Opinion

Much defines Yellowknife. In terms of signature events, it would be the Snowking’s Winter Festival during the cold season and when summer is in full swing, it’s Folk on the Rocks (FOTR).

Churches are burning. Statues and statutes are coming down. Sounds like the end of the world to some.

With the recent recoveries of unmarked graves at Indian Residential School (IRS) sites, our nation has been torn apart. But instead of dividing, we should be coming together. We are all struggling in different ways. Allow us to hurt. Allow us to grieve. Allow us to be angry. Please, don’t feel shame. Feel some compassion. Within our union we are all Brothers and Sisters and we always stand and support each other.

Editor’s note: BarbAnn Beck-Taltson wrote this letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Carolyn Bennett, minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations in reference to “Treaty 8, 1899 and 1900 Adhesions, Chief Snuff’s Yellowknives/Tatsanottine Tribe.”

Had an interesting end to a telephone call just before July 1. It was a ‘business’ call, so there was some ‘business’ protocol at play - cordial tone but focused and respectful.

Friends, doing so much Art over the summer gives one plenty of time to mentally wander over your heroes, be they Michelangelo or his superior in marble, Bernini!

Sometimes, you have to look on the sunny side of life. And get a laugh when you get the chance.

To the editor:

This week we have a story about the GNWT’s negotiations with other governments, including the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, to end the five-year-old moratorium on oil and gas and put the Beaufort Sea under local control.

Islands of Decolonial Love by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a collection of short stories and poems that functions around the very simple idea of loving as an action that could liberate people from colonial violence and its lasting effects.