What’s in a Canada?
Welcome to Canada, said the sign.
What’s in a Canada? A country by any other name is not just as sweet.
Canucks, said one. I didn’t know what that was. Something you say when you clink your glasses of ice wine together? Un brindis? Salud? Skål?
First Nations, said one. I knew what that was. I do now, at 25. But if you’d have asked me at 5, I would respond with just one word. My mother held my hand as we went to the cinema to learn about the beautiful Indian girl I’d seen on the posters. “If she’s Indian like us, why does she live in America mama?” I asked.
“She isn’t, ” said mama. “She’s not Indian like us. There are other kinds of Indians on the other side of the world.”
And so I learned, that there were other Indians on the other side of the world. And I learned not to call them Indian.
First Nations, said one. I nodded in agreement.
Hockey for First Nations. Wayne Gretsky for Cree. Aboriginal art for snowboarding. Whistler for respect the land. Trade one for another. Trade pictures for identities.
What’s in a Canada? What’s in this picture? Would I show it to my friends back home to teach them more about what they call the land of ice and wolves?
No. I wouldn’t.
Maybe just for a second.