Question: "What do you know about First Nations?"

Answer: "I'm married to one."

Much to my chagrin and amusement, this was part of a real conversation today.

I'm guessing the woman who answered the question isn't really married to an entire First Nation.  She likely meant that she is married to a person of First Nation identity or ancestry, or even a citizen of a First Nation. 

People aren't always as careful with language as they should be.

Working in defence of Indigenous rights, I have heard the rebuttal far too often that Indigenous people "fail to take personal responsibility" for their circumstances.

Young Indigenous people don't have a lot of role models within the dominant power structures. From the classroom to media personalities and celebrities, I do not see my culture or identity reflected back at me. The House of Commons is no exception to this rule. The reins of power are very much held by stiff white men who are completely out of touch with the colonial reality of Canada.

The scene is the Mid-Way Lake Music Festival, in the Northwest Territories (NWT). We're just off a remote stretch of the Dempster Highway, north of the Arctic Circle, in the territory of the Peel River, or Tetlit, Gw'i'chin people.

It is the late 1980s, and a well-known Canadian singer-songwriter and television host has come here to the extreme northwest of the NWT to film a program focused on the festival and the people who take part in it.

Lifelong hunter and trapper Willie MacDonald -- some call him "old" Willie MacDonald, though at 80 he still lives independently and goes out in the bush regularly -- is part of the festival action. He shakes the television personality's hand when it is offered and, gently wagging his finger, admonishes him: