Posts tagged 'history'

Colourized historical photograph of an Indigenous family traveling in a birchbark canoe on a calm lake. A man in a dark hat sits in the stern smoking a pipe, while a woman paddles at the other end. Three young children sit between them near a bundle of belongings, and one child reaches a hand toward the water. A forested shoreline lies in the distance under a pale sky. Handwritten at the top of the photo: ‘Typical Natives’ and ‘Linde’.

RIVYAYR PIMICÎWAN: We Are Always Somewhere

October 15, 2026 · #personal essay #lyric essay #Indigenous #Métis #Two-Spirit #Queer #rights of nature #water #law #ecology #colonialism #identity #history

On October 11, 1869, nineteen unarmed Métis stopped a Canadian survey crew by standing on its chain, refusing to let a square grid be laid over our river lots. On the Whanganui River, declared a legal person in 2017 after 140 years of Māori struggle; Te Urewera, which owns itself; the Atrato, the Magpie, the Klamath, and wild rice suing the state of Minnesota. On Two-Spirit, a word that arrived in a dream in Winnipeg in 1990, Balboa's dogs, We'wha shaking the president's hand, and a province named for the sound water makes. Liquid has no shape of its own, and bodies can refuse the container. On Shoal Lake 40, acknowledgement, and rewilding ourselves. Both us, in whole, and our land must be sovereign.

Aerial view of Lower Manhattan with the World Trade Center's Twin Towers rising above the surrounding skyline, with the East River, Brooklyn Bridge, and Manhattan Bridge visible in the background.

A Quarter of a Century Later

September 10, 2026 · #personal essay #Social Commentary #history #memory #9/11 #September 11 #terrorism #grief #culture #media

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of September 11, I reflect on being five years old and watching the attacks from a green shag carpet in Winnipeg, the cultural aftershocks that still echo through media and memory, and the urgent need to not forget the cruelty and the kindness of that day and its aftermath.

A cluttered wooden table holds a row of obsolete beige desktop computers and CRT monitors, including a Dell and Compaq, with tangled cables, stacked against a stained wall lit in a pink-to-yellow-to-green gradient. Wooden stools and a chair sit in front of the table, suggesting an abandoned classroom or office.

A 450-year History of Blogging

August 24, 2026 · 2 comments · #personal essay #blogging #IndieWeb #history #Technology #Social Commentary

A four-century etymological journey from wooden ship logs and logboards to the modern web log, tracing how the word 'blog' emerged from centuries of record-keeping, computing, and online publishing. On Peter Merholz's coinage of 'blog,' Jorn Barger's 'weblog,' Justin Hall's online diary, the rise of Blogger and Medium, and the state of the blogosphere in 2026.

A historical-style painting of a desert landscape at sunset, with the Great Sphinx of Giza and a pyramid in the background. A group of travelers and camels crosses the desert while several people and camels lie or rest in the foreground. The sky is filled with warm pink, orange, and golden clouds, creating a dramatic atmosphere.

A Story of the Origins of Religion

August 13, 2026 · #personal essay #Religious Studies #history #anthropology #Ancient Egypt #mythology #philosophy

On Friedrich Max Müller's theory of naturism and how early religion began with humanity's direct sensory perception of natural forces. From the terrifying awe of lightning and thunder to Ancient Egypt's animal deities that protected against mortal dangers like crocodiles, scorpions, and hippos. A look at the evolutionary arc from zoolatry to anthropomorphic gods, and the problematic colonial baggage in early religious scholarship.

Oil painting of three farm workers binding wheat sheaves into stooks at sunset. A man on the left lifts a bundle of wheat onto a stack, a woman in a white blouse and bonnet carries an armful of cut wheat toward the stack, and a second woman crouches in the foreground gathering stalks. Rows of wheat stooks dot the golden stubble field under a pastel sky with a low orange sun on the horizon. Signed 'L. Lhermitte' in the lower left.

Farming is Why Humanity is Fucked

June 27, 2026 · 1 comment · #personal essay #IndieWeb Carnival #agriculture #history #anthropology #philosophy #Daniel Quinn #civilization

A mind-shattering concept from a first-year university class that upended how I think about humanity. Daniel Quinn's Ishmael trilogy argues that totalitarian agriculture is why civilization is in peril. On the Law of Limited Competition, the Food Race, and how farming broke humanity's equilibrium with nature.

Hand-colored historical engraving of a European colonial waterfront, depicting an 18th-century port city. A broad river or harbor curves through the center, with a large sailing ship flying red pennants anchored at right. In the foreground, workers unload barrels and crates from wooden boats while several figures in brightly colored coats converse along the shoreline. Across the water stands a dense cluster of pastel-colored buildings dominated by a large domed cathedral and a tall stone tower, with additional church spires rising behind them. The sky is pale blue with soft pink clouds, giving the scene a calm, idealized atmosphere.

On n'a pas la langue dans notre poche!

June 26, 2026 · #personal essay #Language Learning #Linguistics #Métis #History #Social Commentary

Cet article de blogue est écrit en français. This blog post is written in French. Sur les différences entre le français québécois et le français européen, l'histoire linguistique du Québec depuis 1763, les sacres québécois comme acte de rébellion contre l'Église catholique, et le michif, la langue mixte des Métis avec ses verbes cris et noms français, son ethnogenèse au 19e siècle, et son statut de langue en danger avec moins de 1 000 locuteurs.

Gemini, Gophers, and Fingers. Oh My! Alternative Internets Beyond HTTPS

May 26, 2026 · 3 comments · #Indieweb #Small Web #technical #Digital Culture #history #decentralization

Finger from 1971, Gopher from 1991, and Gemini from 2019. These protocols offer decentralized, terminal-based alternatives to the modern web. The small web's is in a renaissance. On the solarpunk philosophy of intentional technology, and how these protocols meet you where you are, whether you're on a machine from 2005 or just tired of Chrome's monoculture.

A dark oil painting depicting a man's head lying at the edge of a luminous turquoise river, his eyes half-open and expression serene or unconscious. The surrounding landscape is rendered in deep blacks and earth tones, with the vivid blue-green water serving as the primary light source. Three pale birds fly through the dark sky above him. The brushwork is loose and expressive, evoking a Romantic or Symbolist style. The overall mood is ethereal and elegiac.

On Being a River

May 14, 2026 · #personal essay #mythology #philosophy #biology #history #identity

Sixty thousand miles of blood vessels run inside each of us, more than twice around the Earth. 330 billion cells are replaced every single day. Humanity has always built civilization beside rivers because we are rivers. Always in motion, never stepping into the same current twice, carrying cells that live only days alongside neurons that will last precisely as long as we do.

Two arms, one with darker skin, one with lighter skin, clasp together against a near-black background, bound by a single red thread that wraps around both. Dramatic low-key lighting isolates the hands at the centre, the red yarn the only point of vivid colour.

What We Lose with Cultural Extinction: The Red Thread Cut

May 12, 2026 · #personal essay #history #politics #culture #language #indigenous #colonialism #identity

In 1995, China abducted six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima—the recognized 11th Panchen Lama—severing the chain of mutual recognition at the heart of Tibetan Buddhist succession. Meanwhile, Michif, a language born from Cree verbs and French nouns that belonged to no one but the Métis People, has nearly vanished within living memory. Both losses are the same act: colonialism's weaponization of continuity. On the extinction of languages, the cutting of red threads, and what it means to inherit a chain with links already missing.

Deeds, Not Words: The Myth of Polite Revolution

April 26, 2026 · #Social Commentary #Cultural Criticism #politics #Social Justice #history

A refusal of the sanitized story that rights were won by asking nicely. The suffragettes bombed Westminster Abbey. The Deacons for Defense guarded MLK. Mandela was on the U.S. terror list until 2008. On the radical flank effect, the state's monopoly on legitimate violence, and the 46 people who have died in ICE detention while we are told to keep our resistance polite.

Dozens of origami paper cranes in a wide variety of colours and patterns. Blues, pinks, reds, greens, white, and earth tones, many made from patterned washi-style paper with florals and stripes, suspended from thin strings against a blurred warm-toned background.

A THOUSAND CRANES: Why I Write Every Day

April 19, 2026 · #personal essay #writing #blogging #culture #history

My daily writing is a practice of releasing messages in bottles and folding paper cranes—from Montaigne in his tower and Johnson writing in poverty, to Sadako Sasaki folding 1,450 cranes in a hospital ward. What the essayists, drift bottles, and Senbazuru share, and why the attempt itself is the whole math.

An ornate, hand-colored illustration in an old European style shows a person standing in a grove of stylized palm-like trees, surrounded by symbolic emblems and text. Above, a radiant triangle containing an eye (the “all-seeing eye”) shines through clouds. Each tree bears oval crests and circular plaques with letters, Roman numerals, and heraldic symbols. The central figure gestures outward while holding a shield-shaped panel with decorative script.

STORYTELLING Part Two: The (Literal) Magic of Writing

March 27, 2026 · #personal essay #Creative Writing #Literary Theory #Cognitive Science #Culture #History #Writing Process #spirituality

Grammar/Glamour/Grimoire. 言霊 & heka. Spelling & spellcasting. The Word. Writing is generative, not descriptive. Cultures across millennia have understood that words conjure reality. Writing conjures, symbols activate the brain, serving as telepathy across distance and time.