Arctic Mark in Stanley Park

O Canada! Our Home on Native Land

The sight of the Canadian flag here at the school (also at the RCMP station and the Hamlet office) has a strange effect on me. I've always been proud to be Canadian, and the flag always evokes that feeling in me. To see it here feels a little odd, because the connection seems so tenuous between Holman and the "rest" of Canada. I also think that most of the people here identify themselves as Inuvialuit first, then Holman residents, then members of the Beaufort Delta region, then the NWT, with "Canadian" a distant last. I could be wrong about that, of course, but that's the impression I have from talking with my students. I'm also very aware of the difficult position we are all in here, with the history of displacement, forced relocation, the residential school system, and all of the other disruptive and often destructive legacies of Canadian government policy towards the native peoples in Canada. I'm always aware that "we" are only guests here.

This shot was taken from the school steps.