When you go visit those frogs over there singing their songs in the middle of the day or evening--BOOM--they stop. All of them. Immediately. And you are left in complete and utter silence and made to feel very, very unwelcome. If you stick around for a bit though, quietly, one of them will let out a big sound and they all start talking again. These peeps? You are of no consequence to them. They don't miss a beat. It's possible they even get louder and more dramatic. Amazing. The vibrations they put out to creation surely must be for the sole purpose of waking up life from the inside out; I was vibrating by the time I left. And that's good medicine.

Addendum (April 2017): This soundtrack was used with permission (albeit without credit) by Leanne Simpson as the background sound for a poem called "Spacing" in the inaugural issue of As/Us: A Space for Women of the World (December 31, 2012), https://asusjournal.org/issue-1/leanne-simpson-poetry/. The content of her poem suggests this soundtrack is of spring peepers. My interest piqued by this discrepancy in interpretation, I researched online for salamander and newt sounds. I've learned that sound is not their primary behavioural feature. However, scant and obscure sources indicate that through movement of air in their throats? vocal cords? when emerging from the water, they making a chirping and popping noise, respectively. So, perhaps the sounds they make can be equated with burping? Also, much more readily published is the fact that they are also nocturnal. The image associated with the initial description is of the pond along side the road where I was recording. It is obviously not night time. 

So, trying to figure out what this recording actually was, I researched chorus frogs. The sound recorded here is not theirs. I looked up spring peepers and yes, this is definitely them. 

All this leads me to wonder about the information I was given about this recording (my friend asked me not to name them when I posted it years ago)--that these were the sounds of salamanders (and newts?). Maybe one day, we can continue the exchange on this . Also, now I want to know, who are the amphibians at the little pond by the parking lot outside the Gzowski Building at Trent University that collectively, at the exact same time, stop making sound immediately when you walk towards them?

michi saagiig salamanders (& newts?)

swept up in the need to do SOMETHING about the real possibility that mushkego ogitchidaakwe Theresa Spence may die from starvation in the event canada's prime minister Stephen Harper does not meet with her, i decided to remake a poem.this was recently published in IPSMO's online Honouring Indigenous Women, Vol. 2 (Nov. 2012) and i diy recorded it in my stairwell with ye'ol iphone. it ain't pro but it makes me feel  better. it also comes from some wondeful fb energy going about making poetry and art art art for MO Theresa Spence. this poem is for MO Theresa, the People, and my own heart. 

make ka.na.da. shake is a play on pj harvey's song 'let england shake' after the album title. i found one source to support my theory that she is talking about ira freedom fighter Bobby Sands who died in prison, a member of parliament, while on an organized, strategically planned hunger strike that occurred in the early 1980s. 

also, at the same time that  MO Theresa Spence in on a hunger strike, so are Palestinian prisoners. indigenous peoples everywhere, always, fighting to survive and thrive!

i want us, all of us--not just Indigenous peeps--to make ka.na.da. shake so that we don't have to write a song for a martyr. i want us to be able to make art about how the oppressive colonial world, as we know it, really did end in december 2012 and turned into something that honours Nation-to-Nation relationships, and the lands that Indigenous peoples and Canadians (old, new, in-limbo) call home. 

make ka.na.da shake, a redux of "this, her swagger"

Tonight, shortly after midnight, The People gathered on Victoria Island to sing songs for and with Ogitchidaakwe Theresa Spence. Host Adam Beach and his family joined. Ogitchidaakwe and her family also stood by the fire with us and sang. She looked so strong, happy, and beautiful. There was lots of laughter. This recording is of the traditional 'christmas carols' that were re-vamped to suit our needs! This was followed by handdrum songs with canary singers. Can't think of a better way to spend this evening with my family. Oh! Nokomis and Jupiter with with us tonight as well! 

waaseyaa'sin