When is a holiday not a holiday? - The Lagrange Point Vol. I, Iss. 13

The latest release from Alberta-based SF&F publisher EDGE comes out on hardcopy Oct. 4. Michael J. Martineck's novel, The Tongue Trade, is an intriguing story of a not-too-distant future where specialist interpreters are in demand due to humanity's many newly-evolved jargons and languages. One such interpreter, William Kirst, is drawn into a murder investigation and a wider conspiracy. "Where words are the ultimate currency, silence can be lethal."

After 10 years online, webcomic Ghost Junk Sickness, created by sisters Kristen and Laura out of Kingston, Ontario, is getting a print release, covering the entire series' run. Their Kickstarter campaign is for a 200+ page, seven volume set, with colour covers. The comic itself is an LGBTQ+ sci-fi tale of bounty hunters, romance and action. The campaign wraps up on October 16.

Zimbabwean journalist and author Chido Muchemwa, who resides in Toronto, releases her debut short story collection with House of Anansi Press on October 8. Who Will Bury You collects 12 stories by Muchemwa that take place in Toronto and Zimbabwe, and at least some of them feature fantastical elements, such as a journalist reporting on girls allegedly abducted by mermaids, and the tale of a girl born to be a river god's wife who becomes a hero when chaos breaks out in the mighty Zambezi.

And lastly, Inside Up Games, headed by Conor McGoey of Thunder Bay, is Kickstarting Ice and Idols, a game for two to four players. It's a competitive, quick-play experience where players take on the role of explorers racing to find idols and collect research points in a frozen ancient temple. Pathway tiles will shift, and the entire board can also rotate, making gameplay quick-changing and evolving. The Kickstarter wraps October 11!

A bit of a change of pace this week as I put aside the model kits and instead assembled a little passion project.

Many years ago, I visited the Big Island of Hawaii, and Volcano National Park. While I was there, I picked up a milo wood carving by a local artist (whose name, sadly, is missing from my records). Milo wood is native to the islands, and the Volcano Art Gallery uses only dead wood for these carvings, so I was happy to pay a premium price ($80 US) for something ethically harvested and indigenous crafted.

My visit also awoke a deep love of Polynesian culture in me, particularly when I visited the observatory on the Big Island, where they had a presentation on Indigenous star mapping and the great migration of Polynesian people across the Pacific Ocean. It's an incredible achievement of navigation and perseverance, and has been repeatedly proven through genealogy, cultural commonalities and by modern sailors recreating the voyage with traditional methods and crafts (including the iconic twin-hulled canoes, of ancient Polynesia).

I made a goal to visit the three points of the Polynesian Triangle. Hawaii is one. The others are New Zealand and Rapa Nui (called Easter Island by Europeans). And finally, this year, I completed that goal, and returned with two items to add to my sculpture.

The first item was a piece of pounamu (jade), carved by Maori-descended artist Alex Sands, made into the shape of a fish hook (Hei Matau), said to bring prosperity, good health can safe travel across water.

The second was a piece of onyx carved into a moai head by Paulina Santiz, a Rapa Nui artist. Seeing the iconic heads was incredible, and I feel lucky to have brought one home.

My milo wood sculpture handily had two circular shapes in it, and the pounamu fit perfectly into the larger of the two. The sculpture was also drilled with a place for a small flower holder, and this nicely allowed me to simply thread the pounamu pendant up and into it, without the need for glue or anything.

Mounting the moai head proved a bit more challenging. I had some clear plastic "floating" mounts from my model kits, and as it happened they fit nicely into the moai head's pre-drilled hole, which was intended to let it be hung as a pendant.

From there, I whittled out a small indentation to give the mount a bit of leverage, and superglued it in place.

Here's the final result!

I'm quite please with it. And I'm thrilled and privileged to have been able to see these three incredible places, and to see firsthand how they share a common ancestry, but have evolved into distinct and different societies that remain alive and vibrant today.

It's not a coincidence that I took this week to work on a project involving Indigenous-made items for Crafter's Corner. This newsletter is falling, of course, on September 30, which was designated in 2021 as an official statutory holiday, for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

That first year it was observed, the Prime Minister who had pushed for that designation, Justin Trudeau, used the stat holiday to vacation in Tofino.

There were, of course, people who were not thrilled with this, including Kúkpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir of the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc (formerly, the Kamloops Indian Band), who was justifiably peeved that the leader of the country opted to overlook observances around, ya know, that whole hundreds of dead kids thing.

And of course, there were some defenders. People who said that the PM would have "overshadowed" such observances, invading the space with his retinue and security and so forth.

And there was a third group: the group that slammed the PM not just for taking the holiday, but for making it a holiday in the first place. Those who insist it is wrong to mark the day at all. That Canada owes no one any more shows of grief.

It is to this last group that I direct this particular rantable, with a simple question: what do we owe to our history?

Remembrance Day, for instance, was created out of a war literally no living Canadian participated in. The memory of World War One has been replaced by political maneuvering, demands of performative allegiance to nationalism and hollow symbols like the poppy, increasingly devoid of any meaning besides a lingering sense that if one does not sufficiently throw themselves at the feet of the military, one is not truly "Canadian."

If a politician eschewed Remembrance Day ceremonies, they would be dragged in the media and the public.

But for an occasion where we mark the systemic elimination and oppression of hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people, the majority of the country won't even officially declare it a statutory holiday (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland).

I imagine that for the remainder, there's a healthy chunk that will also simply take the time off, using it for a last chance at camping or vacations or staycations. And indeed, perhaps for those folks, they see Remembrance Day in the same light.

The point of this rant isn't to slag people for not doing anything in particular to mark National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. But it is to question why it is that we place such high political value on occasions like Remembrance Day, and why it is that we don't similarly hold our leaders to any kind of standard for Indigenous relationships.

Indeed, it is mightily dubious to suggest that World War One was fought for "freedom" or "justice" or any kind of "Canadian values." It was fought because of imperialism, and a complex network of alliances and European ambition. If Germany hadn't been the aggressor, there is every bit of evidence to suggest someone else would have.

While some may insist it has evolved to encompass all Canadian military service, I would argue this only further muddies the waters, as again, conflicts like Korea and Afghanistan were hardly an expression of "Canadian values" and more an expression of which particular superpower we were kowtowing to while they engaged in proxy wars.

If anything, it would truly express of our values if we really did own up to our old sins and truly forged a path of reconciliation. That would be much more in keeping with the Canada that I personally want to see, and frankly, a much more productive use of time than thumping our chests about who donned a poppy and who didn't.

Again, I'm not saying we need to wag fingers at each other over who was sufficiently sad and guilty and wore an orange shirt or what have you. These are surface-level criticisms, much like the ones leveled on Remembrance Day.

What does matter is carrying in our hearts a sincere wish to make things right, and to achieve a lasting reconciliation for tomorrow. That means holding our leaders accountable for the commitments they make to mending these bridges.

It's not a day for them to go on vacation. It's a reminder to get to work.

That wraps up issue #13 of The Lagrange Point! If you enjoyed this little e-newsletter, please consider subscribing, or, if you're already subscribed, sharing it with a friend or family member!

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Until next Monday, thank you for reading!

-Tim