Thoughts on a Drive to Ogden Point

... detail from painting of Richard Adams Pilling ...

Duncan was meeting a friend at Ogden Point, which is one of the breakwaters on the Pacific Ocean. Rebecca was dropping him off, so for an outing I hopped in the car with Rebecca and all three of us chatted on the way to the ocean -- he and the friend were going for a walk and a pre-ordered schnitzel, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes from the German Club – order the day before, pick up between 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm. I hopped out of the car for a quick photo at the waterfront on a cold blustery winter day. The wind went through my braided hair puffing it up as though it were a wig. The wind could only make his hair lazily sway, so slowly that when the wind blew east, his hair was still on the west wind’s sway.

On the 20-minute drive home Rebecca and I begin to talk about some of her morning meetings. one of which was themed indigenous Intellectual property (over songs and family ceremonial objects for example). I entered the conversation with Rebecca with a bit of in trepidation. On our drive to the waterfront with Duncan she had thrown three large words, back-to-back into the conversation. I didn’t know any of them, had to stop her, and then when she explained each, I had to figure out what all three in the same phrase meant. We had to tell her we are not her interlocuters, only her family.

At any rate, on the way home I had questions about what belongs to everyone, what belongs to groups, what belongs to families, what can be bought and sold and whose decision is it to do these things. Transsystemic Rights over Property – that was our topic. I'm lucky. When I can't understand a concept, I can ask the professor directly. “Professor?”

Some of trans systemic law issues are hard for me to understand. If I put things back into what I understand in colonial law to see the issues more clearly, then I can make the transition back, whether the two line up of thought are similar or not. That isn’t what matters to me; what matters is that I can understand both ways of thinking.

... owned by Moiya Wood ...

So, I was thinking about the dispossession of my father’s property, in particular. There was no song he owned, and nothing that belonged to the family.

On the matter of songs, I have probably sung as many songs as most. When I was bored in church, I would often open the hymn book and memorize all of the verses of a song. I know must of the songs, so there must have been quite a few down moments.

When I had a family and we would be in the car on long drives, I would make sure to teach new songs to my kids. I had done my homework. I had a small book of Canadian folk songs in the glove compartment. The book was held together with an elastic band. The first page was page 3 and the index at the back was missing everything after the letter – P -. The cover was long gone, the top right-hand pages were folded dog-eared and the contents of the whole book would separate into two pieces if I weren’t careful. I didn’t ever think of replacing the book, since it did its job -- the index a good place for me to find the name of a song I hadn’t taught yet.

So, I was still worrying about the idea that there are songs that can’t be sung … because there are property rights, copyright rights etc. on the song.

... detail from painting of Richard Adams Pilling ...

Rebecca told me that the songs she is thinking about are ones done in performance, where money is exchanged. I've never really thought about the problem of music as a business, having never sung a song for money.

To return to the selling of the contents of a house, and what parts of it belong to the family, I remember that when Doral sold his house, he no longer needed the contents. 

He told his children to come and take what they needed. I don’t know of many other people who have dispossessed themselves of the lifetime of coming-and-going 45 years in a house that way.

Wyona and Earl were not in a position to come and take anything, Glen and Richard had no place to store things, so everything was distributed to 4 others. 

At any rate, everything was divided up, and taken from the house, whomever in the family came by took what they needed or wanted.

... detail from painting of Richard Adams Pilling ...

Moiya took a painting of Richard Adams Pilling standing beside his ox team and his wagon as he drove it around the province in celebration of the Alberta’s 50th Anniversary. 

And lucky me. 

When I go to Moiya’s house I can stand on her stairs and look up at his face and wonder if I would know him to meet him. 

But I know she owns the painting now, not the family.

To get to think about what belongs to everyone, and what belongs to individuals, and to try to sort out the difference with Rebecca in a 20-minute drive is quite the gift.

Arta