Month: July 2020

What Would Our Lives Look Like

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Without ‘cultural appropriation’, what would our lives look like?

Consider: clothing, housing, furniture, education, food, tools, sports, arts, transportation, technologies, medicine and other sciences. (Where did your style and material of clothing actually originate?)

Appropriation, imitation and adaptation are part of our cultural and individual growth.

‘Cultural identity’ and pride can still thrive without the ‘cultural purity’ of living as our ancient ancestors once did, or with only what our ‘heritage cultures’ created and accomplished without ‘cross- cultural influences’ throughout history.

May Humanity grow in wisdom and understanding, not condemnation.

(July 31, 2020- Shelley Wilson)

The weaving is by my daughter Alissa and the painting is by me.

Memories and A Photograph

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This photo flew off the fridge door when I was wondering what to add to the Memories of Northeastern Ontario weaving. I understood when this happened that my Dad wanted me to place it in the area of Winter and snow on the left. My Sister, Bev, took this photo shortly after Dad passed from the physical body. Bev was on her yacht in Southern Ontario when a country song about hunting and fishing and love began to play. She felt an urge to look into the sky. There was this cloud formation that looks like someone on a snowmobile moving across the snow. Dad had loved snowmobiling. Then she had a vision of Dad and Mom laughing merrily as they danced to the music across the water. Dad was an ‘outdoors-man’- a hunter fisherman ‘huntin’ and ‘fishin’ like in the song. We were a modern family of ‘hunters and gatherers’ for food. We also grew much of our food on a quarter acre of mostly clay ground by a lake. Our ancestors did much the same in other lands and cultures and climes. Some of us even lived the lives of some of those ancestors too. Reincarnation puts a whole new slant on the subject of ‘cultural appropriation’.

July 30, 2020- Shelley Wilson)

Memories and A Rock

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The wire decorated rock now at the bottom of my weaving is from Northeastern Ontario. This rock was gifted to me by a friend of Polish/Welsh heritage. It was given as a reminder of my late Father and Mother’s trips to the eastern shores of Lake Superior where they’d sometimes gather a few ‘Water Polished Rocks’ from the shoreline to bring home. Growing up, I recall Dad often gathered interesting rocks from the wilderness. They’d come to live with us in the house for a while then went to live outside again. Mom often collected rocks too. The jewellery kind. Rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings of stones, metals and other materials made in Canada and other countries. The Dragonfly earrings on the weaving were hers. She’d buy, wear and give her jewellery away. Like Mom, I knew we’d all worn rocks and metals as jewellery in many lives and many cultures. Reincarnation puts a whole new slant on the subject of. ‘cultural appropriation’.

(July 30, 2020- Shelley Wilson)

Memories: Details

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I wove this little ‘medicine bag’ now at the bottom of this Memories weaving after my son Aaron gifted the woven bracelet he bought for me as a ‘souvenir’. It is now the ‘handle’ of the bag. It contains dried sage and cedar from Northeastern Ontario that I took from a smudge bundle given to me by my English/Anishinaabe friend last Christmas. The dollar store fringe is imitation leather. I do have another genuine leather ‘medicine bag’ that I received when I attended the 100th year Commemoration of Treaty 9 in the Matachewan area at the invitation of my Anishinaabe friend. I have glimpsing memories of my lives as ancestral Grandmothers and Grandfathers of First Nations long ago. I lived near Lake Superior before the ‘white man’ came. I lived on the Plains before there was a Canada-US border. I lived on the West Coast of what is now British Columbia. I’ve worn many ‘skins’ in my many lives. I’ve worn many feathers too. Reincarnation puts a whole new slant on the subject of ‘cultural appropriation’.

(July 29, 2020- Shelley Wilson)

Memories of Northeastern Ontario: Decorative Details

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This decorative hanging on the right side of my Memories weaving has wooden beads, seed beads, partridge feathers, leather and wire-bound rock. It was a hand-crafted gift from a friend in Northeastern Ontario. She has an English and Anishinaabe heritage and remembers her life as the Grandmother of our ‘status’ Anishinaabe friend. I once had a vision of the latter as a ‘white woman’ in Victorian England. I saw her wearing a long, full dress of that time. Reincarnation puts a whole new slant on the subject of‘cultural appropriation’.

(July 29, 2020- Shelley Wilson)