Manda Aufochs Gillespie is a writer. She’s the author of the Green Mama series of books (https://thegreenmama.com/books/) and the publisher of the award-winning website thegreenmama.com. She is also a mother, neighbour, and founder of Folk University (folku.ca) on Cortes Island.
From Folk U: Reading Between the headlines – How to get more truth out of today’s media
It’s hard to navigate the world today for while informationhas never been so accessible, misinformation has also never been so accessible. Although, I find it helpful to remember that half-truths and alternative facts and falsehoods are not new. I was taking a class once where we read an author many hundreds of years past who was bemoaning the difficulties of easy information and half-truths obscuring the actual truth.
As an immigrant to Canada, I was shocked to learn about the Canadian legacy of residential schools. I had no idea growing up in the U.S. that such things were happened and had happened just north of the border. The indigenous residential schools operated in Canada starting in the 1870s with the last one not closing until1996. Children as young as four were taken—often against the will of their families or with coercive techniques such as threatening jail time—and it is estimated that over 150,000 Indian, Inuit, and Métis children attended residential school. I was reminded that it is a legacy that continues to shade aspects of Canadian culture and identity for all Canadians this year when I became a citizen. At the ceremony, the judge encouraged all of us new Canadians to make the act of reconciliation personal and spoke about how she was doing that in her life.
This week’s guest at Folk University’s Folk U Friday series was Sue Hall author of Fish Don’t Climb Trees, head of the Whole Dyslexic Society, and Davis Dyslexia facilitator. Sue Hall is also dyslexic and the mother of a dyslexic child and has taught a positive-based approached to working with dyslexia for 20 years. She talked about how to fid the gift in so-called learning disabilities and work with dyslexia in a positive way. Please listen to the CKTZ podcast for a brief interview with Sue Hall or visit https://thegreenmama.com/learning-differences/ to read more about dyslexia and learning differences.
Recent research and long held traditions around health and food have challenged conventional practices of making available and promoting high carbohydrate, sugary, processed foods for convenience and economy. Some studies now conclude that animal fats have more to do with maintaining good health than eating the previously recommended low fat diet. Traditional Indigenous diets clearly show how eating from one’s own environment suits our overall well being and health. The experiences of our ancestors also has been shown to inform our own genetics, affecting our present day to day life. In this episode of Deep Roots Island Waves, Producer Manda Aufochs Gillespie links place, food, genetic history and health for insight into possibilities for understanding how we’re much more than we eat.”
“It’s a mouth-watering touring through time in this piece as I explore how the preservation of food and culture are connected on and off the Reserve. Pull up a chair, all are welcome at the table as we learn about smoking salmon, stringing herring, and why all important events start with sharing a meal.” – Manda Aufochs Gillespie
