to Sachigo Lake, a 15 minute scoot by plane from here. Tonight we're making smores by the river and hopefully the kids will have guitars and ghost stories.

I hear "inception" is a great movie? Anyone care to share their thoughts?

Is anyone going to the "Circulating Knowledge, East and West"? That looks great.

As well, please take a look at this:

http://www.barrierelakesolidarity.org/

gone!: Apan! apane!
gone, is all...: jaagise
gone, it is all...: jaagisemagan
gone with the wind, is...: maajiiwebaashi
gone with the wind, it is...: maajiiwebaasin

Ryan

Mark- Pikangikum First Nation

Brainwashing people into collaboration one activity at a time.

I’m back in Pik, and I’m proud of it. As has come out in other posts, a lot of the southern employees who come up here—teachers, nurses, police— don’t return for a second helping. In the case of police, this may be understandable; seeing all the worst parts of a place would make it very tough to imagine going back. But our job is relatively easy: we’re in each spot for a single month, teaching and learning from kids who are willing to show up voluntarily at the school portable for a three hour program during their summer vacation. We don’t have to deal with the month-after-month grind of a real teacher, and we don’t really have anyone keeping tabs on us except ourselves. Being your own boss and doing something that you believe in… what’s better than that?

It was strange to arrive here and see the house that I stayed in last summer burnt to the ground. We had hitched into town after getting off the plane and we arrived at the Pikangikum Education Authority to try to find our community liaison. I looked out at the lake, precisely where there should have been a row of teacheriges blocking my view. Um… damn.

We were put up in the hotel for a few nights. Apparently, a couple of weeks ago, a fight in the street had ended with the propane tank on one of the houses getting cracked open and lit. The explosion rocked the whole town, we were told. Although the spot we would have been staying was nice and I’m a bit bummed that we got this place with barbed-wire fence outside instead, I feel much worse for the director of the Education Authority and the members of the local family next door, all of whom lost their homes.

Anyway, it didn’t take long for pleasant things to start happening. Within a couple of hours, we’d run into our neighbours from last year, Chandler and Delana. Chandler at first pretended not to know us when we saw him at the airport, but then came screaming down the hallway of the hotel, yelling my co-counsellor Naomi’s name and remembering mine soon after. It was a real pleasure to see Delana again, the 5 (?) year-old who we allowed to attend camp last year despite her age. A year has changed her a lot, but she’s also as delightful as ever. Her English was nearly non-existent last year, but she’s now putting together full sentences and her vocabulary in both English and Ojibway has expanded remarkably. She recounted the story of escaping from her burning house pretty clearly and she didn’t seem fazed by what must surely have been a bit traumatic.

I guess that housing is a bit more fluid around here, with more than a dozen people sometimes stuffed into a little cabin. The housing is allocated by the band, and the sense of ownership is quite different. That’s one of the reasons why the barbed-wire fencing around our houses bothers me a bit, since it is so out of step with the way most people live and probably think.

Other kids who we worked with last summer have shown a lot of improvement in terms of English language as well. A couple of kids who we hung out with a lot, who arrived here from a Cree reserve in Manitoba, have been contending with both Ojibway and English. They can now be more or less understood in English and they pick up on most of what we say… which is a massive shift from last summer, when the height of our communication was chasing each other around while playing cops and robbers or them saying “backpack” repeatedly, which was a request for a piggyback. Pikangikum has near total native language retention, which more or less means that everyone learns Ojibway first and becomes an English-speaker later. This is really rare in Canada, even on fly-in reserves.

When one cop who we were talking to was saying that Pik’s problem is that it has no culture, we were tempted to point out this fact about language retention… what’s more cultural than that? But we left it alone. The police have been a bit stressed recently, we gather. On Canada Day, the day before we arrived, they supposedly beat up a disabled elder, and riots ensued. A friend of ours who just turned 19 (we made her cupcakes but her sister fed most of them to a puppy named Grace) told us about throwing rocks at the cops and popping their tires.

The police fled the town, taking the nurses with them. The nurses returned a day later, probably pretty shamefully, but it took a little longer to get police-presence back. There’s still a trashed police SUV outside the radio station. Allegedly, the new cops have been threatening people with prosecution who refuse to divulge information about the rioters.

Although I disagree with the cop’s sentiment about Pik having no culture, he said something interesting later on: “there was a fight here between tradition and Christianity,” he said, “and Christianity won.” The bible school that just left town is a bizarre phenomenon and the religious presence here is a bit disconcerting sometimes. Getting almost 200 campers to our 40 means that parents must in some way be willing to sign their kids up to have their souls saved. And the travelling “tent meetings” that are here every weekend bear witness to the way in which religion has become traditional in Pik and older ‘native’ religion has been sidelined as dangerous. I watched someone being healed in the parking lot by a local missionary yesterday and it scared the bejesus out of me.

Camp itself has been going remarkably smoothly. I’d like to think that it has to do with the kids getting more self-control and better at English, but I bet it is more related to lower numbers and a more experienced team. Whatever the reason, we’ve been able to run activities and games that flopped last year. We had a great paper airplane making competition last week, after which the winner instructed the rest of the participants on how to make his plane… Then everyone threw their planes together and they all went further than their original attempts… it was beautiiiiiiiiful. Brainwashing people into collaboration one activity at a time.

My team is made up of three returning councillors, one of whom has been with the program for five years now. This makes a huge difference in terms of knowing what to spend time and energy on, and what to let slide. It also means that we know a remarkable number of people in the community and we usually know who to talk to so that we can get what we need for ourselves or for the kids. The other member of our team is a cool hunter-type francophone from Sudbury, and although she’s sick right now she’s normally the toughest member of our team. On our downtime, we’ve been swimming, arguing with each other about who would beat whom in a fight, writing a radio play about literacy councillors on a fly-in Ojibway reserve, and watching a lot of Star Trek TNG on Naomi’s laptop.

The kids are strong here and I feel privileged to know them. Pik is indeed somewhat of a dangerous place (not as bad as the police say it is, though) and they’ve got a lot of fight in them for making it through that. I just finished Joseph Boyden’s collection of short stories “Born with a Tooth” and near the end of the book there’s a story about an old man on an Ojibway reserve who is talking to an ignorant and god-intoxicated priest. He tells the priest to be careful: “You think us Indians are children with little hearts, and your heart is big. Listen careful, Black Robe, for I want to help you understand these people. Their hearts are bigger than you know, and they know more about things than you guess.” I feel like the old man could have been talking about Pik.

All the love,

Mark.

PS: Some articles about my house blowing up and pik police! the police article is kinda police propaganda, but that's okay.

www.wawataynews.ca/.../OPP-remain-in-Pikangikum-after-dispute-over-arrest_20185 -

www.wawataynews.ca/.../Explosion-levels-teacher-s-complex-in-Pikingakum-no-injuries-reported_20184

PPS: gaddam, wish i was in ottawa right now... article about the cup coming to Brantwood park where i grew up playing hockey, largely quotes from my bro. http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Eager+bring+Stanley+Ottawa/3291371/story.html

Ryan - Muskrat Dam report

Hi everyone,

It's Saturday and the sun is shining(somewhat) and we are abo0ut to go shopping at the Ochikan Atawagamik (don't know what that means) store, where we will buy food for camp and for ourselves, and maybe even get a treat (I saw a quart of strawberries there yesterday. They looked a little beat up but maybe a pie or crisp or something. what do you all think?)

Later on we might attend some of the "rummage" (Ojibway for "garage") sales that are taking place around town, which might win me some rubber boots which are sorely needed. I wouldn't mind some bannock bread either. Hmmm...We're supposed to have a meeting with a local artist named Don who is consulting us on painting a mural with our afternoon campers. I had big, Diego Rivera-type ideas about histories of oppression and some crazy interpretive figure of salvation but the kids just want a rainbow, wildlife and some happy looking people. Oh well.

Maybe after that we might walk to the airport with the nurse, Kelly, who is from BC and is very nice and invited us over for Chili and Criminal Minds yesterday. As far as white people up north go, she's very tolerant and has yet to make an extremely ignorant comment. Unfortunately, she's suffering from a bit of cabin fever, a vacation from her southern mid-life crisis, which has led her to believe she's doomed to spinsterdom. Too bad she won't consider an aboriginal partner...

Tonight we are having a sleepover with our afternoon campers at the youth centre. Somebody is going to bring a TV and we'll use our DVD player that was lent to us by the Knowlton, the school maintenance guy, who never fails to remind me of Filch from Harry Potter, although he's been less grumpy ever since we decided not to hold camp in one of the classrooms. I'm so excited because I haven't had a sleepover in so long, but I'm also really nervous because I know that the kids's crazy secrets will be divulged in the dark and once I'm in the loop on village gossip then I'm bound never to lower myself from "counsellor" to "camper with executive powers" status. What do we do if they want to play Spin the Bottle or Truth or Dare? You can't deny those at a sleepover, but they can only lead to an awkward final week at camp where nobody looks at each other straight and nobody wants to play any tag-type games for fear of contact. Oh well...At least we'll have pancakes in the morning, and the kids have an excuse to skip church.

The numbers at camp haven't been overwhelming, so our biggest trouble has been trying to figure out how we can dognap the neighbours' puppy and get it back to Thunder Bay. It's far too cute and neglected to not dwell on, and it always comes to greet us from it's perch on the neighbours deck, rolling over and being submissive and using its tractor beam dark eyes and just asking to be put in a cardborard box with air holes cut in labelled "camp supplies" and shipped off to a home where it can sit inside all day and get fat and have its worms treated. Unfortunately, his 6 year old keeper Jayden is almost as cute and would probably be broken hearted if he disappeared, and Jayden wouldn't fit as easily in a box. Oh well...

Ok, I think I'll sign off, wish everyone good luck and good posting and ask whether any of you saw the grand finale of "The Hills"? Can somebody explain what the hell happened at the very end?

Much Love,

Ryan

Erin - Deer Lake

Hello!

We have finished our first week of camp, and I'm already tired. But I'm absolutely loving it; this place is so incredible. Sometimes it's hard to believe I'm still in Canada, it's so different from anywhere or anything I've ever seen before. At the same time, it's hard to imagine Canada could be anywhere but here. The landscape is just trees and clear lakes for miles around.

Deer Lake is a First Nations community of about 900 people. It is very spread out though, and it takes over an hour to walk from one end of town to another. All the houses are very similar, wood buildings in various states of disrepair, usually with two or three families living in them. The roads are either so dusty that every time a car drives up it clogs your throat and nose, and you can barely see, or if it has been raining they are slick mud. You have to wear rainboots and every step has a very satisfying squelchy noise. The people are generally pretty friendly, and will often pick us up and give us a ride if we are walking home. On our first night here we were walking home from the grocery store and a man stopped to pick us up. He had seen a bear on the road up ahead and didn't think we should walk by it!

Not everyone loves us, you can tell that some people resent our presence. One of the hardest parts of our job is integrating ourself with the community. Alot of white people come through here - teachers, nurses, bible thumpers, and camp counselors alike - and not alot of people stay. The community is used to the 'just passing through' attitude that alot of the teachers and such have, so we have to make a definitive effort to show that we want to be a part of life here for the short time we are here.

Our staff consists of myself and Alex who are living together in the teacher's residence, and Tracy and Julie who are both from Deer Lake. We have very different styles as far as running camp goes. Julie, who is only 19, doesn't really seem to love kids or the idea of having to work every day. I think her parents pushed her into this, so it's a bit of a challenge to work with her. Especially considering they sent four southern counselors up last year, and we have only two. The kids keep asking "Where are the rest of you?"

It's funny how no one really makes plans here, they just show up at your door and tell you to get in the car. On Saturday Tracy, who is one of our counselors from Deer Lake, showed up and told us to get in the car, we were going to make pizza. We ended up going down to where the funeral was happening for an elder in the community who had just passed. Then we went and picked up stuff to make pizza, and she just dropped us back at our house and said she would pick us and the pizza up in two hours. It turned out she didn't have a stove of her own and wanted us to make pizzas for her sons birthday party, which we were subsequently invited to. It was buzz lightyear themed.

People don't say alot around here, so much of what is to be communicated needs to be inferred. If tracy had gone to anyone else in the community's door and said that they were going to make pizza, the person would have immidiately known that tracy didn't have a stove so they were making the pizza, and that the pizza was for her son's birthday and that she was inviting them over for dinner. All that from the sentence "Get in the car, we're going to make some pizza". So Alex and I are learning to just roll with it. When she shows up and tells us to get in the car, we're going to the beach, we don't ask, we just get in. Turns out most of the community was at the beach, and we got a chance to meet some more kids and tell them to sign up for camp.

Another wonderful thing in the community is the TV station. It looks exactly like any of the other houses, except that it has a huge dish outside. Inside there is just a camera pointed at a bulletin board where people can post community announcements. They also have auctions on TV where they auction off everything from video games and bikes to pizza and laundry detergent. It's pretty incredible. And it stands unlocked and empty most of the day; anyone can go in and put themselves on TV. We are hoping to use it with the kids... maybe get them to do some Deer Lake News on TV. We're also going to do some literacy programs of our own whcih will consist of Alex and I reading books on TV.

The kids have really loved camp so far, but it is often difficult because we have alot of kids and only the four of us. When we do crafts, every single one of them wants to show you what they did, and with almost 50 kids it can get a bit hectic. I'm practically swimming through children thrusting their crafts in my face, pulling on my hair, and shouting and asking for help gluing this or tying that. By the end of the day I am generally covered in paint. And they LOVE pulling on my braid. They find it completely baffling and will ask me constantly "Is this real?" "Why do you have that?"

But I love each and every one of them already. They are so eager and excited to be doing camp, they're just these little warm balls of potential. More than anywhere else I've ever worked I feel like these kids will benefit from being given the tools for knowledge and creating. They are so appreciative of our being here and giving them something to do with their summer, and for just paying attention to them. Alot of their parents are struggling with alcoholism, or are unemployed. Alot of kids come to camp just for the snacks and will tell us they didn't get any breakfast.

This past weekend we were hoping to go fishing on Saturday with a man from the community named Roland, but we couldn't go because there had been a shooting earlier Saturday morning. One guy is dead and the other is in critical care and had to be helicoptered out. Thirty police officers were flown in and there has been a full blown investigation. Some of the police officers are staying in the teacherages and we have made friends with them. When we told us what we were doing for the summer, they just asked "Why on earth would you want to come here?" I tried to tell them the value I felt the experience would have, and how good it feels to be helping people who need you. Their response was "Well it's not so bad here, at least you're not in Pikangikum" (That's where Mark is right now).

Even though our fishing trip had to be cancelled, Roland had us over for a fish fry for lunch anyways. He is an absolutely amazing man. He just recently had to step down from the school board, which is a crime, because he is so committed to the kids here, and their education. He is intelligent and very compassionate, and just overall an incredibly interesting person to talk to. He could have gotten a job in Winnipeg, he was saying, but he wanted to stay here, where the kids really need someone to fight for them. When he was on the board he used to have them put aside funding for the literacy camps. He showed us some videos of stuff they had done in the past and it looked amazing. We have very limited resources compared to what previous years have been allowed. It is a shame. I think he will be back on the board in the fall. For the sake of the kids here I hope so.

Anyways, I have to be heading off, I need to go buy snack supplies for next week and plan out some activities. I will try to post again before the end of the summer. I hope you are all happy and healthy in your own adventures,

Much love,

Erin

To start

Hi everyone,

Welcome to our blog. Personally, this is my very first experience with a form that I have never before felt drawn to use. Why now? Most basically, I want to keep in contact with the people that have become so important to me over the past four years. The reasons for this desire are various, but one of the most prominent is my confidence that such interesting people are bound to have varied experiences and to interpret them in a meaningful way, whether they're teaching English in China or France, learning to make books in Toronto or making music in Halifax.

In a broader sense, I have high hopes for the continuation - in some form - of a community of people that I love and cherish. I've had conversations with all of you that have deeply affected me, altered my perspectives and goals, and these conversation are necessarily ongoing. They change as we do, and I imagine this as a site which can record some of these shifts.
Let's see!

Natalie