Canada Day 2021 - A day to reflect, a time to act

With open heart and arms outstretched, I give thanks to the Coast Salish peoples on whose unceded territory I hike, camp, photograph, and live. 

For the past ten years, I have written a post every July 1st, Canada Day, in tribute to this country that I love.  Each year I have used a combination of prose and some of my photos from the past 12 months.  It has always been a celebration of my country, it has always been a post full of joy. 

That is hard to do this year.  With the recent determination of hundreds of unmarked graves and the recovery of what will be thousands of indigenous children's bodies on the grounds of residential schools, celebration is hardly a fitting word. How can we celebrate a Canada that officially became a nation through a process of destroying the indigenous nations that lived here, their peoples, their languages, their cultures, and their families?

I am a settler. I arrived in Canada when I was a child of five, at a time when indigenous children were being snatched from parents and flown hundreds of miles away to residential schools. At a time when those children were beaten for speaking their native language, forbidden to talk to their siblings, abused physically and sexually,  indoctrinated into a foreign culture, a foreign religion.

We settlers have known of this abuse for years.  It has been documented for decades and spoken of by many. We heard the stories from the survivors.  I have personally  heard the stories of the survivors - from students who were survivors, from students who were children of survivors,  from a friend who was a survivor. And yet, like many other settlers, I thought "How horrific - I'm thankful that is past history!"

It is not. 

Cultural genocide and racism of many decades has implications for every future generation.  It cannot be erased.  It is our past, it is our present, and we must act to find our collective future. In the words of a friend, we must "rid ourselves of complacency and complicity, and ally ourselves in ways that will enable settler society to co-exist peacefully, respectfully, and justly with indigenous peoples."  (Karen Evans, 2021)

I write this blog from the perspective of a white, senior, nature loving, west coast, island-dwelling female settler.  Yet long before I breathed in the magic of the ocean air, 

walked barefoot on the beach, 

hiked forest trails, 

long before I came to this country, the indigenous peoples of the many First Nations of this land  shaped their own cultures, their own belief systems, their own economies, raised their own families amid their own kin groups.   So while I call Canada "my country"  and pay tribute to her through my photos, I am cognizant of the many indigenous peoples who walked these trails before me and who had their cultures, their freedoms, their traditional lands, their names, their lives stolen from them. 

These are lands indigenous children walked before being stolen from their families:  

These are birds indigenous children saw before being abused by government, churches, and appointees of same: 

These are lakes and oceans in which indigenous children swam and played and learned to canoe and kayak before being taken to residential schools far from home:

And rivers where they fished, and rushing waterfalls they portaged:

These are plants indigenous children saw and learned their names and uses: 

These are mountains beneath whose peaks indigenous children learned skills from their elders, sat round the fire with their brothers and sisters, whispered goodnight to their parents. 

And so, as you walk these  beaches with me,

And see how the seas have shaped the land, 

Remember that our histories shape our cultures,  and our attitudes shape our relationships, our politics, our laws. 

We cannot undo the past, but going forward we have an opportunity to be our best selves.

May we stretch our wings,

May we stick together

Even when we stand alone.

May we overcome obstacles,

And travel our journey thru life beside one another, in peace:

May we come together,

And protect the children of the world.

We must persevere.  We cannot turn our backs and hide.

May all have plenty to eat,

A place to rest when we are tired.

friends with whom to share with joy,

music to sing, 

family to love.

We will get there, Canada,

When all have clean water, safe homes, enough food to eat and some to share,  a means of economic support,  good physical and mental wellbeing, friends of many nationalities working cooperatively, respecting each other, supporting each other,  

Then perhaps we will be able to say we have done our best.

So as we celebrate today  the rising and setting of the sun,

The flight of the birds,

The ebb and flood of tides,

The many coloured palette of nature,

The wildlife around us....

.....as we marvel at these natural wonders of our beautiful country, let us look to the future with hope, with compassion and understanding, ready for action.

Let us be prepared to work, individually and collectively, for a brighter tomorrow for all.

Let us define progress not by the size of our homes or the number of 'smart' devices, not by  wealth nor the power the wealthy may hold, not by the advances in space travel,

but let us define progress by the people who are loved,

the environment that is tended, 

the water that is clean, 

the air that is pure, 

and most of all, 

by the communities of people who are healthy, strong, and working together. 

That is my dream.  That is my challenge - to myself, and to you my readers. 

Weep for the children of the past whose little bodies are being recovered now,  and take action for those living through the trauma of the past and for the children of the future. Then, once again, we may be able to say "Happy Canada Day!"

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Here are some resources to help you on your journey:

• A concise fact-based primer on the history behind the graves located on residential school grounds. A short easy read well worth sharing: https://www.facebook.com/oneill.jes/posts/10157701850167827
• The First Peoples Cultural Council have created an interactive  map on which you can search for cultural sites, explore language regions, browse artist portfolios, listen to audio recordings, and more: www.maps.fpcc.ca
• Truth and Reconciliation Call to Action: http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf
• Truth and Reconciliation Final Report:  https://nctr.ca/records/reports/
• If you are an Indian Residential School survivor, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419.

Four years ago today...

(c) 2021 Jean Ballard

Happy Gotcha Day (or Adoptaversary Day as some call it) to my sweet, funny, beach-loving Maggie! Four years ago today I signed your adoption papers at Langley Animal Protection Society (LAPS), and we began our life together.
This year has been a bit challenging for you as you dealt with a mast cell tumour, problems with your hock joints, and a few other issues, but we got through it. You decided to be a night-time cuddle bug, you discovered you love massages, you adjusted to monthly cartrophen shots and daily meds for your joint issues, you became much less reactive to other dogs you meet out walking, you deal well with canine visitors to our house (not so much human ones still!😁), and you like to visit the neighbours when we open the barriers between our yards.
You are my best friend, my companion, my love. Happy Gotcha Day, my sweet Mags! 💕💕💕

Herons, Raccoons, and ...um...Easter Dogs?

Heron at the water's edge

 Maggie and I have a new favourite place to go while the beaches are closed to dogs for the Brant Geese migration.  It is Craig Bay heritage lands - a protected area of which 12 acres is designated parkland.  It is at the other end of Parksville from our usual beach and home, so necessitates a short drive to the trailhead, but there we can wend our way down a short pretty trail to open fields and lightly wooded landscape that follows the low beach coastline.  It's not a long walk - about an hour return at Maggie-pace (ie, dawdling, with many photo stops), but it is a perfect length for Maggie, and gives us both what we need - sea air, light open spaces, mountain views, and a good dose of Mother Nature's flora and fauna.  

There are no signs indicating dogs are prohibited from this beach at the moment, but Craig Bay  is a bit rockier and muckier than our usual haunts, so while we might sit on a rock or a log at its edge, we don't head out across the sand.  At low tide, that sand spreads a good half mile out, and I do see people out there.  Perhaps in summer, when heat and lower high tides pervade, it will be more tempting for Maggie. 

Ootgoing tide - by no means the lowest we've seen recently

But for now, we watch the herons fishing the water's edge.  There are several benches to rest on and very few people about - it is peaceful and calming and good for the soul. 

Good benches fer dogs too, Mama!

The area is full of signs of spring - we have watched snowdrops and crocuses come and go, little pools of daffodils appear in the meadows, some small blue flowers like periwinkle but with the wrong leaves, spreading widely along the trail, and trees of unknown species (unknown to me) blossoming throughout.  

Beautiful crocuses bloomed here a month ago

Maggie among little blue flowers

The eagles are busy mating, the crows are busy cawing, the Brants Geese are busy swimming, and the little Bewick's wren is busy flitting through bushes and peeking at us from tree trunks.

Crow in tree

Migrating Brant Geese

Bewick's Wren

Herons are in the grass too - this one was so still, and at exactly the same spot two days in a row, that I had to watch for nearly half an hour for a sign of movement to ensure he was real!

Amid the brush, I spy two eyes spying on me - a raccoon!  We have seen him a few times now, feeding from a bird feeder on a neighbouring property.  He is young - likely last year's brood - and cheeky, playing peek-a-boo from behind a tree trunk.

There are bunnies also - we see them hop across the trail and into the underbrush on numerous occasions, but too quick for the camera to catch.  However, Maggie 'volunteered' to impersonate them in their locales.  What a good sport she is! Who knew there were Easter Shelties in the park?

When we return home, there is another little Easter Dog.  This is Bailey, and he has been staying with us for the past three weeks while his mama is dealing with health issues.  

Bailey is 13, and gets lots (lots and lots and lots) of walks in the neighbourhood, but doesn't care for car travel.  So Craig Bay heritage lands are just for Mags and me - our one-on-one time - with the herons, racoons and bunnies and birds...and the seasonal Easter Sheltie.  I hope you had as nice an Easter weekend as we did!! 

A Day with the Wild Ones

 North Island Wildlife Recovery Association (NIWRA) is a ten minute drive away from me and one of my favourite places to spend an afternoon in nature when I have no hiking buddy available.  NIWRA is both a rehabilitation and release centre, and a permanent sanctuary for those that cannot be released. 

One of the permanent residents there is Sandor.  He is a bald eagle who obtained a serious wing injury when hit by a vehicle and cannot fly.  He has been glove-trained and is part of NIWRA's Education Program.  

As I'm still struggling with camera and photo-editing problems, I just took along a little old backup camera I bought from a pawn shop a while back - a Canon PowerShot SX210 IS.  It did the job admirably, its light weight and small lens enabling me to catch a sharp image standing two feet from the enclosure and carefully lining up the focal point to avoid the wires of the pens for those critters without an unobstructed view - that is, when the animals cooperated by standing still at just the right spot. Sandor, the eagle mentioned above, did just that.  The Wild Turkeys did not. 

The wild turkeys were very friendly and talkative, and whenever I squatted down to get a photo, they came running up to the fence, gobble gobble, gobble, to say hello.  Hence the wire in the photo. 

I did get one, however - not as crisp a shot, but I love the fine little 'hairs' sticking out of his head and the layers of dark feathers on his chest.  

Next to the wild turkey pen were some Silkies. While they are a domesticated chicken as far as I know, I do recall that NIWRA decided to take them in for a very specific role - I think to provide eggs to help meet the dietary needs of some of the wild residents?  Regardless, I love to visit them and I call them 'bedroom slipper chickens' because of their ridiculously fluffy feathered five-toed feet.  Like the turkeys, they were overly friendly and active, so the only shot I got was this floofy girl shaking her pompadour and hiding her feet. But I like the shot anyway. 

The owls always fascinate me.  My favourite is Elsa, a snowy owl who I swear has the sweetest smile, but she declined to be photographed today.  Farley is a close runner up, a Great Gray Owl who looks directly at me and doesn't mind the camera. Farley was hit by a car and has irreparable wing damage so cannot fly. His enclosure has a nice open, unwired spot that facilitates a clear view.

The enclosures for the permanent residents are generously sized and designed with as much natural habitat as possible.  While I didn't photograph Raye and Knut, the bears, today I did watch them lumber around their huge grounds with its dens and brambles and logs and water sources.  They were having lots of fun playing together but two barriers of small-spaced wires made getting a shot difficult. 

The ravens have more toys and enrichment activities than most five year olds.  Trickster was playing vigorously with a long dangling rope to which a bell was attached, and either Ralph or Lonan was persistently tapping away on what looked like one of those dog puzzles that lets out a reward for opening the right flap.  He lifted a flap with his claw, then stuck his beak in a small square on the other side.  When that proved unsuccessful, he lifted the handle in his beak and hopped-flew around the enclosure carrying it to another corner like a kid with a basket of Easter eggs.  It was hard to capture a clear photo of him, but he provided me with a good 20 minutes of entertainment and, like most ravens, plenty of conversation too. 

I also love that NIWRA includes information boards on each of the permanent residents which tells not only about their species but also why they are a permanent resident.   Too often it is because of human interference, where humans have taken a young one from the wilds as a pet and it can not fend for itself.  The raven above (or possibly his enclosure-mate)  was raised in captivity and never learned to find food on its own. 

Information boards also give visitors advice on what to do when encountering animals in the wild, such as young animals that appear to have been abandoned by their parent or orphaned.

I walked through the short trails at the back, where plant and tree species are clearly identified, and checked out the enclosed garden and pond for signs of the frogs or lizards I've seen there on other occasions. I wandered on to see the ducks at the Quack Shack - they always give me great pleasure, especially the runner ducks with their upright, penguin-like waddle. 

I said hi to many of the other birds, like owls Eyegone and Oneeye (shouldn't be hard for you to guess why they live there),  or Elvis, the Swainson's Hawk who someone took from the wild and tried to raise as a pet until a neighbour reported it to the authorities after seeing him tied to a rail.  He had already imprinted on humans and never learned to hunt. Yuki and Baylis, the Great Horned Owls, blinked at me from a perch at the back of their enclosure.  Wobbles held sentry near the eagle flight building where eagles to be released  practice their flight and hunting skills,  visible to humans only through narrow slits on the second-story landing.  I spend a few minutes watching the three cubs visible only through closed circuit video, who will also be released when big enough to fend for themselves. The recovery, rehabilitation and release part of the centre's mandate is dear to my heart - it's wonderful to visit with the permanent residents, but such a thrill to know help is there for those who will be able to survive on their own. 

I said hello to Boris, Vladimar, Igor and Anastasia, the turkey vultures who were shot in their wings and cannot fly.  They decided to play shy, but it's hard to hide with that colourful head.

And my favourite place to photograph - the turtle pond.  It frequently attracts wild ducks and geese, like the Canada Geese floating on it yesterday.  

The native Western Painted Turtles didn't make an appearance (they may still be wintering way down in the mud) but several Red Sliders (bought by people as pets and then dumped) were enjoying some sun bathing (cloud bathing? It was overcast) on the logs near the water's edge.

My annual membership fee has already paid for itself   - not just financially (this being my third visit this year) but in the enjoyment and entertainment it provides on an otherwise lazy afternoon. 

A combination of rescue/rehabilitation of wild animals, life-time sanctuary for those that cannot be rehabilitated, and education centre - all in a setting of trails, gardens, interesting rock and root features, and ponds - it appeals to all my senses and on a weekday afternoon during covid is a quiet and safe place to be.  

Beach at sunset

Sometimes weather and tides and time of day cooperate to create an interesting landscape.  This was Parksville Beach during our late afternoon/sunset walk the other day: 

Teaching an old dog new tricks

Practicing 'Four Paws Up" on short stumps

Okay, they are not really 'new' tricks, but adaptations of some of her previous activities.  And we don't really know how 'old' she is - somewhere between 11 and 14, but some days she acts like a child and some days she acts ancient.  Kinda like me.  😁

Shortly after Maggie had surgery for a mast cell mammary tumor, she started having mobility issues - difficulty standing, difficulty walking, holding her back right paw close to her belly, having the right leg stick out at weird angles and have to be massaged back into place.  

Mah feets hurts!

Xrays revealed some issue with the hock/tarsal joint - the doggy equivalent of the human ankle.  I'm still not sure exactly what the problem is - in these covid no-contact days, the vet reports over the phone and most of what she says I either can't catch or don't remember.  I've asked them twice to email me a written report of the findings but to no avail.  Anyway, the long and the short of it is that, in addition to weekly cartrophen shots and some other medications, she is no longer allowed to participate in her favourite non-beach activity - parkour.  For those not familiar with the term, it is rather like outdoor (often urban) agility with constantly changing obstacles.  The dog uses whatever is in the environment to balance on and move over, under and onto obstacles.  Positive reinforcement starts the process and then that little lightbulb goes on and they learn to think for themselves, problem solve, and use muscles in different ways.  

Maggie weaves through posts in empty parking lots, climbs up retaining walls, figures out how to jump onto craggy boulders and stand tall without losing her balance, jumps up on logs three times her height and runs along to the other end, goes under and over fallen trees, scales large stumps and makes like DiCaprio in the "I'm Flying" scene of Titanic. 

So, since ordinary walking is just plain boring according to Maggie, and jumping is forbidden, we have had to improvise  by looking for other, similar but safer training activities to keep her little brain and body busy. We started by ordering a balance ball (or wobble ball) and using her familiar command of 'two paws up' from parkour, got her practicing balance and stretches.  

What is this thing?  Looks like the licky mat I get my dinner on, but rounder and wobblier!

You want me to do what???  

Like this, Mama?  Treat, please!

After a few days of very limited exercise, we set off to a quiet part of a local campground. There we found wide logs sunk into the ground so they were low enough for Mags to step onto without jumping, but still fun enough to race along to the other end without falling off.

She did catch me unawares in one section of the park when she spied this circle of stumps and flew around them on her longline before I could stop her.  

Next visit to the park, we bypassed that section and went to the day use area  where tree stumps were cut off at ground level.  Two paws up and four paws up were doable here, but involved another challenge - bunnies!  Dozens and dozens of bunnies!  Bunnies are very exciting to a herding dog who thinks of them as mini-sheep to be rounded up, usually accompanied by very loud sheltie barking.  So we threw in an extra component - learning to be calm around the rabbits.  She already knew the word 'settle' for when I want her to sit or lie quietly rather than engage in a roadside brawl with another dog, but multiple rabbits hopping about really got her adrenalin pumping.  So first I had her settle from some distance away.

I see bunnies!

Lots and lots of bunnies!

And pretty soon, she was practicing two paws up on a short stump with bunnies just 10 feet away:

It wasn't long before Maggie was able to figure out her own activities.  We walked past a huge log which she had previously jumped up on (to my amazement), and by this time she had learned  a new command "walk past" for when we passed benches or boulders that she'd previous been allowed to climb.  When we came to the log, she looked at me and then (I swear she had mischief in her eyes) she suddenly popped inside the hollow end and sat down!  This dog knows how to recognize a photo op.

Now she checks out the ends of all fallen trees of a good size to look for hollow trunks to pop into!

But of course, the beach is still her Number One favourite place to go, and there is nothing happier than a happy sheltie:

Soon we will face the challenge of finding other places to have fun - dogs are going to be banned from the day use area of Rathrevor park come March 1st until October, and the two beaches near us close to dogs from Feb 15-April 15 (Rathtrevor area) and March 1 - April 30 (downtown Parksville area) while the Brant Geese migrate through.   Hopefully Covid restrictions will start to ease soon so we can return to urban and rural parks in other communities. 

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Note to my readers:  With covid restrictions, I have been taking a lot less photos and going a lot fewer places, and therefore have little blog fodder.  I mean, how many photos of Maggie on the beach or Maggie in a park do you need?   Also, I am less than enamored with my latest camera - my fourth Sony, but definitely not the quality of the first two.  It's hard to get sharp images and good colour. Unfortunately, my photo editing program is no longer available and the new one that has replaced it is ridiculously complicated and I am cancelling my subscription to it. So my photos are not up to snuff as far as I'm concerned. Today I found a free, easy-to-use program to watermark them and will likely upgrade to the paid version once I see what else it offers. Now that I've found that, I do have a few more posts almost ready to go as soon as I add the watermark to the photos.  Patience, my friends!