Moosejaw Radio is a lighthearted, sometimes informative, blog about living and traveling in the 21st Century while navigating a progressively digital planet in real time. The author uses an informal voice to discuss the juxtapositions between contemporary geographies and the myriad histories which enrich them.
Writer James Kerns has worked as a restaurateur, bicycle messenger, sculptor, commercial fisherman, designer, builder, and consultant, who has traveled the globe by boat, bus, rail, plane, and bicycle. His passion for people and geography, and the cultures and histories which bind them, provide the foundations from which his stories are drawn.
- On Solitude
- Quebec Trys to Pull a Fast One
- Billy Diamond Says NO!
- Flypox!
- Chisasibi
- The Great Swim
“We are solitary. We can delude ourselves about this and act as if it were not true.
That is all. But how much better it is to recognize that we are alone; yes, even to begin from this realization.” Ranier Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
On Solitude
The undisputed champion of voluntary sequestration, Ranier Maria Rilke, wrote his famous Duino Elegies from the relative solitude of a friend's castle on Italy's Adriatic coast. Though he could only imagine the profound isolation facing the coureurs des bois who trekked into the desolate wilds of northeast Canada, the Austrian poet's words may help explain what drove those individuals, especially a man like Pierre Radisson. “We were Caesars,” wrote Radisson in his own journals, “There being no one to contradict us.” In fact, Radisson was strongly contradicted twice by a government in New France which failed to see the long term benefits of maintaining men like Radisson, and instead drove him to the English two separate times by impounding the lion's share of his fur caches after expeditions. Undeterred, the indefatigable frontiersman went right back to work for the other team, continuing to comb the wilds of Hudson's Bay for his elusive fortune.
Surprise Guest Bullet Point Subject: Ranier Maria Rilke's 5 Best Moments of Solitude:
- "Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything."
- "I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone."
- "The highest form of love is to be the protector of another person’s solitude."
- "Therefore dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you."
- "What is necessary, after all, is only this: solitude, vast inner solitude...To be solitary as you were when you were a child."
THE POWER OF THE RUPERT RIVER
Quebec Tries to Pull a Fast One
The Cree of James Bay refer to themselves as Eeyou ᐄᔨᔫ "the people", and to their lands as Eeyou Istchee ᐄᔨᔫ ᐊᔅᒌ, roughly translated to "The Land of the People". In 1971 the government of Quebec began the construction of a road designed to service a mammoth hydroelectric power project they planned to build on the northern edge of the Eeyou Istchee - they expediently forgot to mention this to the Eeyou. The future James Bay Project included the construction of nine hydroelectric power plants, which required diverting several rivers and flooding huge tracts of land to create reservoirs for servicing those plants. The scope of the project would ultimately impact over 7,000 square miles of traditional Cree hunting grounds. Channeling the myopic cadence of the 17th century French government in New France, the Canadian government of the late 20th century tried to sneak one by the people of Eeyou Istchee in the form of the 385-mile tarmac corridor through their lands.
THE JAMES BAY ROAD
The thoroughfare in question would officially be known as the James Bay Road, and upon its completion in1974, the road served as a conduit through the previously impenetrable wilderness of Eeyou Istchee. <<<!!!WAXING POETIC ALERT!!!>>> There is immediate and unquenchable sorrow available to those who know the perfection of the egg before the omelette - the tree before the table - the forest before the village - this sorrow is made more profound when the allegory may be applied to their entire world.<<<!!!>>>
Intimate exposure to the primeval wilds of Eeyou Istchee had been the privilege of a very few hardy individuals for all of history until the JBR was completed, at which time the wilderness lay open to anyone who could afford to buy the fuel. The road was not being built for the edification of would be naturalist adventurers however, its singular purpose was to ferry men and materials north to begin construction on the James Bay (hydroelectric) Project. Fortunately, the Cree Nations of the James Bay area and their northern Inuit allies had not been idle during the time it took to build the road - the people were mobilizing.
According to their website, the Grand Council of the Crees was formed in 1974 to "represent the coming together of the executive and administrative branches of Cree government....[and] to promote and protect the interests of the Eeyouch living in eastern James Bay and south-eastern Hudson Bay." Once formed, they worked to block the hydro project, or at least to win some compensation for the destruction of the land on which it was to be built. Among the leaders to step into the breach was the young Chief of the Waskaganish Cree, Billy Diamond.
Billy Diamond Says No!
Waskaganish Cree Chief Billy Diamond - May 19, 1949 – September 30, 2010
- Chief of the Waskaganish at age 21
- Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Crees 1974-1984
- Founder and president of Air-Creebec
- Successfully sued Hydro Quebec to preserve Cree and Inuit lands and culture
- Chevalier of the Ordre National du Quebec
- Wrote his own epitaph: "Gone to a meeting - will return"
- Looked handsome in portraits
On November 11, 1975, Grand Chief Billy Diamond signed The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement on behalf of the Cree and Inuit people of Eeyou Istchee and Nunavik. The historic treaty ensured certain environmental and social protections, guaranteed funds for economic development and direct financial compensation to the people, and codified broad allowances for education, health care, and local governance in Eeyou Istchee and Nunavik. In a magnificent, full-circle tour-de-force of post hoc magnanimity, the Government of Quebec agreed to rename the James Bay Road the Billy-Diamond Highway in November of 2020. The gesture closed the loop for the Cree leadership who fought so hard to create a guaranteed future for their people.
WELCOME TO CHISASIBI!
The present site of the Cree Nation of Chisasibi was established as part of a relocation project negotiated by Billy Diamond et al in The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. The people of Chisasabi were moved from the Island of Fort George, where their ancestors had settled near an HBC Trading Post built in 1803, to the mainland on the south bank of the La Grande River. Chisasibi, which means "Great River" in Cree, is the northernmost Cree community reachable by road, and is the most northern municipality in eastern North America reachable by road year-round. We arrived in the late afternoon and went directly to the lovely Hotel Waastooskuun at the north end of town.
NAP TIME AT LONG POINT
After checking-in, we drove out to see the Island of Fort George, and to find a road which led even further north to a place called Long Point. We chose the area as our place to swim because it was located as far north as we would be able drive and also have to access Hudson's Bay. Mostly used for hunting and fishing expeditions, the area of Long Point was awash in wildflowers and the gnarled limbs of long dead trees, with a few skeletal remnants from abandoned boats sprinkled around. Several members of our team were lolled into napping in the midst of the flowers under an absolutely gorgeous blue sky - even this photographer could not mess up the scene.
Flypox!
THE AUTHOR DEMONSTRATES MATURITY WITH A SHOULDER-BORNE CHILD AND A CUBAN CIGAR
There's an old adage regarding biting insects which goes something like this: The one biting you right now is the worst one stupid! So I won't try to qualify the degree of misery the black flies we discovered in Eeyou Istchee were capable of producing. I'll just say that when I saw a child's face in Chisasibi covered with angry red blotches I thought it was a terrible skin rash. And when I noticed that many local people did not wander out without wrapping their bodies like they were taking a hike in the spice-laced deserts of Arrakis, I considered it a cultural thing. The signs were there, yet once again, I failed to assign the correct level of risk to the threat. And once again, I paid the price, or rather, my children did.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PHOTO IS GROSS!
A FORMERLY SHOULDER-BORNE CHILD POSES FOR EVIDENTIARY PHOTO SHOWING THE RESULTS OF A PARENT'S COMPLETE LACK OF MATURITY
Black Flies in northern Canada are insidious little pests that alight on your skin and crawl up to a snug point (often under loose hair to the hairline, or under loose clothing - sleeves, hoodie cowls, floppy hats, etc.) before ripping a piece of skin away and drinking from the resulting flow of blood. And they swarm. Once they climb to their optimum positions, they begin their feasting, and it feels like someone is trying to poke your head off with several electrified chopsticks. As a bald man with a tight cycling cap and a cigar, I did not offer a great target for the tiny blood pirates, but my poor daughter, hoisted up in the air like some sacrificial font to the winged demons by her own father, was ravaged. That's on me. And I take full responsibility for blithely disregarding the obvious signs I'd seen written on the faces of other stricken children. Bottom line? Do your homework! So here are some bullet-pointed graphics and notes on particularly bad actors in the winged blood-sucker genre of nuisances:
7 Worst North American Winged Blood Suckers (number 5 is a doozy!)
- Horse Flies - Their airborne sound alone is terrifying
- Black Flies - AKA buffalo gnats, they rip out a chunk of skin for blood access
- Sand Flies - AKA no-see-ums, particularly frustrating because you think you're making it up
- Biting Midges - The Huns of the air
- Stable Flies - Beware the west wind
- Deer Flies - Nasty bite, easy to kill
- Mosquitos - They also feature a potential range of diseases
- Images not to scale
THE BIG SWIM - HUDSON'S BAY!
1,526 miles and six days after we left our porch in Washington, DC, we were ready to swim in Hudson's Bay. It turns out that James Bay and Hudson's Bay, and the connecting Arctic Ocean for that matter, are all relatively shallow bodies of water. In my experience that means the sun's warming rays can easily penetrate the depths, especially closer to shore, ergo warmer water. Nope. What it does mean is that foolhardy swimmers have a longer distance to wade out to find a swimmable depth. Some folks like to ease into cold water - I'm a plunger; I don't handle the suspense well, so I just run in and dive to get the shock over with. Well, you can't do that if your walking barefoot over rocky ground and it's 30 yards to a divable spot. So instead, I minced out like a cartoon villain creeping on a baby bunny - just far enough to allow for full submersion, and flopped over. My wife and children are water people on the other hand, so they're slithering around like sea otters at a theme park. Fortunately, no photos were taken until we were all back on shore.
THE BUCKET-LIST SWIM TEAM AFTER A DIP IN HUDSON'S BAY
Next Episode:
Radisson - The End of the Road
Inukshuks: Why No Pile of Rocks Will Ever Look the Same
The Robert Bourassa Power Station
We go to Wemindji ᐐᒥᓂᒌ
NEXT: Moosejaw Radio PART IX PREVIOUS
