mike- i know this game of provocation that you so love. i seldom lose when i choose to engage in games.

my primary point is: there was a lot of horror in the development of the world as we know it. people treated each other badly. sometimes we forget about it because of how comfortable we’ve become. we ought to remember, no matter where our roots hook us into it. it is horror that we all share because we are all alive here now. we carry it in our blood.

how blessed we are that we get to work as artists and work to serve as reminders of all of it- horror, beauty, and above all- the way that we are all in it together.

fucker.

xo

Tara makes it pretty clear how she stands on the fact that, “the stipulation for recognizing the humanity of the first nations of the americas was contingent upon their catholicization. . .” She calls them “fuckers.”

And, Mike, could you expand on what you mean with your smallpox comment?

Thanks,

Ian

hey tara, how do you convert with civility? isn’t that like gently kicking the shit out of someone? i’m also not sure about setting up the pope as any sort or standard bearer for human rights or care. after all, he decreed these new people human to get gain spitiual power over them, not because they were human. finally, smallpox does not take orders from anyone. i bet you have nothing to say to any of this.

The arrogance of the front-line colonizers? The outlandish decrees from on high. The complications of understanding a history from the First Nations perspective when the dominant myths have been written with a very different pen.

Where does this leave us? Today. Here in Toronto?

Ian

el requiremento… must find this document. fascinating. and didja know that in 1493, shortly after news reached the spanish court of these new people, pope alexander vi quickly decreed them human and therefore able to be christianized? he, in fact, stated that they ought not to be dispossessed of their land and resources due to this potential for conversion to catholicism, should steps be taken to convert them with civility.

a surprising and scandalous example of people claiming piety disregarding the official word from top dog. swept under the rug like so many pedophilic priests. popes continued in this way as colonization spread through the americas, with an official statement to that effect issued in 1537 and again in 1639.

that there was cause to reiterate is proof that bad behaviour was widespread and well known. that the stipulation for recognizing the humanity of the first nations of the americas was contingent upon their catholicization is… expected, i suppose. fuckers. but still, i think it worth noting that there was a gaping lack of understanding and communication between the actual colonizers and the upper stations in their chain of command, comfortably nestled away in europe.

holy blog hog. i get excited about these things. gagging to see the show.

i love you, megan flynn. thank goodness i met you briefly last week, otherwise that would seem really slutty of me.

tb