About the Natives 1.

“Turtle Island. It’s on the map indeed, but you won’t find it by name. This is the name of Canada. This name given by of its native people. Some of us would call them “the red Indians”. No. It’s wrong, pejorative and inappropriate in many ways. They call themselves Native Canadians. I won’t go into details of their history or their sociology. More than 60 different Indian nations lived and live in Canada today. I’ve became an honorary member of one of them. The Ojibway or Chippewa for that matter. They call themselves Anishinaabe. Which means “the original people”.  This nation lives in their original territory which extends from North-Central United States to Southern Canada. Today there are 200,000 Ojibway Indians living throughout their traditional territories.”

“After a year or so living and working in Toronto I’ve decided to take some time off to gain some knowledge of the history of this land and its people. While I was walking on

Bloor Street

which is the longest horizontal street in Toronto some kid on a skateboard rolled beside me and handed me a leaflet. Ignoring the contents of it I quickly sunk it to my jacket pocket. Later that day while I was heading home on the subway after a brief shopping trip I was looking for the receipt what I’ve got from that smiley cashier girl at the supermarket. I’ve turned out my pockets and found not the receipt but the leaflet. This leaflet invited me to the opening of an exhibition to the Native Canadian Centre. I can’t recall the title of it but it was about the Ojibway and Cree Nation’s history and their lives today. Well, I cannot see better opportunity to start my education right there but anywhere else. I went there the following day to check it out. To my surprise the opening ceremony was brief and free of any frills and long and boring speeches. Boys were standing in a circle in Indian regalia drumming and singing. An elderly woman also in regalia-Barb, whom I didn’t know then- walked in every directions with a large seashell in her one  hand and  a large bundle of feather in her other ,whisking away a grey smoke what came out of the shell and  chanting something monotone in an unknown language. The whole event was went on in a somewhat homely atmosphere. To my bigger surprise it was opened by Graham Greene the famous actor of native Canadian descent. He who played the supporting role of Kicking Bird in the movie: Dances with Wolves.  After the opening some of us had a chance to engage in conversations with him. He was free of all celebrity allures. In fact I’ve met with a person of great wisdom and charisma. After visiting the exhibition I was still intrigued about that ritual and the language what that elderly woman used on the opening ceremony. I’ve decided to ask around about it. I went straight to the reception desk and to my surprise I’ve found the very same woman behind the desk who conducted the ceremony. What a coincidence! I’ve started to ask her about it and after conversing an hour she helped me to enrol into an Ojibway or anishnaabe language course. On this course I’ve learned basics of the language which I’ve found it easy to learn compared to my native Hungarian language. In fact there are some similarities in pronunciation.”