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| Contents of my bag, circling from the bag, down to the left and then back up again: tobacco in red cloth, sitting on the bag, a card featuring the Witness Blanket, a post card from Winnipeg, a Witness Blanket commemorative coin, a hand-stitched red strawberry sachet pin, Sooke spruce salt, a museum pencil, two hand-knit dish clothes |
Then there was an announcement about what was on the table to eat.
I got stuck on the first course: freshly harvested mushroom soup.
That was the end of my diet right there.
I no longer found it hard to juggle a bowl of soup, cutlery, a napkin and a plate for food.
The meat course was salmon, moose, and chicken.
Nobody was more in heaven than I was. Skip the desserts and just stay with the entrees. That was my plan.
I sat by people I didn’t know.
I like how conversations go at meal times where few people know each other. : slow conversation as we introduce ourselves to each other – and then rich conversations about our lives and how we find ourselves connected to the Witness Blanket.
As the evening grew to an end, Rebecca pulled out her clay pendants to give to people.
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| ... commemorative coin ... |
Off it comes and on to someone neck and another pendant replaces that first one that was on her neck.
I sat by a woman who asked me if I thought she could have two of them.
Her grandson had one and she had one.
I said no, Rebecca only gives out one per person.
The woman asked me why I hadn’t picked out one.
I told her that I was Rebecca’s mother, so I already had some at home. I should have told her the word “some”.
She asked me how many I had. I said nine, though I am sure I have many more than that. Nine is just a number I picked out of my head so that I wouldn’t seem too greedy.
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... commemorative coin on Witness Blanket ...
The pattern of the coin is replicated on the blanket,or maybe that is the other way around. |
I have taken so many out of the pile and put them up on my wall, that I have even taken some down and given them back to her to go into the bags of pendants she carries with her.
“Nine!”, the woman said. I laughed and said, “I am sure Rebecca is going to be just fine with you taking one for your granddaughter as well. I was just teasing you. Go for it.”
I want to say one thing about the Witness Coin that was in the bag.
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| ... decorative corner of the Witness Blanket ... |
I have a small group of things that I love, but that have no real purpose and I thought of putting it there.
Then I decided – no it will go into my coin purse.
Then whenever I am searching for change, my fingers will come upon it and I will remember the Indigenous oral ceremony that finalized an historic agreement with the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.
Arta
The feast was truly incredible! Did you try the oolichan grease? It also made me want to learn more about mushrooms, as I mostly gather leafy plants and recently started hunting animals. Fungus is the next relationship :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Keegitah, for mentioning the oolichan grease. I am going to do a post on it right now.
ReplyDeleteI loved calling you by your Indigenous name above. I am curious about starting to hunt animals. How are you going to do that. We have one hunter in our family -- Richard.
ReplyDeleteIn a couple of weeks he is going out to get a deer. One of his nieces has asked if she can come along hunting. She doesn't want to pull the trigger, but she wants to be involved in cutting up the carcass and bringing the meat home. Who would have thought that a niece would ask an uncle for that favour.
As for getting into a relationship with mushrooms, Rebecca mostly does that at the grocery store. While other people are picking up different kinds of fruit, she is adding different kinds of mushrooms to her cart. If there are six kinds there, she will probably choose five of them. No one laughed harder than she when the new young clerk at Save-On asked her, "What is the name of this weird mushroom". She had to tell him that it is not weird and that some of his customers might be offended though she was not, and then she gave him the name of the mushrooms. Oh, isn't getting into relationship with mushrooms just the best!
I love your oolichan grease post! I also love being called by my name, Keegitah. When I was a missionary I was in Arizona, spanish speaking, and my last name (Borrows) was too close to burros which means "donkey" or "one who is slow of speech" so I used my name, Keegitah instead for 18 months. It means "orator", the opposite of burros in spanish haha!
ReplyDeleteI am happy to hear your niece is interested in hunting with her uncle Richard. Awesome to see young women getting out there to harvest meat, or at least be part of it. I think its good as a meat eater to at least participate in a kill once in your life, to know what you're doing every time you eat chicken or cow. Close the loop a bit more.
I didn't know Rebecca loves fungus! I'll have to talk to her more about it.
yes to fungus! This week's hot and sour soup does have fresh and dried shitake, in addition to left over fresh brown crimini and then some dried lily buds! yummy. I couldn't find the mushroom powder at the moment i would have added it, so that will have to wait til the next batch.
DeleteLast night I was at that place that adults know too well: too tired to even get as far as being able to find a bed and too tired to stay up. So I sat by the warmth of the living room gas fire and listening to Rebecca laughing out loud as you described borrows and burros. She hadn't thought of that. Neither had I.
DeleteI will send a secnd-hand report when Naomi goes with Richard on the hunt. I am looking to the meat as hamburger which I turn into the most delicious chili ever.
Take care, Keegitah.