Otterwoman: A Full Moon Tale

If you ever find yourself on a boat in the Great Lake Huron and you find your way between the tip of the Bruce Peninsula and the magical island called Manitoulin, you will find yourself in water that is now called Georgian Bay.  It has not always been called that, but that is another story.  If you keep sailing to the southeast and find your way around Giant’s Tomb Island, then between Penetanguishene Peninsula and Beausoleil Island through what they now call “The Gap” you will enter the waters of Severn Sound.  If you keep travelling to the most southeastern part of the Sound you will find yourself in Sturgeon Bay. 

And there is you look very carefully and are in the right place at the right time, you could see otters swimming and playing in the waters near the shore.  You might get a glimpse of one catching a fish, or a frog or playing with its young.

Along the shoreline of Sturgeon Bay there is a trail.  It used to be a railroad track that carried passengers from the city to the north and back again, but that was a long time ago.  Now the tracks are gone and the trail is only used for walking or riding a bike.

Well it happened, one summer night, just as the full moon was rising in the east, that a man decided to take a walk along the trail.  He was making himself walk even though his joints hurt and he was worried about what the future might hold.  He could see the last oranges of the sunset through the trees that lined the shore.  After some walking he came to an opening in the trees and he stood on the trail looking out over the lake.  The stars were coming out and over the lake hung constellation of the Big Bear, almost touching the water, as if she was reaching down from the sky to get a drink of lake water.  Her stars were reflected in the glassy still water and the sight took his breath away.

Behind him the full moon was rising and the glow spread to the lake.  Suddenly he saw a small head moving through the water and the thick rounded tail of an otter.  He watched the otter dive and resurface, as the starlight made its wet fur twinkle.  Mesmerized he followed the otter’s progress.  And then it seemed as though the otter’s head got larger and part of it gleamed white in the moonlight.  The otter swam towards him now and he could see long strands flowing out behind the head.  Rubbing his eyes, he saw to his amazement that there was a woman’s head where the otter’s had been. 

As she got closer to the shore, she rose out of the water, long brown hair streaming over her body like the water plants that lived in the lake.  Suddenly she saw the man.  Her black eyes twinkled in the moonlight and her skin shone.  The man was frozen to the spot but the woman smiled, turned and dove under the waves.

The man searched the surface of the water with his eyes, looking for a sight of this magical creature, but to no avail.  He paced back and forth along the shore and climbed down to the water’s edge, straining for a glimpse of her.  The moon rose higher in the sky and the stars got brighter but even with all this heavenly light, there was no sign of the woman or the otter.

Just as he was about to give up and go home, she surfaced.  She was swimming on her back holding something to her chest with both hands.  The woman was heading straight for where the man was standing, knee deep in the water by this time.  He didn’t even notice that he was wet, so concentrated was he on her progress. He didn’t notice his joints and was completely absorbed in that very moment with no thought of the future.  When she got very close to him she flipped over and stood up.  Walking towards him she held her hands out and he could see that she was holding a beautiful big rainbow trout.  It was luminous in the moonlight and it’s colours seemed to vibrate.

The man put out his hands and she gave him the fish.  Then she burst into laughter, turned and dove into the water again.  He watched the ripple on the surface until far out in the bay, he saw an otter’s head surface.  He heard a far away laugh and then it was gone.

The man carried the beautiful trout home.  It seemed to glow and light up the path and it lit up his kitchen before he could turn on a light.  The man had always loved underwater creatures and found fish fascinating and beautiful.  But this was the most beautiful fish he had ever seen.  He sat up well into the night painting a likeness of the fish on a piece of wood, trying to capture it’s light, it’s beauty.

When the sun came up, he was finally satisfied with his painting and he knew it was time to honour the trout.  He lit a fire in the yard and filleted the fish.  The skin and entrails, he left in the woods for the fox that visited there.  The bones went into the garden to share their minerals with the plants that grew there.  And then he called all his neighbours to come to his yard for breakfast.  He fried the fish over the fire and his neighbours brought raspberries from their canes and plums from their trees.  They brought bread they had just baked and yogurt from the tops of their fridges.  He told them the story of the otter and the woman and the fish and they savoured the gift of the trout in their mouths and marvelled at its taste.  They told stories of gifts that had come their way just when they were needed.  The fish and the friendship and the magic of the lake fed and sustained them for days to come and the story became one that was told on warm summer nights when the moon was full.

I am the Light of Happiness

Tunirrusiangit is Inuktitut for “the gift they gave”.  It is the name of an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario of the art of Inuk artists Kenojuak Ashevak and her nephew Tim Pitsiulak.

Here is the Inuktitut “about the artists”.  

ᑎᑎᖅᑐᒐᖅᑎᓅᖓᔪᑦ

ᑭᙵᕐᓃᓐᙶᖅᑑᒃ (ᑕᐃᔭᐅᖃᑦᑕᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ Cape Dorset) ᓄᓇᕗᑦ, ᕿᓐᓄᐊᔪᐊᖅ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ (1927–2013), ᐃᓕᑕᕆᔭᐅᔾᔪᑎᑖᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᑲᓇᑕᒥ, ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᐅᔪᖅ “ᐊᓈᓇᑦᓯᐊᖅ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓴᓇᐅᒐᖏᓐᓄᑦ.” ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᐅᑦᓯᐊᖅᑐᖅ ᑎᑎᖅᑐᒐᖅᑎᒍᑦ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᖅᑐᐊᖏᑦᑎᒍᑦ ᑕᐸᐃᕐᓇᖅᑐᓂᓪᓗ ᐊᑐᕈᓐᓇᕐᓂᖓᓂᒃ ᐊᒥᐊᕈᑎᓂᒃ. ᐋᓯᕙᒃ ᐱᕕᐊᕆᓪᓚᕆᑦᓯᒪᔭᖓ ᐱᑦᓯᐅᓛᑉ (1967–2016), ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᐅᒻᒪᕆᓕᓚᐅᕐᒥᔪᖅᑕᐅᖅ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓴᓇᐅᒐᖏᓐᓅᖓᔪᓄᑦ ᑮᑕᑲᐃᓐᓇᐹᓘᒐᓗᐊᖅ ᑎᑎᖅᑐᒐᖅᑎᐅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᐆᒪᔪᙳᐊᓂᒃ ᐊᖑᓇᓱᑦᑎᐅᑉ ᐃᔨᖏᑦᑎᒍᑦ, ᐊᑐᖅᓯᓐᓈᖅᓱᓂ ᐅᐊᔭᒨᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᖃᓪᓗᓈᓃᙶᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᓄᓇᓕᓐᓂ.  

Kenojuak Ashevak (1927 – 2013) lived much of her life in Kinngait (previously known a Cape Dorset, Nunavut and is known as the “grandmother of Inuit art.”  You may recognize her iconic “Enchanted Owl”.

 

Enchanted Owl by Kenojuak Ashevak

Her art speaks for itself but the exhibition included a video of Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (Iqualuit) performing her poem I am the Light of Happiness about Ashevak.  Bathory is an uaajeerneq (Greenlandic mask dance) performer, an Inuk artist and a co-curator of Tunirrusiangit.  I found this performance mesmerizing and her Inuk perspective will make you think about what we call Canadian art. You can see Ashevak's art behind her as she tells the story.  This is part of the new story of Canada that is emerging.

The Future, Day by Day: A Grandmother's Story

Here is a lovely summer story that a friend shared with me and has agreed to share with you.  She wrote it for her granddaughters.

This summer day, time moved slowly.  We were in the middle of a heat wave, steamy. hot and humid with no relief day or night.  After another restless hot night Gramma decided to go to the lake just as the sun’s light was bringing in the next day….

With blanket, towel and tea flask I walked down the stairs at the beach onto the already warm sand.   I settled near the water’s edge.  The sunlight had not yet cleared the tops of the big trees and so the beach was still in shade…

The water was still, like glass.  The surface was so flat and quiet…not a ripple to be seen.  Looking out over the bay, a haze left over from the previous day, hung in the air, a promise of more heat to come.  Only a few people were there so early, all of us looking for some early relief from the heat.

At one end of the beach, a husky and its owner stood in the still water while a mother wood duck quacked insistently – quack, quack, quack.  She had a family of four young ducks to protect and she was loud and persistent.  She quacked, her alarm breaking the morning hush-- Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack!  Then the husky, cooled and wet, walked away with his owner.  The morning’s hush returned and the duck family swam on….

In the quiet another woman and I slipped into the lake, moving out beyond the buoys into deep water.  Swimming slowly, without making a sound or splash, matching the lake’s morning message, I felt the cool water’s caress.  While I swam I noticed several feathers left from the previous day's adventures… floating now on the surface of the water.   Apparently weightless, small, white, downy gull feathers were balanced on the water’s surface.  Each feather touching the lake’s surface at a tiny point, while the rest of the plumage curved up dry, in a graceful white smile. 

The water reflected each feather’s beauty in a perfect mirror image.   I swam wide slow circles around several feathers to see them from all directions without disturbing them… I wanted to remember this beauty and lightness of being forever.  I breathed in deeply, “Ahhh.”

Feeling cooler from my swim, I walked out of the lake to my blanket. The sun was just spilling its rays over the tree tops as Gramma sat and started to sip her tea.  Sunlight touched the water as a new day was beginning.

Then two young girls, not yet 10, slim, all arms and legs—one taller, the other shorter, passed me on their way to the water.  They were in their “own world” quietly talking to each other, excited and holding ‘something’ in their cupped hands.  They spoke Cantonese.

They had long straight black hair and were wearing dresses. The taller girl with a pony tail wore a short dress and the shorter girl who had  loose black hair to her shoulders wore a green velvet dress.

They walked directly into the water, touching it with their toes, giggling and happy.  When they were knee deep in the cool lake they bent to place their treasures carefully on the water.  They each launched two tiny boats on the water and since there was not a breath of air they proceeded to make little ripples with their hands to move the little ships along.  They, like the feather earlier, were perfectly mirrored in the still surface of the lake.

Of course, they started to get wet and the boats moved into deeper water.  Distressed about this the younger girl ran back to her Mother and asked in English for her help to get the boats.  Her Mom came to the water’s edge and after stepping into the water quickly said “Oh! Too cold!” and went back to her blanket.

I paused, and then spoke to the girls, “I’m a Gramma,” I said, “and I’m already wet --I could get your boats if you’d like?”  They talked and the younger girl said “Yes please.”  

In I slipped, to retrieve the four boats.  When I got to them I discovered lovely origami boats – each one coloured differently, each one with a tiny folded piece of paper inside! 

I brought them back to the girls and immediately told them how beautiful the little boats were.  The younger girl proudly replied, “We were up at 5 o’clock to make them today!”  I told her I noticed the little pieces of paper inside, she took a moment and then thoughtfully replied,  “Those are our wishes…”

Standing in the lake, a Gramma and two young girls with wishes for the day I asked “Do you want to keep the boats? Or would you like to have your boats take your wishes out on the water today?” 

  

They talked amongst themselves and the younger replied to me,  “To the lake… “  I handed the boats to them and once more they launched their boats  this time their hands made waves which took the boats and their wishes out to the larger lake.  We  three stood together, a Gramma and two young girls, witnessing.

I returned to my tea and blanket while the girls continued to play in the water.  The younger girl’s mother was now sitting near me with her mother.  She explained, “We just flew in from China two days ago and the girls were up very early making the paper boats. The younger girl is my daughter and we came back to this place for a holiday.  Once years ago we lived here, and were very happy.  This year we brought an older cousin and my mother for the holiday.”

Curious I asked the mother what her daughter’s name was …. she replied her name is the same in Mandarin and English.  It is Future.  Our pet name for her is Day by Day.  "I tell my daughter," her mother said, “Day by day, you walk into the future.

I had asked Future when we were in the water if she might share with me their “wishes” or were they a secret?  She had taken a long moment to answer and then whispered, “It’s a secret”.  “All fine”, I said, “I understand.”

It was time for me to go.  The sun was higher and my own daughter was waiting for me, having returned from an early morning run.  I said goodbye… 

…remembering :  The water knows the wishes from Future --- day by day we will move into them….

… pondering : what would your wishes be if you were a child dreaming…

Wild Buffalo Range in Banff Once Again

Wild buffalo roam once again in Banff National Park after one hundred and forty years.  Small numbers ranged in what is now Banff National Park for roughly 10,000 years before they were nearly hunted to extinction and before the Park was created in 1885.

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, it is estimated that there were 30 million Plains Bison (commonly called buffalo) in North America before the Europeans came.  They were extirpated from Canada by 1888.  Nearly all of the Plains Bison alive today are descendants of the last 116 Plains Bison.

Now due to conservation efforts there are between 350,000 and 400,000 Plains Bison in North America. While they live mostly on farms and ranches, it is estimated that 1500 to 2000 live in conservation herds in Canada.

There was a small display herd in a paddock in Banff National Park for one hundred years. It was removed in 1997.  A year and a half ago, a small herd was transported from Elk Island National Park east of Edmonton, to a fenced pasture 40 km. north of Banff townsite.  You can watch the journey from Elk Island to Banff here: 

This included ten cows, some of which were pregnant and six bulls.  After two calving seasons, there are now 31 bison in the herd.  Last week, the gate was opened and the thirty-one buffaloes walked free under the cover of darkness into the 1200 sq km reintroduction zone in the remote eastern slopes of Banff National Park.  GPS collars and will be monitored.  You can see the release here:

Since Bison are a keystone species, they will change the food web and the landscape that they live in so that biodiversity will increase.  They improve grazing for elk because they leave fertilized grasses in their wake.  They also open the forest for birds and small mammals.  Birds used the hair from the heavy shedded coats to build nests. The bison also provide food for predators such as grizzly bears and wolverines and scavengers.

 In this video which was made when the buffalo were brought from Elk Island, Chief Kurt Buffalo from Samson Cree Nation speaks about the significance of bringing the buffalo back to its natural surroundings. “It’s about restoring the balance,” he says.  

He also speaks about the modern day “Buffalo Treaty” (read it here) between many First Nations.  This is a treaty of “Cooperation, Renewal and Restoration to “honour, recognize, and revitalize” the relationship with buffalo and to allow it to be free-ranging and wild once again.  It opens with a description of the relationship between the First Nations and the Buffalo stating, “For all those generations BUFFALO has been our relative.  BUFFALO is part of us and WE are part of BUFFALO culturally, materially, and spiritually.  Our on-going relationship is so close and so embodied in us that BUFFALO is the essence of our holistic eco-cultural life-ways.”

Parks Canada has been working in partnership with many First Nations on this and other projects.  As people work together to restore the buffalo to its natural habitat and renew their relationships with the buffalo, they are also building relationships with each other.  The buffalo will change the land through its relationship with the rest of life that shares the terrain.  This new story is one that returns to the old stories of respecting relationships in all of life and this renewal of relationships is bringing healing to our land.