Noopiming
Page 10
Bougie Kwe did not give up. Not initially, anyway. They would set the Pest-Deterring Jet Sprayer and hide and wait, and then set the Pest-Deterring Jet Sprayer and wait and hide again. Mostly, though, they would forget it was running and scare the shit out of themselves when it suddenly fired up and blasted water at them when they were picking organic local hand-picked-by-the-eastern-woodland-bougie-NDN lettuce.
Bougie Kwe
Which brings us to lettuce and prize-winning heirloom tomatoes falling off the vine that would win prizes if anyone still cared about that sort of thing.
Bougie Kwe
Tomatoes on the vine, ripe with antioxidants you don’t even know the likes of, and Esibanag march right past them every night at the pond party and goes for the college kid’s green bin to find chicken wings.
Bougie Kwe
Diabetes is a choice, if you forget colonialism, fellas. Bougie Kwe most certainly provided tomatoes and lettuce.
Esiban
Consumption guidelines for not getting diabetes (according to Wikipedia):
40% invertebrates
33% plants
27% vertebrates
Esiban
Results of the garbage-bin consumption study completed in 2019:
40% chicken wings
33% not-that-rotten fruits and vegetables from California
27% straws
Esiban
Esiban assembled the crew at 12:15 a.m. because it was going to take most of the night.
Esiban
Esiban divided the volunteers into four groups and ordered four Ubers, ten minutes apart:
rocks
pool
plants
healthy hors d’oeuvres
There were four in each group and Esiban enjoyed the symmetry of it all.
Esiban
When the final bag of organic lettuce and heirloom tomatoes arrived in the Uber at the Unceded Nation Under the Gardiner, everyone was there. Ninaatig all proud. Adik all interested and slightly confused but willing to move out of their comfort zone. Nishnaabeg-that-stayed ready for a celebration.
Bougie Kwe
Bougie Kwe Ubered down to the Unceded Nation Under the Gardiner with their hunting knife, a big pot and the eighteen-pound bone-in ham they won at the not-super Superstore for spending over $200.
Asin
Asin showed up with half a cup of minomiin that tasted like the lake.
Adik
Adik showed up with a backpack full of naloxone kits.
Ninaatig
Ninaatig showed up with their shopping cart full of supplies.
Gidigaa Bizhiw
Gidigaa Bizhiw showed up twelve hours early and decorated.
Esiban
Each group installed their responsibility:
rocks
plastic pool
water lilies and floating hyacinth
green bins full of lettuce and heirloom tomatoes
And they took turns running through the Pest-Deterring Jet Sprayer, which retails for $59.50 at Lee Valley.
Esiban
Esiban important practice number four: Take very, very good care of each other, always, no matter what happens.
The geese fly overhead in the sheer grace of a carefully angled formation designed to take them elsewhere.
There are still stars.
There are still stars.
Kimiigwechiwii’ininim
Miigwech to Ansley and Shannon Simpson for lending me some of their stories, to Minowewebeneshiinh Simpson for her research and knowledge of the boreal owl, to Nick Ferrio for sharing his “pink mist” experience with me, to Madeline Whetung for sharing the phrase from her Grandfather, “You think too much you worry too much,” and to Doug Williams whose never-ending influence is everywhere. Thanks to Sarah MacLachlan, Janie Yoon, Melanie Little, Maria Golikova and the entire team at House of Anansi Press for their collective care, vision, trust and book-making magic. Thanks to Marilyn Biderman at Transatlantic for spinning the dials.
Damian Rogers sharpened the execution and the intervention of this book in a way that few could have. She lived inside this book for countless hours, thinking through pronouns, tenses, voice, and offering valuable insights into this world and the characters that make it. She engaged carefully, thoroughly and with all of her spirit, emotions, intellect and physicality and I am ever so grateful.
The title “Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies” was motivated by Susanna Moodie’s Roughing It in the Bush, published in 1852. Doug Williams tells me that Michi Saagiig Nishnaabe pronounce it as “nookiming”; the more standard spelling is used in the title.
The Fred Moten epigraph appearing at the beginning of this book is from the talk “The Black Outdoors: Saidiya Hartman and Fred Moten with J. Kameron Carter and Sarah Jane Cervenak” at Duke University, September 23, 2016.
“Thinking rethinking, thinking otherwise,” “gathering into gatherings,” and “useful uselessness of despair” are all from Kodwo Eshun’s Mark Fisher Memorial Lecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, January 19, 2018.
“Hello my friend, I’ve come to see you again” is from Gord Downie’s “The East Wind’ off the record The Grand Bounce (Universal Music Canada, 2010).
“Mobilization of Joy,” “practice of joy,” and “protection of joy” are concepts from the work of Robin D. G. Kelley.
I consulted various web-based articles on the research of York University’s Suzanne MacDonald into raccoons, including “Humans and Raccoons Can Coexist in Cities” (Laura Sciarpelletti, CBC News, August 6, 2018), “Toronto built a better green bin and — oops — maybe a smarter raccoon” (Amy Dempsey, Toronto Star, August 30, 2018), and “There’s No Stopping Toronto’s ‘Uber-Raccoon’” (NPR, September 16, 2018).
Chi’miigwech to the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary for their presence on the internet.
“death by water” was previously published by The Walrus; “failure of melting” and “head of the lake” were previously published by West End Phoenix; “viscosity” and “head of the lake” were previously published by Five Dials.
Some of the poetry in “theory of ice” has been adapted for a forthcoming album of the same name.
LEANNE BETASAMOSAKE SIMPSON is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer, scholar, and musician, and is a member of Alderville First Nation. She is the author of five previous books, including This Accident of Being Lost, which won the MacEwan University Book of the Year; was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Trillium Book Award; was longlisted for CBC Canada Reads; and was named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Quill & Quire. She has released two albums, including f(l)ight, which is a companion piece to This Accident of Being Lost.
house of anansi press was founded in 1967 with a mandate to publish Canadian-authored books, a mandate that continues to this day even as the list has branched out to include internationally acclaimed thinkers and writers. The press immediately gained attention for significant titles by notable writers such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, George Grant, and Northrop Frye. Since then, Anansi’s commitment to finding, publishing and promoting challenging, excellent writing has won it tremendous acclaim and solid staying power. Today Anansi is Canada’s pre-eminent independent press, and home to nationally and internationally bestselling and acclaimed authors such as Gil Adamson, Margaret Atwood, Ken Babstock, Peter Behrens, Rawi Hage, Misha Glenny, Jim Harrison, A. L. Kennedy, Pasha Malla, Lisa Moore, A. F. Moritz, Eric Siblin, Karen Solie, and Ronald Wright. Anansi is also proud to publish the award-winning nonfiction series The CBC Massey Lectures. In 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Anansi was honoured by the Canadian Booksellers Association as “Publisher of the Year.
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