Briarpatch articles from March 2004

Briarpatch archives from March 2004

Intro.
March 1, 2004... "They're cast in the same mould," "birds of a feather," or "two peas in a pod." We have a lot of expressions to acknowledge the resemblances present within families. Some expressions, like "The nut doesn't fall far from the tree," might even...

Racially Made (In)visible Women Warriors.
March 1, 2004... Racially Made (In)visible Women Warriors I have often found mySelf and Witnessed Others elevated to pedestal then crushed to floor shell-shocked world rocked by our efforts to take up Leadership in...

Walk a mile in my moccasins: what's the story behind the rebellious child? The stealing child? The fainting child?
March 1, 2004... I recently went to our family reunion. My parents both had died and now there were only my siblings left to celebrate family get-togethers. I noticed no one spoke of them except to compare one brother to our father. I realized that they, my...

Wounded by welfare cuts.
March 1, 2004... When most kids were learning to read, write and speak English, 54-year-old Mary Ann Smyth was learning to set wire snares, skin rabbits, dry and smoke meat and sew hides together to make warm winter blankets. She was born on her parent's trap...

Around the table discussion about the barriers.
March 1, 2004... After church, an older woman came up to my friend and I and said, "I guess we used to call you people Negroes. What do I call you now?" My friend said, "Well, 'Sue' would be fine." Such is the strength and humour with which African women...

A labour minute: Ann and the Klan.
March 1, 2004... For generations the family of CP Ellis had been among the poorest white folks in Durham, North Carolina. Ellis worked two jobs and still saw his family suffocating in poverty. In frustration he blamed his problems on Black people and the civil...

Isolation among Black women of Caribbean ancestry.
March 1, 2004... The experiences of settlement and integration for Black women of Caribbean ancestry living in Saskatchewan have gone largely unnoticed because of the nature of the geographic context within which they live. This invisibility is strongly...

Canadian, eh? Although Canadians everywhere take advantage of their right to dress almost any way they choose, some clothes still prompt surprising remarks.
March 1, 2004... "So what's the temperature in Iraq?" I looked around and realized that the nurse on duty was asking me this apparently irrelevant question. "How would I know?" I responded with a grin, still not quite getting what was going on here. Considering...

The true name of her condition.
March 1, 2004... Between 1991 and 1996, over 4,000 women immigrated to Saskatchewan. Among these were women from war-torn countries or countries where there has been high risk of exposure to incidents of extreme trauma, sexual violence, and disasters such as...

The real world of racialized women.
March 1, 2004... When I was first asked to write this article, many questions raced through my mind. Where does one begin? Can we tie the barriers we face in a neat package and say this is it? Or is it complex and hard to accept for both sides--those who are...

When cultures differ: a glimpse into the experiences of an immigrant Canadian family.
March 1, 2004... My family immigrated to Canada in 1973 and our links are to India and Pakistan. We left both of these countries because of discrimination. In India, Muslims faced discrimination from a predominately Hindu population, and Indian Muslims who...

The need to belong: a look at the situation facing refugees uprooted from their homes and dropped into a strange place.
March 1, 2004... Moving to another house is a stressful experience, full of changes and surprises and sometimes disappointments. It takes time to become familiar with the new place even though you have all your belongings and your family. The experience of...

Preservation and sharing of traditional ways: the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples draws to an end this year. Some of the activities were life-changing.
March 1, 2004... On a very warm workday afternoon in May 2001 an email arrived calling for indigenous women to attend and submit abstracts and papers for the 6th Annual International Indigenous Women's Wellness Conference in Hawaii in August. At the time I was...

Rinsing off the Whites of Eggs.
March 1, 2004... Rinsing off the Whites of Eggs ... and out swims all them jackfish right out from under them reeds rhymes with reads as if with lungs and wings and old and bold they swim the air a circle placing rocks around...

Honour Song.
March 1, 2004... Honour Song Helen Betty Osborne warrior fallen snow angel rising formless because I took off my skin I understand the broken bones and bleeding flesh woman haunting in this memory I see your fear and...

Educated Guess.
March 1, 2004... Ani diFranco Righteous Babe Music, 2004. Ani DiFranco is a songwriter, musician and feminist whose unique style has taken yet another creative turn on her new CD, Educated Guess. She continues to define her career with this intimate,...

Five-fingered people.(Thoughts From Our American Sisters)
March 1, 2004... We call ourselves "five-fingered People" to convey humaneness in extending love and peace. We recognize that the four sacred elements--earth, water, fire and air--are the four sacred elements of the universe and the constitutional elements...

Creative solutions.(Thoughts From Our American Sisters)
March 1, 2004... Creativity comes as instinctually to a human being as does the need to survive. In fact, we need to create to survive. We create our surroundings of shelter and community, and we create our families. Some people create something out of...

Message to the Seventh Generation.(Thoughts From Our American Sisters)
March 1, 2004... Grandson, take my hand, walk with me and listen to my story. Let me tell you who I was, so that you can remember who you are. The time that I live in is one of crises. As the caretakers of this Earth, our people have been charged with a heavy...

A return to authentic traditional perspectives will stop abuse.(Thoughts From Our American Sisters)
March 1, 2004... I was raised to be a pre-missionary, stand-alone, traditional Dakota woman. Before the coming of Europeans, the women of this land we call Turtle Island were not the drudges and second-class citizens portrayed in European literature and films....

Too many babies.(My Opinion)
March 1, 2004... After using birth control--oral, injection and intrauterine device--for 23 years, I can say I've done my part to keep the world's population to a manageable number. So when my mother suggested I get my tubes tied, it was like the clouds...