{"id":867,"date":"2022-09-11T15:23:17","date_gmt":"2022-09-11T19:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chriswagg.ca\/?p=867"},"modified":"2022-09-11T15:23:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T19:23:24","slug":"bringing-linda-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chriswagg.ca\/?p=867","title":{"rendered":"Bringing Linda Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I call the second leg of our trip \u201cBringing Linda Home\u201d because that was how I felt when I was 16 and she was coming home to Ottawa with me.\u00a0 This time, bringing her home meant something very different.\u00a0 I was bringing her to our people\u2019s home, our reserve.\u00a0 Growing up knowing you are First Nations from Alderville\u00a0 has been very complex for two reasons.\u00a0 First, you\u2019re adopted and when you\u2019re a teen most people do not understand what that means and for me, I often questioned where I really fit in.\u00a0 Second, in the seventies, being an Indian had a connotation around it that not always highlighted the true meaning of being Indigenous to Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About ten years ago, I had the opportunity of being invited back to Alderville by a cousin who wanted me to come and meet the rest of the family.  For over 40 years my birth mother had not wanted us to be known for many reasons yet to be known.  Any trip my children and I  made to the reserve was somewhat cloak and dagger.  We had certain business that had to be conducted in person at the reserve and I\u2019m sure it was difficult for those who had to keep us a secret as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past summer, we all went to our Pow Wow and the kids got to meet some of our family, including our Chief.\u00a0 I saw this look in both my children\u2019s eyes – that of curiosity, of seeing the reserve in a whole new light and that of belonging.\u00a0 Listening to the dancers being drummed in is a feeling of being rooted to the piece of earth you are standing .\u00a0 I asked my cousin, \u201cWhy do the drums bring so many emotions?\u201d\u00a0 Simply said, “This is the first sound you hear in your mothers womb, the sound of her heart.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Linda and I at the iconic Ottawa sign in the Byward Market<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Having the honour of bringing Linda there was a privilege, and one that I hope to have the opportunity to bring her children as well to experience their deep roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our time in Ottawa started off with a trip to my son\u2019s tattoo artist, Jimmi.\u00a0 Linda had yet to be inked so this was exciting.\u00a0 She had given Jimmi an image of a dream catcher she liked and I gave him our reserve\u2019s logo to try and incorporate it somehow.\u00a0 When we arrived at his shop, he planted this large image on her forearm.\u00a0 Wide eyed, both Jimmi and I told her to own this piece of art.\u00a0 She was sold!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Linda’s first ink!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To fully understand this experience is to know Jimmi.  He is an artist and has many layers to his soul.  He was so intrigued by our story and felt an honour to be part of our experience.  After about 2 hours, whiskey shots and a near throttle at Jimmi while completing the shading, Linda had her first tattoo!  I was so incredibly proud that we would be matching in a piece of art that was chosen by her and had the trees and teepees of our reserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The middle part of our time here was having lunches and dinners with many family and friends\u00a0 but on Friday we headed to the reserve.\u00a0 As we got off Highway 401 and started towards the reserve, I already felt at home\u00a0 driving through the rolling, hilly roads.\u00a0 Our visit was to the band office where Linda bought a few sweatshirts and t\u2019s for her kids.\u00a0 Then we set off to visit her name sake, Auntie Linda.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Left to right: Me, Linda, Auntie Linda and cousin Vicki<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Our time with Auntie Linda and her family will require a blog all it\u2019s own as we learned so much while there.  I cannot put it into a few sentences so before that mic drops, I sign off for this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I call the second leg of our trip \u201cBringing Linda Home\u201d because that was how I felt when I was 16 and she was coming home to Ottawa with me.\u00a0 This time, bringing her home meant something very different.\u00a0 I was bringing her to our people\u2019s home, our reserve.\u00a0 Growing up knowing you are First Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[13,11,10],"class_list":["post-867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-adoption-story","tag-adoptionjourney","tag-adoption","tag-sixties-scoop"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chriswagg.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/img_0209-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswagg.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswagg.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswagg.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswagg.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswagg.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chriswagg.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869,"href":"https:\/\/chriswagg.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions\/869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswagg.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswagg.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswagg.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswagg.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}