Category: Blog pieces (my thoughts on things)
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Hurt and healing, maybe even hope
For a few days I’ve simply been emotionally numb. Numb to the fact that thousands of Indigenous children’s bodies are buried. Children murdered, abused. Children sick with TB, died without family. Without love. Without care. Children buried. In unmarked graves. Children. While these children died at the hands of the Canadian government and the Catholic…
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Today we mourn
Today we know why our marrow has always hurt.Today we know why we were born with pain in our bones. Today we know why. We have been hated. We have been beaten. We have been tortured. We have been killed. We have been shamed. Humiliated. Told WE are evil. Told so much we hate ourselves.…
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Liar, liar, pants on fire
After reading this story KUAC reported a few days ago, I found myself writing a response. I think if I didn’t I would have internally combusted. Writing, in many ways, is a release. A way of getting the energy buzzing in my body placed, yes, just on the page, but at least somewhere. Each and…
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F**k depression
I don’t have a lot to say, but it’s enough. While driving home for lunch at noon, I heard the news on KDLG. I trusted I didn’t hear it correctly. A denial response? Or maybe I wasn’t ready to process the information. I got back to work and searched her name and KUNM radio and…
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Women uplifting women
I have prayed for a friend. A womanly presence, solace and comfort. And when the prayer was answered, I was amazed, thankful and relieved at the faithfulness of the Creator who listened. Who didn’t forget me. Who hears me when my heart is openly hurting and in need. God, thank you. This summer I prayed…
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Keep the fire burning – araa and arigaa Twitter
UNALAKLEET—I, sometimes I think very foolishly, am on Twitter and open the app multiple times a day to see what’s going on in the world. I don’t have television, so I get a bulk of my news from the feed. I also follow to keep up with Native Twitter – a community of indigenous peoples…
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A letter to my children
Below are reflections on the piece written more than a year ago and recently shared at the Expert Seminar on Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous Peoples’ Fisheries in the Arctic Region held by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy. I write about indigenous life in our communities in Alaska. Too often our stories…
laureli ivanoff 