STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
Home wedding
My first dance was an adventure. Back then, they used to have what they call a dollar dance. The bride and the groom stand on the floor and they start playing slow music and people come up there and give the best man or maid of honour a dollar and he or she gets to dance with the bride or groom.
Broken Ankle wedding
On June 12, 1969, I broke my ankle on an ironwork job site in New York City. It was a Thursday and I was due to get married that Saturday.
White Lightning
The Lafleurs lived on my mother’s street. The father had a market in the village where the Court of Kahnawake is now, Lafleur’s Market. His name was Dave Lafleur.
Maple candies
If you’re gonna travel the world, maple candies are the best ambassador of Canada. I was doing the circumpolar meeting of Native languages in Tromsø, Norway.
Hide my medicine bag
When I go to Europe, I put my hair inside my hat and I hide my medicine bag. That’s so they don’t recognize me because they could be problematic sometimes.
Jack of all trades
Monette’s bus used to run through town here. There were about five brothers that lived in Delson and they opened a bus service. I went to trade school way out in the east end of Montreal and I used to take the bus from here.
Two for one
I’ve been shot at, got a bullet right in my shoulder. I just got a piece of a Jeep windshield taken out of my face after 50 years.
Got the story
If you’ve never had a fracture, you have no idea what I’m talking about when I describe the pins and needles while I’m recuperating. It’s excruciating pain.
Don’t forget your language
On this whole street, the language was all that was spoken. So in the house, we only spoke the language. That was until we started Kateri Indian Day School.
Rambunctious ones
My dad had left when I was young so my mom was raising five of us by herself. In 1949, when I was nine years old, she went to the Indian affairs office to apply for welfare or “relief” as it was called back then. Instead, they thought it would be best to send me and my older brother, Marvin, away to residential school.
Stone foundation
When I was a kid, we used to go walking under the bridge along the train bridge towards the farms in 9C area. They used to cut the hay in this neighbourhood, and when I bought this property here, I found a bull horn in the grass.
Uncle Ugly
I just had a Zoom meeting with the department of youth protection. They want me to work with the kids. It's a big emotional investment, and reminds me a lot of my own past, being taken away.
Rubbed off
Way back when, I think the community was closer than what we are now. It’s still close, but there was more respect at that time. I guess we put money first, before anything else.
Greedy people
A lot of people, you give them a place on the land, their shares, but not everybody is happy receiving their area or money. They want everything.
An elder’s secret
When we were children, I was always in a hurry to grow up. The elders, the women, they would tell me, “It’s not as exciting as you think.
The return of the doll
We moved so many times that eventually, I lost the Christmas doll. Fifteen years ago, I was at a scrapping workshop with a very close and devoted friend, Pauline Wiedow. We were all sharing our favourite stories, and I told my story of the doll.
Christmas doll
Christmas was my favourite time of year. When I was about six years old, they had the most beautiful Christmas doll in the display of the general store.
D’ailleboust general store
There was a general store adjacent to the church. It was called Louis D'ailleboust store, and this store had everything and anything.