Red Cedar

i am still here – but leaving this afternoon to get my flight out – in the meantime working away at my small tasks to get finished before i leave.

this morning i left my car at home to take the bus in from roberts creek because i didn’t want to leave the vehicle parked at the ferry terminal for two weeks. as i was crossing the street in front of the gumboot cafe to get to the bus stop, a car pulled out of the cohousing development and up to the stop sign where i was crossing. as is customary in our safe little part of the world, the guy driving the car asked me if i wanted a ride to the ferry (for where else could i be going at 5:30 in the morning with my backpack on)….

i felt no strange energy and so i got in the car with the fellow who (it turns out) is an oceanographer teaching at ubc who comes from a background of eco-activism and works with concepts of earth-literacy and community education. he is involved in the ruby lake eco-centre that is being built (and that i am super interested in being involved in), and is on the education committee. he lives with his family (two little boys and his wife) in the cohousing development down the street from my house….. basically we talked for the two hours it took to get from roberts creek to downtown vancouver (he gave me a ride straight to work which meant i didn’t have to heft the backpack onto the bus and all over the place) – and it turned out we knew a bunch of eco-people in common, shared similar political frustrations and histories, and had worked on similar projects in the past.

i like being reminded of how easily connections with others can happen – of how random the universe can be – that i would be on my way to do one thing, and allowing something to intersect with that has opened up a different set of possibilities for me – in this case, the possibility to get involved in community eco-education and maybe learn more about my neighbours.

this is very good – as it has been an idea of mine to get involved with the ruby lake project, and meeting someone who i could have an easy connection with is a definite push from the universe to get going on it – besides the fact it is really time for me to meet more people in my community and stop being such a hermit.

when the day starts off this interesting, what other chance encounters are out there?

this is a photograph of my great-grandma from my dad’s maternal side – ida olson (yes, she’s the one with the gun).

my mother has come for a visit this weekend and as part of my birthday gift she presented me with a slim photo album containing shots of ida’s life around 1901 in minnesota. it seems, that as a young and well-educated woman, ida ended up a teacher in a residential school (the type of live-in school where stolen indian children were sent away from their families to be stripped of their heritage and culture). this small set of quite beautiful photos contains a number of pictures of first nations people (as well as photos of ida’s house and friends) taken in that same time period. she has captioned them all in a tidy script, so we might now see something of that time and possibly understand some small shred.

what to make of this legacy? some of my family have only been on this continent for one generation, and some for several – and i have long been aware of the ways in which i have benefited from the legacy of genocide and colonialism directed against the first nations people of north america. this volume is the first indication of a family link to direct complicity in the re-education of native peoples – and for that i have a woe in recognizing that any white people who were present during those times not only had a benefit, but a direct impact on the lives of those so wholly subjugated by the ever-expanding powers.

this gift is a reminder of a cruel legacy – and for that i am glad to receive it. click *more* to see a few more photos.

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