Last week I wrote about the country called Wendake and the peoples of the Wendat confederacy, some of whom had lived in the land they called Wendake for more than one thousand years when the Wendat confederacy was destroyed soon after the arrival of the French. In telling Wendake’s story I intentionally kept mentions of the … Continue reading Life in Wendake vs. life in France
“Rome was destroyed, Greece was destroyed, Persia was destroyed, Spain was destroyed. All great countries are destroyed. Why not yours? How much longer do you really think your own country will last? Forever?” – Old man in Catch 22 by Joseph Heller *** There was a country called Wendake. The people who gave Wendake its … Continue reading A country called Wendake
In 1798 in Ohio, a Methodist minister named James B. Finley met with members of the Wyandot nation and asked them about their God and his. The Wyandots were descendants of Wendat refugees who, more than a century before, had fled from a land that kept changing names, and had just seven years earlier been … Continue reading Amerindian Gods
This week, a Nepalese coworker mentioned that, in the Nepali language, the word you use to refer to your cousins is the same as the word you use to refer to your siblings, and the words you use to refer to your aunts and uncles are the same you use to refer to your mother … Continue reading Mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters
Regular readers know I’ve become interested in the idea that it’s very difficult to understand the past unless you can gather enough context to develop what some call “historical empathy.” In short, people from the past have world views different enough from ours that their actions and experiences can’t be interpreted through our own sets … Continue reading A circular past and an extended present
The country where I live has been talking a lot about anthems this week. What does it mean to stand for a national anthem, and what does the anthem itself stand for? Georges E. Sioui — an historian and Wendat who lives in Vancouver — remembers being taught the Canadian anthem at his Lorette reserve … Continue reading Standing for anthems
As Canada celebrates 150 years, it’s worthwhile to think back to an earlier time when southwestern Ontario was a collection of villages. The population of just the area between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron was around 20,000 or 30,000, spread out over about 20 small communities. The economy was different than it is today, but still … Continue reading Ontario
If, hypothetically, you wanted to define “historic Canadian values,” you’d have a hard time. For example, I’m currently working my way through a large book about the history of the Wendat, a confederation of nations that ruled southern Ontario for centuries, with ancestral roots in the region running back even further. Today the Wendat are better known … Continue reading The sex-positive Huron-Wendat
