This essay was written in 2016, when the Edmonton Journal cut its staff so severely, part of the Postmedia move to ‘consolidate’ newsrooms across the land. I didn’t publish it then; an acquaintance who works in journalism pointed out that it was a raw moment for everyone ‘in the field’ and not the time for…
Tag: engagement
Day 23: Billie, Under the Moon
how do ceremonies work? what magic might be proper, i do not know, except that once, billie asked her aunties for advice about her heartache. billie on the cusp of nineteen, the moon something near full and trailing up into the opening in the sky, velvet shadows cast in heavy island grass. the quiz came from…
Skirt, The Issue: A Moment to Address the Headdress
I go out with the regalia I’ve earned – usually, a pen and book of some sort, because I’m a writer. I know that having the pen and book doesn’t make me a writer; using them does.
Skirt: The Issue – Part Two
Fist-Fight at the Sunrise Ceremony, circa 1996. Okay,there wasn’t any fist fight. Not out loud. Not with physical fists. But, i wager that, on some level, it looked just like a fist fight. What it was billed as was an interfaith ceremony. I was attending because i was working, at that time, with a Traditional…
Skirt: the Issue – Part One
Illegal religions make for subterranean ways of saying things. That’s the only way these religions can survive. And sadly, just as humans exhibit a natural pull toward organising our spiritual lives, we seem to find it al too easy to make the jump from sharing and coordinating our impulse to acknowledge Deity, to proscribing the…
Prairiepomes 