Canadian Aboriginal Perspectives L LANDMARK “
from a culture where mothers are the heart of the community because we give life to the next generation.
H In my language the word for pregnant is Maajiishkaa:
to carry water. It’s also about the weight that we carry as First Nations people, whether we want to or not. We have felt silenced for generations, and I reflected on truth. I thought of how truth always surfaces and that we are the legacy of our ancestors. At the time I wanted to uplift by sharing where we draw our strength from in times of fear or doubt. I thought of the state our earth is in, the earth we all live on, the giver of life. I wrote this poem in 2009 and began performing
it in 2010. Keesic Douglas shot the film and it premiered at the imagineNative Film + Media Festival in October 2011. The video was filmed in a burned down residential school on my reserve, called “The Ruins” which is the historical landmark here in Wikwemikong. My ancestors and elders were put in residential schools to be assimilated as part of a vision of economic development of the natural resources of this country, Canada.
istorical Landmark” means many different things to me: mainly our connection to the earth, strength in being a mother, and coming
When I wrote this poem I was taking a class called Contemporary Canada. I was frustrated at how briefly the course
touched on anything related to First Nations people. As a native student in that class, some people expected me to know everything about every first nation issue or cultural belief. Once someone actually stopped me in the hallway and said “Are you native? Is that the right word? Do you like being called Native? Or do you prefer to be called Aboriginal, or Indigenous?” I just looked at the person and said “Yes, I am whatever the new word for it is now”. I felt like a walking historical landmark.
// With her roots in Wikwemikong on Manitoulin Island,
Lena Recollet is a versatile artist. An alumni of the Centre for Indigenous Theatre, her diverse training led her to theatrical roles requiring singing, dancing and acting such as: The Rez Sisters (The Centre for Indigenous Theatre), The Unnatural and Accidental Women (Native Earth Performing Arts), Creation My Mother’s Story (The Banff Centre Aboriginal Dance Performance Program). With the production help of Red Cloud Studios, Lena acted, directed and wrote her first two minute short film and received the Cynthia Lickers Sage Award for Emerging Talent from ImagineNative Film Festival for her film “Eggs Instead” 2006. Lena is also active as a spoken word artist, and in 2011 had the opportunity to open for Buffy Ste. Marie at the Phoenix Concert Hall.
iAM March 2012 9
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