The McGill Daily Vol. 108 Issue 5

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Volume 108, Issue 5 | Monday, October 1, 2018 | mcgilldaily.com My girlfriend is in the bathroom since 1911

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editorial

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Decolonizing Inuit Art

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Rejjie Snow’s Place in Hip-Hop

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Inuit Women Artists

The McGill Daily Nov. 2000 Queer Pullout

Am I Too Much?

Messy, Difficult, Liberating

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EDITORIAL

Volume 108 Issue 5

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The McGill Daily is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory. coordinating editor

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Rallying in Support of Sign Languages

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contributors Meyra Coban, Ece Ozer, Nabeela Jivraj, Eloise Albaret, Phyllida Martignetti, Sonsuz Ask, Claire Grenier, Claudia Kitchen, Quinn Lazenby, Sara Hashemi, Brianna Miller, Kathleen Charles, Athina Khalid, Michael Kurt, Nelly Wat, Frederique Blanchard, Arno Pedram

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very year, the global Deaf community celebrates the International Week of the Deaf (IWD) which begins with the International Day of Sign Languages. This year, the event started on Sunday, September 23, with rallies taking place across the country. Protesters expressed support for the Canadian Association of the Deaf (CAD), an organization lobbying the federal government to recognize various sign languages as official national languages. The CAD points out that over 45 countries already recognize sign languages as one of their official languages; Canada is not one of them. Protesters are looking for American Sign Language (ASL), Quebec Sign Language (LSQ), and Indigenous Sign Languages (ISL) to receive official recognition by the federal government.

While talks of recognizing sign languages as official languages of Canada were underway in 2016 through the Accessibility legislation (Bill C-81), the Bill does not explicitly focus on a commitment to language legislation. Instead, it speaks vaguely of tackling “barriers to inclusion for people with disabilities and functional limitations.

Mark Wheatley, Executive Director of the European Union of the Deaf (EUD), stated to The Daily that the first step in increasing inclusivity for the Deaf community is to recognize sign languages on a federal level. The access to and use of language are human rights that no community should be deprived of. If sign languages are made official Canadian languages, there will be an increase in the presence of sign language in

public service. While sign language legislation is not an end-all be-all solution to the problem of inclusion and equality for the Deaf community, it is a crucial first step.

Funding for sign language school programs is vital to increasing accessibility to education, and providing sign translation at events.

However, as ASL becomes more widely used, channels for spreading knowledge of ISL remain limited. Wheatley responded to these concerns by saying that enabling “Indigenous people to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, and access, on an equal basis with others, the information and communications through sign language, both in urban and in rural areas, is necessary.” The recognition of ISL as an official language and a financial commitment to expanding knowledge of ISL are important steps for language equity and for issues pertaining to Indigenous rights in Canada.

Legislation for sign language must be introduced to recognize the fundamental right of Deaf people to language accessibility, and guarantee their equal access to public resources in society. We must also be mindful that ISL is recognized on-par with the more widespread sign languages, namely ASL and LSQ, to ensure equality within the Deaf community. As a student community, we must support activists trying to make sign languages more accessible in Canada, and policy changes which would develop the use of sign languages in the public sphere.

ASL classes are offered as a SSMU minicourse, thanks to Seeing Voices Montreal.

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NEWS

October 1, 2018 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

International News Maldivian Presidential Elections: Opposition Claims Victory Ece Özer News Writer

AGM &

Call for Candidates All members of the Daily Publications Society (DPS), publisher of The McGill Daily and Le Délit, are cordially invited to its Annual General Assembly:

Wednesday, October 24th @ 5:30 pm

2075 Robert-Bourassa, 5th Floor Common Room The presence of candidates to the Board of Directors is strongly advised.

The DPS is currently accepting applications for its Board of Directors.

Positions must be filled by McGill students, duly registered for the Fall 2018 and Winter 2019 semesters and able to serve until October 31st, 2019, as well as one Graduate Representative.

Board members gather at least once a month to discuss the management of the newspapers and make important administrative decisions.

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he Maldives held their presidential election on September 23. The incumbent President Abdulla Yameen represented the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM). Ibrahim Mohamed Solih represented the opposition, Maldives Democratic Party (MDP). Solih won the election with 58 per cent of the votes, which was 17 points more than Yameen.

Mariyam Shiuna, executive director of Transparency Maldives, said that “prior to Sunday’s elections, many feared about potential fraud [in Yameen’s favour] due to limited freedom of mass media.” According to BBC News, international monitors have been banned from observing the election, and most of the foreign media’s access was restricted on election day, which raised questions about the elections’ integrity.

For Solih, his election is “the first successful step

on the road to justice.”

Yameen recently signed a free trade agreement with China, and accepted Chinese investments in current and future construction projects in the Maldives. Solih supports an alliance with India and strongly opposes business with China. Solih believes China is allying itself with the Maldives to access the essential trade routes of the Indian Ocean.

According to analysts, the Maldives’ association with China was an important issue for voters, and for China itself. Yameen’s loss could mean the loss of trade access for China.

The Maldives’ future, and its new foreign policies, will be determined once the national electoral commission approves Solih’s claim on winning the election.

More Detentions of Nicaraguan Activists Meyra Çoban The McGill Daily

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maya Eva Coppens, a Nicaraguan-Belgian activist and medical student, was detained in León, Nicaragua on September 10, 2018. The police accused her of “terrorism,” “assaults,” and the “illegal possession of firearms.”

Together with the imprisonment of dozens of other activists, the arrest of Coppens is part of the latest wave of Nicaraguan authorities detaining activists, many of which are student members of the April protests.

In April 2018, Nicaragua’s Ortega administration announced a social security reform that would increase workers’ tax contributions, and ultimately lead to a decrease in pensions. Nicaraguan pensioners, students, merchants, members of feminist and Campesino (farmer) movements, and other citizens protested the proposal until it was revoked 22 April 2018 by President Ortega.

Discontent with the Nicaraguan authorities’ violent handling of the demonstrations has resulted in ongoing protests since April 2018. The protestors demand the resignation of President Ortega and of Vice-President, Rosario Murillo, who is also Ortega’s spouse. Concerns of police violence, infringements on free speech, violations of indigenous peoples’ land rights and violence against women in the country are among the reasons people believe the government should resign.

According to the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (Asociación Nicaragüense Pro Derechos Humanos), the Nicaraguan authorities’ violent response to the protests has resulted in the deaths of over 500, the injury of over 4,000 and the detention of over 1,400 individuals since April 2018.

The Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights (Centro Nicaragüense por los Derechos Humanos), as well as the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, criticize the detention of Coppens and other activists.

Coppens was held in incommunicado detention for nine days. This means that she was denied access to a lawyer, family members, or an independent physician.

She has now been transferred to the women’s prison “La Esperanza” in Tipitapa. According to a statement from her father, despite a visit from her parents being monitored and filmed by prison staff, Amaya managed to communicate that she was beaten up while in detention. She also revealed that she has not been tortured due to her diplomatic position as a Belgian citizen. However, her fellow Nicaraguan prisoners may not be immune to this treatment. A Nicaragua Today article described the conditions in the prison as “inhumane” and reported that prisoners are denied medical attention despite some of them enduring critical illnesses such as terminal cancer.

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International News Dr. Christine Blasey Ford Testifies at Kavanaugh Hearings Nabeela Jivraj The McGill Daily

Content warning: sexual assault

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upreme Court nominee Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 27, following allegations of sexual assault. Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court, Justice Kavanaugh previously worked as a top aide to President George W. Bush, and in the US Court of Appeals. He is considered to be a likely opponent of Roe v. Wade.

The allegations against Kavanaugh by a then-anonymous woman first arose in July, Senator Dianne Feinstein, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had requested to delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote to the Supreme Court.

Ford came public with her allegations against Kavanaugh on Sept. 16. In the past week, three other women, Deborah Ramirez, Julie Swetnick, and one other anonymous woman have come forward with allegations against Kavanaugh.

In Ford’s testimony, she described her experiences with Kavanaugh in detail, stating that her “motivation in coming forward was to provide the facts about how Mr Kavanaugh’s

actions have damaged [her] life, so that [the committee] can take that into serious consideration as [they] make [their] decision about how to proceed.” Remaining composed during her testimony, she recalled the alleged sexual assault by Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge. When asked her most vivid memory of the night, she responded with “all of them having fun at my expense.” Kavanaugh adressed the allegations in a heated testimony, describing the current allegations as a political smear campaign by the left. He spoke of his good character as attested to by the women in his life, his relationship to alcohol, and his high school experience as he remembers it.

War, Famine, and Disease Plague Yemen Eloïse Albaret The McGill Daily

Content warning: death, war, terrorism

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n 2017, 50,000 children lost their lives due to war in Yemen. Now, as the UN reports, Yemen faces a famine, which is expected to put 5 million children at risk of starvation.

For almost three years Yemen has endured civil war between Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed forces who support Yemen’s former government. The Houthi rebels have been fighting for terms surrounding political and economic demands. By the end of this year, the country may be facing “the world’s worst humanitarian disaster for 50 years,” says Mark Lowcock, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Seventy-five per cent of the population is in need of assistance, but fighting near the main port Hodeidah is blocking the distribution of vital supplies.

In September 2014, the Houthi rebel group overtook the capital Sana’a and tried to seize Yemen’s second largest city, Aden, in order to overthrow the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. In response to the Houthi’s actions, a coalition backed by neighbouring country Saudi Arabia, launched airstrikes in an attempt to restore Yemen’s official government. These missiles, as well as other weapons and intelligence, came from the USA and the UK. Without

this support, it would be difficult for Saudi Arabia to continue the war. The US has also claimed to have deployed a small number of troops on the ground, and France and the UK are also supplying the Saudi-led coalition with weapons and intelligence. Although Canada has provided upwards of $65 million in humanitarian aid to Yemen, it has also sold more than $284 million in weapons to the countries that are bombing Yemen. As a result of the war, both Al-Qaeda and ISIL have spread within the country; Al-Qaeda has taken over territory in the south of Yemen, while ISIL has launched an attack killing more than 140 people. The bombing operations have killed tens of thousands of people and caused the displacement of over 3 million. Many members of the US Congress, as well as humanitarian organizations, have called for the US and others to be charged with war crimes for the crisis in Yemen.

Yemen’s people and economy are suffering greatly because of the war; the price of food has doubled, and the nation’s currency, the Yemeni riyal, has collapsed.

The war has taken a great toll on an already impoverished society. Airstrikes are killing civilians in hospitals and schools; most of the casualties are children. In August of this year, a US-backed Saudi missile hit a bus carrying children killing at least 29 children and wounding 30 more. Now, citizens of Yemen face famine and an outbreak

of cholera. “We may now be approaching a tipping point, beyond which it will be impossible to prevent massive loss of life as a result of widespread famine across the country,” said Lowcock to the UN’s Security Council. “We are already seeing pockets of famine-like conditions, including cases where people are eating leaves.” Last year, the UN declared that Yemen had seen “the world’s worst cholera outbreak,” with a million suspected cases in December 2017 and 5,000 new cases being reported each day — over 2,300 lives have been lost. Even though Yemen has since reduced and recovered somewhat from the disease, the World Health Organization has reported that the country is about to face a third wave of cholera.

The fighting near the port of Hodeidah is making it nearly impossible to get any sort of aid to citizens. Understaffed and under-equipped health centres are noticing a spike in the amount of malnourished patients they come across. In August, Aslam’s health centre saw up to 99 cases of malnutrition, half of which were in the most severe stages. The UN is trying to raise more money and resources for the people of Yemen, but Lowcock claims that “humanitarian organizations simply cannot look after the needs of all 29 million Yemenis. That is untenable.”

You can donate to: Save The Children, Unicef, and Oxfam.

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NEWS

October 1, 2018 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Inuit Women Artists

On The Importance of Art and Self-Discovery

ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐊᕐᓇᐃᑦ ᐃᓱᒪᓂᕕ ᐊᒻᒪ ᓴᓇᙳᐊᒐᑦ

Phyllida Martignetti The McGill Daily

a broad range of artistic practices, there’s not a lot of specialization or understanding, [...] First he McGill Indigenous Studies Nations colleagues,” she said “have Program hosted a panel called said to me that they’re not really ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐊᕐᓇᐃᑦ ᐃᓱᒪᓂᕕ comfortable teaching art because ᐊᒻᒪ ᓴᓇᙳᐊᒐᑦ: Inuit Women in they never studied it when they Art on September 25. The panel were at school or they don’t see it in featured four distinguished exhibitions in the same way [as non Indigenous women in various fields First-Nations people].”

Igloliorte discussed at length of art. The event was one of many happening across campus as part of McGill’s eighth annual Indigenous Awareness Week.

Patricia Johnson- Castle, Administrative and Student Affairs Coordinator for the Indigenous Studies Program, and organizer of the night’s event, opened the panel by introducing the four guest speakers: Beatrice Deer (ᐱᐊᑐᐊᔅ ᑎᐅ), singer, television producer, and author; Nancy Saunders (ᓂᐊᑉ ᓴᓐᑐᔅ), known professionally as Niap, visual artist and throat singer; Heather Igloliorte (ᓯᕈ ᐃᒡᓗᓕᐅᖅᑎ), co-chair of the Indigenous Circle for the Winnipeg Art Gallery; and Nina Segalowitz (ᓂᓇ ᓯᒐᓗᕕᑦᔅ), writer and throat singer.

Beatrice Deer took the floor first and went into detail regarding the various types of art forms she has explored over the years including, costume design, music, fine art, literature and sewing. Deer hails from Quaqtaq, Nunabik and has resided in Montreal for the past 11 years. She previously sat on the board for the Inuit Art Foundation alongside fellow speaker of the evening, Heather Igloliorte, and Deer received the award herself in 2016.

Igloliorte, an Inuk scholar and — Heather Igloliorte independent curator, as well as Co-Director of the Initiative the irony within promoting and for Indigenous Futures Cluster, displaying Inuit and Indigenous discussed how the issue of a lack art: “we have these collections of of Indigenous recognition affects Inuit art in almost every museum us all, regardless of our respective and gallery in this country as well as backgrounds. She highlighted a whole bunch of galleries all over the difficulties in creating a the world [...] and yet in this country comprehensive learning program, there’s never been a permanent full explaining, “even in courses where time Inuk employed in a museum.”

Indigenous art is meant to encompass Universities offering courses in Inuit

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“we have these collections of Inuit art in almost every museum and gallery in this country as well as a whole bunch of galleries all over the world [...] and yet in this country there’s never been a permanent full time Inuk employed in a museum.”

and Indigenous art exist exclusively in the South of Canada. The North, in contrast, possesses no universities at all, just a few colleges. “Canada is the only Arctic country that does not have a university in the Arctic,” Igloliorte explained.

Deer spoke about being “very influenced by [her] culture” and how she “writes mostly in Inuktitut as that is [her] first language and that’s the one [she] is most confident expressing herself [in].”

Deer and the other panelists all shared the sentiment that their art is as much about improving the rights for Indigenous populations and educating others, as it is about self-discovery.

Nancy Saunders, who is professionally known as Niap, is a visual artist from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik. Her pseudonym comes from a mispronunciation of the Inuktitut word for older sister.

Saunders, who provided an opening speech in her mother tongue of Inuktitut, spoke of her transition from figurative and literal work into the abstract. She described this journey in terms of her selfexpression and self-realization of her heritage.

“When I was growing up in the South I was very much ashamed of who I was,” Saunders moved from her home town of Kuujjuaq at the age of 12. Saunders stated that her initial work focused predominantly on the literal representation of “who [the Inuit] are with the traditional clothing and such, and then [she] started learning about the mythology [...] stories about transformations, and metamorphoses.” Of her art, she said, “I just kind of share what I think is beautiful from my culture and I want to share the stories and these things that I am discovering — I want other people to discover them at the same time as I am.”

Saunders demonstrated this period of self-discovery and evolution by showcasing several

Thrasher in Fort Smith Northwest Territories, Segalowitz was stolen from her parents at the age of seven months during the Sixties scoop.

The Sixties scoop refers to the wide-scale national apprehension of Indigenous children by childwelfare agencies to place them in non-Indigenous homes in Canada, the US, and even overseas. The practice began in the 1950’s and lasted until the mid to late 80’s.

This traumatic displacement was instrumental in Segalowitz’s journey to self-discovery. Through the outlets of music and spoken word, she has been able to start to reconcile her heritage with the way she grew up. “I still feel anxiety,” she said, “I always felt like I was playing a part [growing up in her Filipino-Jewish family [...] I always felt like people had a list of things they wanted me to do — they wanted me to go to a private girls’ school, I went to a private girls’ school, they wanted me to pray in Hebrew, I prayed in Hebrew [...] I felt like I was always constantly meeting other people’s expectations of me.”

“Throat singing was a way for me to heal that hole in my heart and my spirit, and when I do it I feel transported in time. Every time I — Nina Segalowitz learn a new song, the government loses again”.

Speaking after the event, Patricia Saunders discussed at length the struggles she has faced both Johnson-Castle, whose family is internally and externally with the from the Indigenous community of perceptions of what it means to be Nunatsiavut in Labrador, explained Inuk. During a sculpting residence the importance of this event: in Paris, France, Saunders was faced “[Indigenous people] are so multiwith having to justify her identity talented and it’s only [...] in the past to the people around her. “I wasn’t little while that people are getting considered a real Inuk in France, the recognition that they deserve because I lived off second-hand based on their talent”.

Johnson-Castle also spoke at information,” she said, “I wasn’t born in an Igloo, I have pale skin length about her hesitations with and I have green eyes and I didn’t Indigenous art being placed in live with a dog sled or anything galleries: “the way that those pieces like that, so I struggled every day to of Inuit art have gotten into museums all over the world is also part of justify what it means to be Inuit.”

This sense of internalized shame this greater project of the Canadian was similarly expressed by Nina government [saying] ‘you are useful Segalowitz. Born Anne-Marie in this way.’” examples of her work. She presented a life-like drawing with a section of three dimensional beadwork, and a stream from her hometown accompanied by a montage of sounds from her home. Saunders stressed greatly the necessity to be “immersed in the piece” and offers this as an explanation for her use of several mediums at once.

“Throat singing was a way for me to heal that hole in my heart and my spirit and when I do it I feel transported in time. Every time I learn a new song, the government loses again”.

commentary

October 1, 2018 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Am I Too Much?

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Everything I Know about Obesity is Wrong Claire Grenier The McGill Daily content warning: fat shaming, eating disorders

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am fat. Sitting down to write this article, my first instinct is to start by saying “I’m not that fat.” I am shrouded in shame about my body, making excuses for my size before I’ve even made my first point. Fuck that. I am fat.

My doctor certainly thinks so and has told me repeatedly throughout the years. Since I was thirteen. Since I weighed 50 pounds less than I do now. Fuck that too.

I try to embrace my body: I get told I’m beautiful, not fat. These things do not have to exist separately, and yet that’s all we know.

If anything I am told to focus on my health, and weight will follow suit. Fuck that in particular.

Last week the Huffington Post published a report by Michael Hobbes called “Everything you Know about Obesity is Wrong.”

The article is astounding, detailing the horrifying and potentially life-threatening treatment many fat people have gone through.

“I have never written a story where so many of my sources cried during interviews, where they shook with anger describing their interactions with doctors and strangers and their own families,” he says. The article details crash diets, offensive doctors, unsolicited advice, and, of course, shame.

Physicians, Hobbes points out, are usually in good shape and this influences how they view and treat fat patients. Some also “sincerely believe that shaming fat people is the best way to motivate them to lose weight.” Emily, one of the interviewees, talked about going for an MRI scan before getting an

ovarian cyst removed, only to be shamed by her doctor. “Look at that skinny woman in there just trying to get out,” he said. Another woman, Corissa Enneking, was equally mistreated by her doctor when at her lightest weight. He congratulated her on her eating disorder because it had caused her to lose weight.

“Ask almost any fat person about [their] interactions with the healthcare system and you will hear a story, sometimes three, the same as Enneking’s,” Hobbes comments.

I remember getting my yearly checkup from my family doctor when I was 15, with my dad in the room, because I was a minor. My doctor read aloud my weight and height, pointed out that I was in the 90th percentile for both. How this meant I was obese. He told me to lose weight, maybe watch what I eat.

That was all the advice he had to give me. I also remember trying to hide how devastated I was for the rest of the appointment. My doctor did not ask me what activities I was doing — at the time I was on my school’s rugby team, practicing every day and playing twice a week — or comment on my perfectly fine cholesterol: he saw my body as unhealthy, so I was unhealthy.

I am embarrassed of how I look most of the time. In public, I enjoy myself until I can’t anymore, until I’m eating and get worried someone will think it’s too much, and maybe it is too much, maybe I should eat less. Maybe tomorrow I won’t eat at all.

I’m worried about the space I take up. I’ve always been the biggest of my friends, and one of the most boisterous. Is it too much?

Am I too much? When I have to awkwardly squeeze into every

Athina Khalid | The McGill Daily

Athina Khalid | The McGill Daily desk and constantly shift because I am never comfortable, but then spend the entire class with my hand raised, do I make people uncomfortable? When I was on the rugby team, or when I was boxing, or when I was doing dance numbers in theatre, did people laugh at me? Think that I was either the poor fat girl trying to lose weight, or that I was just brave for living my life?

I’ve never owned a bikini, only a one-piece swimsuit, that I rarely wear because going swimming means exposing my body. I saw a picture of myself in a bathing suit two summers ago and didn’t dare go swimming for another year. I never wear sweatpants because I don’t want to be labeled as the stereotypical lazy fat person. Instead, sometimes I wear control top tights underneath my jeans; I have had a corset in my Amazon shopping cart for six months. I do not live a day where I don’t wish I could change my body.

I’ve only really been called fat by other people in elementary school. When I was 12, a boy told me I could win a fight by sitting on someone and suffocating them with my weight. I wonder if people notice my discomfort, how I move back if my stomach roll touches a table. Or how I lift my chin to avoid any fat gathering there if I think someone is watching me.

“This is how fat-shaming works,” Hobbes says, “It is visible and invisible, public and private, hidden and everywhere at the same time.”

And it has absolutely horrendous effects. Hobbes mentions a 2015 study on weight discrimination and mortality which found that

fat people who face discrimination based on weight have shorter life expectancies than fat people who don’t. In its conclusion, the study stated the possibility that, “the stigma associated with being overweight is more harmful than actually being overweight.”

I’m worried about the space I take up. I’ve always been the biggest of my friends, and one of the most boisterous.

Is it too much?

Am I too much? [...] Do I make people uncomfortable?

I have biases against my own body, even against others who have the same body type. I have consoled myself by looking at another fat person and thinking “well at least I’m not that big!” Or I become scared that I could get that big. It’s vicious. I don’t want to think this way but I can’t help myself; this is a trend in other fat people too. Erin Harrop, an eating disorder researcher, says this is because “fat people grow up in the same fat-hating culture that nonfat people do.” Unlike other marginalized groups, fat people don’t meet up. Fat people “never get a moment of declaring their identi-

ty, of marking themselves as part of a distinct group,” Hobbes notices. “They still live in a society that believes weight is temporary, that losing it is urgent and achievable, that being comfortable in their bodies is merely ‘glorifying obesity.’” Another interviewee, community outreach director for the National Fat Acceptance organization, Tigress Osborn, summarizes that “you can’t claim an identity if everyone around you is saying it doesn’t or shouldn’t exist.”

I doubt that Hobbes’ article, while a breath of fresh air, will actually change anything. However, he still did something more powerful than just reporting the story.

He asked his subjects how they would like to be portrayed and photographed them in that way.

Some were empowering like Erin Harrop’s, who was photographed playing a superhero game with her son. “I like that I’m sweaty, dirty and messy, [...] that I’m not hiding my stomach, thighs or arms.

Not because I’m comfortable being photographed like that, but because I want to be – and I want others to feel free to be like that, too,” she said of her portrait. And Joy Cox, another interviewee, said, “being depicted as a female CEO — one who is also black and fat — means so much to me. It is a representation of the reclamation of power in the boardroom, classroom, and living room of my body.

I own all of this.”

For my picture I wanted to show myself relaxed, just living. Not posing for anyone, or trying to hide my body. I’m tired of being made to believe that I have to be smaller to be happy.

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commentary

October 1, 2018 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Messy, Difficult, Liberating What’s in Polyamory for Marginalized Folks?

Sonsuz Aşk The McGill Daily

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lthough I’m a polyamorous queer woman of colour myself, watching Netflix can easily make me feel like polyamory is only for people who make each other kale smoothies. Series like You Me Her, Easy, and Insatiable, represent polyamory as hip, able-bodied, white, middle-class, and (sub) urban. Although this stereotypical portrayal of polyamory has been challenged in shows such as She’s Gotta Have It, it remains the dominant narrative. Being poly is not an identity that is necessarily marginalized in itself. However, like all human interactions, polyamory is affected by power dynamics, making it difficult for marginalized folks to navigate it.

So, how do being poly and being marginalized interact?

Polyamory comes in many forms. The form of polyamory I identify with, and will describe, is informed by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy’s book The Ethical Slut.

As blogger Kim TallBear points out on her blog The Critical Polyamorist, the institution of monogamy is relatively recent. It was solidified by the advance of capitalism and by countries like Canada, which canonized it through the institution of monogamous marriage. As a project closely tied with administrative, colonial state systems, monogamous marriage has been forcefully imposed on Indigenous communities and on Muslim societies practicing polygamy to replace extended family models. The normalization of monogamy in the Western world extends to non-racialized religious communities.

our needs and boundaries, and schedule time between more than two people.

Another aspect is engaging with jealousy, which we usually consider to be a reaction to infidelity or the threat thereof. Many poly people believe the source of jealousy to be their own fears and insecurities rather than the actions of their partner. For example, if I feel jealous of my partner spending a weekend with their partner, this may be because I feel less needed.

This does not mean that jealousy is an illegitimate feeling. Instead, we What is Polyamory?

Polyamory is the act or the give (healthy amounts of ) space to ability of romantically loving jealousy and its underlying causes.

However, feelings about our more than one person at a time.

Polyamorous relationships are partners connecting with someone relationships where this ability is else also include “compersion,” either lived or simply respected. It which means being happy for our is a form of non-monogamy where partners when they are happy with the terms of the relationship are someone else. Many poly people actively consented to by everyone also think about the hierarchical involved. At this point, you may be ordering of partners in their lives. thinking of polygamy, casual sex, Some of us practice relationship or swinging. While these elements anarchy, where all partners have may be present in a poly person’s an equal say, while others have a life, the essence of it is simpler: it primary partner. And yes, there is possible and okay to love more can still be ‘cheating’ in poly relationships — the boundaries than one person at a time.

A central aspect of polyamory of loyalty just change from is honestly articulating one’s monogamy as the default to the own feelings and listening to agreements that partners have the feelings of others. Poly established together. constellations cannot simply follow the mainstream relationship Polyamory and Liberation Polyamory is not a choice, norms that inform monogamous relationships. They therefore it’s simply the way some people depend on open communication, function, and it can be invalidating which helps us negotiate the nature to live in societies that socially of our relationships, articulate and legally privilege monogamy.

Nelly Wat | The McGill Daily Encountering polyamory as a concept can be unsettling at first, but it also validates many feelings and experiences. As marginalized folks, we are often excluded from multiple other social norms and are more vulnerable to struggling with mental health. Being able to articulate or live this part of ourselves can be relieving.

Poly people cannot draw as easily on relationship norms usually associated with monogamy.

It is complex to negotiate care, dependency, strength, and vulnerability among more than two actors who are often differently powerful and marginalized. There is nothing inherently subversive about polyamory. Like other relationship models, it can be practiced in violent ways that exploit folks’ vulnerability and further marginalize them. But having to sort out these dynamics rather than taking up their normative prefigurations can be liberating. For example, some women and femmes use polyamory to reclaim sluthood; in some poly relationships, more privileged partners take a step back and support their other partners as they venture through non-monogamy; and queer poly relationships often disrupt cis- and heteronormative relationship assignments of gender expression. We negotiate these dynamics collectively or individually with our partners, allowing for multidimensional expressions of our gender and sexuality, or lack thereof.

Polyamory has also given me space to evolve; now, I feel better able to relate to others without having to undo existing relationships. Being partnered does not stop our questioning and encountering of new desires. We may find that we are queer, kinky, or tired of only ever giving our Black and brown bodies to white partners. Once we move away from the idea that one partner has to satisfy all of our needs, we become able to explore these desires and identities even if they don’t fit within the frames of our already existing relationships.

Accessibility Members of the polyamorous community often have high degrees of formal education, financial means and race privilege. But not all of us fit this demographic. Blogger Kim TallBear documents her experiences as a Native American polyamorous woman in the US. She longs for Native American “meat-on-your-bones, humble, swaggering” feminists, but the men she finds in poly circles tend to be “pale, skinny, soy latte sipping, yoga bendy techies.” In 9 Strategies for Non-Oppressive Polyamory, Janani Balasubramanian reminds us that “racialised ideas of sluthood” make reclaiming promiscuity inaccessible to some people of colour.

Active communication in poly relationships sets high standards for expressing our emotional lives that can be ableist and neglect the power-ridden dynamics of whose

feelings and which expressions of feelings we consider valid. Being in a poly relationship requires money, time, emotional availability, and mobility to link up with other people. Be it working multiple jobs, raising children, or simply feeling exhausted from living in a world that wasn’t built for us, there are many ways in which some may lack the resources that polyamory often requires. At the same time, polyamory that resists these economic limitations, for example polyamory as a way of coping financially as described by Ian Baker in Growing Up Poor With Three Parents, is underrepresented in common imaginations of polyamory.

Lastly, being poly does not absolve us of our potential to oppress forms of consensual nonmonogamy that are racialized or marginalized in other ways.

Brigitte Vasallo captures that we often claim “to have total legitimacy to decide what is love and what is not, [and] what an ethical relationship is and what not.” Similarly, it is not for us to police monogamous constellations, whether they come about as a result of the accessibility restrictions discussed above or simply by choice.

Being poly and being marginalized can interplay in messy, difficult, and liberating ways. Good allyship is recognizing these interplays and making space for us in the poly community.

Getting rid of the kale smoothie trope would be a good first step.

Sci+tech

October 1, 2018 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Truth and Cyber Security

Claudia Kitchen Sci+Tech Writer

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Facebook against Fake News

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n September 25, Kevin Chan, Facebook Canada’s global director and head of public policy visited McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy to speak about the rise of fake news and Facebook’s fight against misinformation. “I’m attending this seminar because Facebook has filled a role in society where it has come to have as much influence as the New York Times or any journalist publication. If you polled people, the majority would probably say they get their news from Facebook,” said U2 International Development student Brandon Heiblum.

Although this does mean that information is more easily accessible to the public, it has resulted in the spread of “fake news,” or misinformation. Fake news, Chan acknowledged, is a significant issue in today’s world and Facebook has been making efforts to fix it.

Following the US 2016 Presidential election, Facebook faced widespread criticism for the negative impacts their platform had on election integrity. The website was a main actor in the propagation of articles with false information.

Chan admits that in 2016 Facebook was slow to act on this issue, but Facebook wants to rectify this moving forward. He explained the platform is meant to be a forum for sharing different voices and opinions. He cited Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook “I don’t want anyone to use our tools to undermine democracy because that’s not what we stand for.”

Chan stated that their team is doing everything they can to keep Facebook safe, including using artificial intelligence to find and delete fake facebook accounts and stop the spread of misinformation. They’ve also introduced new ad transparency features, and ad-checking partnerships with leading journalistic publications. “We are committed to making Facebook a force for good for democracy,” said Chan.

He opened the seminar with a

Michael Kurt| The McGill Daily discussion of Facebook’s role in a current issue: keeping provincial elections in Quebec safe from interference. The Communications Security Establishment of the Canadian government had told Facebook that misinformation and account hacking were the biggest threats to election integrity. In response, Facebook created a five-fold plan called the Canadian Integrity Initiative. First, it included a two year program with Media Smarts, Canada’s centre for digital and media literacy, to help Canadians get informed on how to detect a fake news article for themselves. Second, Facebook released its own “cyber hygiene guide” for party members and politicians to learn better cyber security practices, and protect against account hacking. Third, an emergency Facebook cyber hotline was created for political parties to address issues such as suspected hacks. Fourth, a cyber hygiene training program opened up to all political parties. Lastly, Facebook implemented an advertising transparency initiative that allows users, to view all ads being run by a particular page whenever they see an advertisement.

Facebook has also taken addi-

“I learned that they’re having this internal debate about how to regulate themselves. In public discourse we don’t necessarily see that. It’s nice to see that they’re actually doing something even if we don’t see the effects right away.”

- Bryan Buraga, U1 Arts and Sciences student

tional measures to end the spread of misinformation. They have paired up with the Agence France-Presse (AFP) a news platform, to hire fact checkers to review content in both French and English. Stories that the AFP have flagged have significantly less shares, slowing the spread of misinformation. Users are also notified of “false information” prior to potential shares of any flagged content. Chan specified that Facebook has chosen to work with independent, third party checkers, because Facebook believes these third parties are more qualified to declare misinformation.

A program called “Reality Check” comes as a result of Facebook’s partnership with Media Smarts. This initiative releases

“Our goal is to make it much harder for actors to operate across our platforms...Of course, our work can never be done and we remain vigilant to defeat bad actors and emerging cyber risks. We expect to add additional election integrity measures in the months to come leading up to the 2019 Federal election” - Kevin Chan, Global Director and Head of Public Policy, Facebook

videos and tip sheets to help users stay informed. Their most recent video, Authenticity 101, lists five steps people can take to make sure the content they share is accurate.

Chan says he is frequently asked whether things are getting better or worse in terms of the spread of misinformation. In response, he stated that he truly believes Facebook is doing everything they can to move in the right direction. “You can never fully solve a security problem, threats will constantly find new ways to cause harm. But our goal is to make it much harder for actors to operate across our platforms,” said Chan. “Of course, our work can never be done and we remain vigilant to defeat bad actors and emerging cyber risks. We expect to add additional election integrity measures in the months to come leading up to the 2019 federal election,” he continued.

This past July, after intense investigation, 32 Facebook and Instagram accounts were removed due to demonstrated inauthentic behavior. Facebook has doubled their personnel working on the issue, and now have close to 20,000 members on their security team. Additionally, Facebook is doing what they can

to disable fake accounts whose sole purpose is to spread misinformation.

In the first quarter of 2018, they disabled over 583 million fake Facebook accounts. The majority were taken down minutes after their creation, before any human user could report it. As Chan explained, in the week prior to the seminar, two fake accounts relating to the Vancouver municipal elections were deactivated.

McGill students who attended the seminar said they walked away with new perspectives on the way Facebook is preventing misinformation. “I learned that they’re having this internal debate about how to regulate it themselves. In public discourse we don’t necessarily see that. It’s nice to see that they’re actually doing something even if we don’t see the effects right away,” stated Bryan Buraga, a U1 Arts and Sciences student.

As students, social media has a huge impact on each and every one of our daily lives and the information we have access to. It is the fastest and most effective way to spread information. For Kevin Chan and Facebook, making sure that this user experience (and this information) remains safe, is a top priority.

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features

October 1, 2018 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

QUEER MONGERING

THE MYSTERIOUS RISE OF THE GAY RIGHT WING Quinn Lazenby Features Writer content warning: homophobic slurs, nationalism, xenophobia

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hat does a burly redneck Republican have in common with a flamboyant gay man?

The answer, say some, is a shared political vision. A perplexing trend has emerged across the Western world, where gay voters are supporting ultra-conservative movements. In the last two years alone, Gays for Trump mobilized in America, Germany’s AfD championed a lesbian politician, Alice Weidel, as its leader, and Marine Le Pen wielded the largest gay constituency of any party in the 2017 French elections. But why are gay men rallying for parties known for being anti-gay? What could possibly attract homos towards white nationalism? It’s a phenomenon that Jasbir Puar has dubbed “homonationalism.”

Ultimately, homonationalism is about using queer issues as a façade to justify racism and Western supremacy. For instance, after the 2016 attack at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, President Trump framed his anti-Muslim rhetoric as a homonationalist defence of vulnerable queers. By pinkwashing* his xenophobia, Trump’s racism was rebranded with a rainbow veneer. Of course, politicians like Trump are not genuinely concerned about the LGBTQ+ community, but rather are attempting to sanitize nationalism for the 21st century. J. Lester Feder describes homonationalism as “racism dressed up in liberal drag, helping make nationalism respectable again in the West.”

Trump snatched the strategy of populist pink propaganda from his European counterparts, who have been brewing homonationalism for more than two decades. In fact, the first politician to forge an alliance between the gay community and the far right was Dutch provocateur Pim Fortuyn. Before his sensationalized assassination in 2002, Fortuyn grabbed headlines for his blatant racism and crass sexuality. His shocking tactics, such as describing the taste of semen in a televised interview and defending his policies with quips like “I’m not racist. I have friends in all the colours of the rainbow… I sleep with them,” laid the foundation for the weaponization of queerness in ultraconservative politics.

“Far-right parties have also realized that strategically danging a few gay people acts as a sort of fundamentalist Febreze that dilutes the stench of their hatred.”

— Arwa Mahdawi

One might assume that only assimilated, masculine gay men would find acceptance within the chest-thumping, rifle-toting macho culture of the Right. You’d expect that the queerest of queers would be shunted from white supremacist rallies. Oddly, however, Fortuyn’s

Nelly Wat | The McGill Daily flamboyant, hypersexual character served as a perfect tool, and foil, for the anti-immigrant agenda.

A stream of controversial quotes proved to be the perfect fodder for headlines, soon sparking support for Fortuyn’s outrageously “honest” and charismatic persona.

Fortuyn’s spin-doctor, Kay van de Linde, remarked, “people felt, ‘if he’s that honest about his sex life — something I would never have the guts to discuss on television — he’s got to be honest about the other stuff too.’” Within the Dutch political arena, Fortuyn’s Islamophobia was perfectly tailored for a country that prides itself on its sexual progressiveness.

His brazen sexuality encouraged supporters to feel progressive whilst rallying to ban Muslim immigration.

Furthermore, Fortuyn’s queerness absolved voters of the guilt that is typically attached to supporting

Nelly Wat | The McGill Daily

blatantly racist politicians. Sarah Wildman describes the rationale of his supporters, “if you’re willing to back a man who brags about sleeping with Arab boys, how much of a bigot can you really be?”

In the same way that Fortuyn deflected accusations of racism by brandishing his queerness, his supporters rallied for his antiMuslim agenda without a trace of shame. This tactful manipulation of queerness allows white gay men like Fortuyn to claim ‘victim minority’ status and circumvent accountability. In other words, queerness can be used as a get-outof-jail-free card to excuse racism.

Under the guise of non-threatening effeminacy, Fortuyn made white supremacy more palatable to moderate voters. As Arwa Mahdawi asserts, “far-right parties have also realized that strategically dangling a few gay people acts as a sort of fundamentalist Febreze that dilutes the stench of their hatred.” Serving as a pinkwashing perfume, Fortuyn’s provocative effeminacy seduced voters who might otherwise be wary of farright nationalism.

After the assassinations of Fortuyn in 2002, and Theo van Gogh (a like-minded queer provocateur) in 2004, a common frame emerged in Dutch media. The press began to sensationalize homophobic violence when committed by Muslim immigrants, while largely disregarding attacks committed by white citizens. This homonationalist framing resurfaced in April 2017, when married couple Jasper VernesSewratan and Ronnie SewratanVernes, were gruesomely attacked in Arnhem by a mob of eight Moroccan-

Dutch immigrant men who saw them holding hands. In response to the attack, a homonationalist sense of solidarity was invoked by Dutch men across the globe. Transcending social demographics, various Dutch soccer players, celebrities, police officers ,and diplomats tweeted photos of themselves holding hands with their male colleagues using the viral hashtag #allemannenhandinhand (translated ‘all men hand in hand’). The symbolism of queer men publically holding hands was instrumentalized as an emblem of Dutch progressivism, and subsequently worthy of patriotic defence.

Of course, underscoring this hashtag was a white supremacist conception of who belongs to the Dutch family.

Admittedly, public attacks against Dutch-Muslim women have not stirred collective solidarity and empathy as #allemannenhandinhand did.

Moreover, hate crimes against gay men are perceived as a national tragedy, whereas violence against hijab-wearing women is perceived as an unfortunate consequence, or perhaps punishment, for their existence.

The Dutch media martyrized the image of vulnerable gay men being brutalized by savage Muslims. The attackers, who smashed teeth and wielded bolt cutters, were described in political parlance as “problem youth” “kutmarokkanen,” (literally, “cunt-Moroccans”) and “Moroccan scum.” Geert Wilders seized the opportunity to call for the ‘deIslamization’ of the Netherlands.

Wilders argued that “the freedom that gay people should have — to kiss each other, to marry, to have children — is exactly what Islam is fighting against.” Months earlier, the

features centrist People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) party (which emerged victorious from the 2017 election) launched its campaign with a poster of two men holding hands with the text ‘being able to walk hand in hand without fear. Act Normal or Leave.’ Both the hashtag and the VVD poster demonstrate that the defense of queerness is a nationalistic project that demarcates the boundaries of ‘us’ versus ‘them.’

The assumed vulnerability of gay men is weaponized against the trope of a predatory immigrant. Data from the Anti-homogeweld in Nerland report, however, proves this racist predator-victim framing to be false.

Contrary to pervasive representations, the report finds that incidents of hate crimes targeted against racialized citizens are actually more frequent than homophobic hate crimes in the Netherlands. Furthermore, the report revealed that 86 per cent of individuals who perpetrated violence against LGBTQ+ citizens were ethnically Dutch, while only 14 per cent had an immigrant background.

This is roughly representative of their proportion in the Dutch population as a whole. Thus, instances of antiviolence committed by racialized, specifically Muslim, citizens is exaggerated to scapegoat Islamic immigrants for all homophobia.

“White gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, into a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The anomoly of their sexuality puts them in danger, unexpectly.”

— James Baldwin

So, why are white gay men irrationally afraid of Muslims?

Perhaps the oversensitive perception of threats is based on their social position. Located on the apex of both gender and racial hierarchies, the status of white gay men is solely compromised by their queerness.

This precarious and infuriating location—one variable from holding absolute privilege—can fuel a hyperdefensive mentality. Writer and social critic James Baldwin argued that, “white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, into a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The anomaly of their sexuality puts them in danger, unexpectedly.” Similarly, Michael

October 1, 2018 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily Darer contends, “scrounging for privilege is the story of mainstream white gayness.” These quotes demonstrate the appeal of Wilders’ queer mongering among gay male voters, who are desperate to defend their social position. Simply put, queers are easily mongered. The void left from homophobia is fulfilled by a sense of belonging within Right-Wing rhetoric, and in some cases, within political ranks.

Subsequently, white gay men are willing to “throw those with less status under the bus to cling onto their new found privilege.”

“This is what it looks like to be called both a terrorist and a faggot.”

— Mashrou’ Leila

The extreme measures of ‘deIslamization’ called for by Wilders seem reasonable to white gay men whose compromised privilege fuels a hypersensitive perception of threats. Darer writes “the daily battle to ensure that whatever is lost to homophobia is replaced two fold by the blessings of whiteness and maleness.” Ultimately, the realpolitik alliance of queerness with the Right-Wing is centred on a promise to defend the precarious privilege of white queer men against the ‘threat’ of immigration.

Homonationalism has gone beyond propaganda; it has become institutionalized.

The Dutch immigration system uses support for homosexuality as a pink litmus test to determine who is granted citizenship.

Immigrants are screened, in part, based on how they respond to questions about gay men kissing. One question includes “you’re on a terrace with a colleague and at the table next to you two men are fondling and kissing. You are irritated. What do you do?” Footage of queer couples and topless women at beaches are also shown to potential immigrants to adjudicate whether they will integrate into Dutch society. Noticeably, these questions on homosexuality are not posed when screening immigrants from Canada, Australia, or America.

This elucidates the assumed correlation between whiteness and queer positivity, as well as the racist assumption that people of colour are intrinsically homophobic.

Tofik Dibi, a queer Dutch politician who is the son of Moroccan immigrants, says that Right-Wing politicians who sound the alarm over anti-LGBTQ+ violence “don’t give a fuck about gay rights.” He contends that, in the 2017 election, the defense of queerness was solely a tactic to legitimize anti-Muslim

sentiments. In discussing the homonationalist tenets of the Dutch immigration system, Dibi asserts, “of all of these tests, the gay rights is the one that is used the most because they know that that’s the most difficult thing within these communities.”

Queerness becomes a pivotal value that separates the ‘medieval’ immigration applicants from the ‘enlightened.’ Through tokenizing queerness as a hallmark of Dutch identity, the immigration department can dismiss Muslim applicants with the legitimacy of claiming to protect vulnerable queers. Furthermore, this pink litmus test homogenizes diverse interpretations of Islam and polarizes 1.8 billion people on the single wedge issue of homosexuality.

The most vulnerable within this supposed clash of civilizations are queer Muslims. Indeed, their multidimensional identity is torn by the polarized rhetoric of ‘gays versus Muslims.’ Constructed as mutually exclusive minorities, organizations aimed at combating Islamophobia rarely work in tandem with those targeting homophobia.

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*PINKWASHING

Modelled on the term ‘whitewashing,’ pinkwashing describes an attempted appeal to queerness. Companies and political entities aim to appear tolerant and progressive by describing themselves as gay-friendly, but nevertheless perpetuate oppressive power dynamics, such as racism and capitalism.

Subsequently, islamophobia is defined through heterosexual experiences, and homophobia through a white lens—erasing the intersectionality of these interwoven systems. Caught in the nexus of ostensibly opposed identities, queer Muslims are unable to grieve tragedies that impact the communities in which they belong.

In the aftermath of the Orlando shooting, queer Lebanese singer, Mashrou’ Leila, described his frustration, “there are a bunch of us who are queer who feel assaulted by that attack, who can’t mourn because we’re also from Muslim families [...] this is what it looks like to be called both a terrorist and a faggot.”

Rather than being paranoid of Islam, we should be vigilant of the Right Wing. Of course, it is

apparent that homonationalism harms Muslims, and queer Muslims especially. But if left untamed, homonationalism will also devour those it claims to protect. The opportunistic alliance between the Right-Wing and white queer men is forged on a shared desire to protect white male privilege. But as trans activist and Burundian refugee Olave Basabose warns “we all know in history when you give the far right room, the next targets are the gays.” Therefore, all privileged gays hold a responsibility to condemn and contest the pink-washed Trojan horse that is homonationalism.

Ultimately, in the politics of queer mongering, the only thing to fear is queer itself.

Nelly Wat | The McGill Daily

12

October 1, 2018 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

Decolonizing Inuit Art

culture

A More Inclusive Future for Inuit Art

Sara Hashemi Culture Writer

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n September 6, the Avataq Institute and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) announced that the two institutions would form a partnership for the promotion of Inuit art and culture. The McGill Daily had the chance to sit down with Inuk director general of the Avataq Institute, Robert Fréchette, to discuss Avataq and its future plans. We discussed this new collaboration and its implications, and the history of representation of Inuit people in Quebec.

The Avataq Institute was created 40 years ago by elders in Nunavik with the mission of protecting and promoting the Inuit culture of Nunavik. It is staffed entirely by Inuit people. It boasts impressive archives of Inuit oral tradition through hours of recordings, thousands of historical photos, and the genealogy of every Inuk from Nunavik. The Avataq Institute also hosts various initiatives such as an archaeology program, a publication service, art exhibitions, and a program that gives Inuit students a year’s worth of college credits for studying Inuit history, culture, and language.

Currently, the Avataq Institute is located in a corporate building in Westmount, but part of the collaboration with the MMFA includes a move to museum-owned buildings downtown. Fréchette shared his enthusiasm about the new location, saying that it will give students better access to McGill and Concordia. Additionally, this move will bring the Institute closer to the million annual visitors of the museum, and providing a more accessible location for the local Inuit community will play a big part in the promotion of Inuit art and culture.

Inuit artists are now not only being featured in these spaces, but they are the ones curating them. Curatorial control gives Inuit people the power to represent themselves, their culture, and their history however they choose.

When asked about the current state of representation of Inuit art and culture, Fréchette explained, “I see a trend forming. There’s more room for Inuit artists. To what extent this is just fashion, the popularity of words like reconciliation and decolonization, I don’t know. I hope not.”

“To what extent support for Inuit artists is just fashion, I don’t know. I hope it is more than that.”

— Robert Fréchette And there is a trend. Through the work of Indigenous activists across Canada, a space has been carved out in mainstream art.

Inuit art is finally being given its own space in art galleries across Canada. The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) recently ran an exhibit called Tunirrusiangit, which showcased the art of Kenojuak Ashevak, her nephew Tim Pitsiulak, and the work of three Inuit curators. This exhibit is the first of its kind for the AGO, as Inuit art had never been featured in the gallery’s largest space, nor had it ever employed a primarily Inuit curatorial team.

Ashevak’s artwork features surreal depictions of birds and Northern wildlife, such as Bountiful Bird (1986), a drawing of a bird with feathers made of seagull heads. She is considered the “grandmother of Inuit art,” so to finally recognize her work in a mainstream institution is a long overdue step in the right direction. Pitsiulak’s work mainly uses bold, bright colours to depict modern life in Nunavut and traditional Inuit culture, and his work informs audiences on what life and culture in the Arctic are like today. Featuring these artists on such a grand scale provides a fair, representative image of Inuit culture to the greater public, working against a history of misinformation and misrepresentation.

In the same vein, the Canadian Museum of History has launched a travelling exhibition entitled Picturing Arctic Modernity – North Baffin Drawings from 1964, which features 50 drawings created in 1964 by Inuit people of the Nunavut region. The exhibition was produced alongside local Indigenous people, and, as the Canadian Museum of History describes it, depicts “thoughts, concerns, memories and observations of the people of Nunavut during a time of social upheaval.”

Inuit artists are now not only being featured in these spaces, but they are the ones curating them.

New Wing for the Shaman

Mattiusi Iyaituk | Artist

The partnership is a possible stepping-stone towards undoing the erasure of Inuit people from the grand scheme of Canadian art and culture.

Curatorial control gives Inuit people the power to represent themselves, their culture, and their history however they choose.

By shifting power to Indigenous hands, we are moving closer towards the decolonization of artistic spaces.

Whereas the Inuit art collection at the MMFA was started in 1964

by F. Cleveland Morgan, a white man, the new collaboration will make efforts to include Inuit people in the curatorial process

and to ensure their involvement with the collection. While the partnership is still in negotiations, this is a possible stepping-stone towards undoing the erasure of Inuit people from the grand scheme of Canadian art and culture.

When it comes to the recognition of Indigenous people in the public sphere in Quebec and Canada, we still have a long way to go. With impending elections in Quebec, we have yet to hear any politicians

address Indigenous issues. “The government must do much more.

I don’t think Native people go voting a lot, so they’re ignored.

That’s something we need to stop doing. It’s Quebec history, and it has to change,” Fréchette says about the current way our government addresses Indigenous people. He hopes that by showing an authentic, non-folkorized depiction of Inuit life and culture, Avataq is doing its best to change this Quebec history.

So, what can non-Indigenous do to improve the way Indigenous culture is represented? “Make room for Native people to express themselves,” says Fréchette. “That’s something we’ve been missing.”

It’s a step in the right direction — towards a more inclusive future in not only Canadian art, but also in the national political landscape.

culture

October 1, 2018 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

13

Rejjie Snow’s Place in Hip-Hop Vulnerability in the Age of Toxic Masculinity

Brianna Miller The McGill Daily

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istening to twenty-five-year old Rejjie Snow’s debut album Dear Annie, it’s almost impossible to discern that the genre-spanning, synthesized, and at times 80s-esque tracks were written by one of the few hip-hop artists to come from Ireland. Alexander Anyaegbunam, more commonly known by his stage name Rejjie Snow, always knew he wanted to be a rapper, despite growing up in Dublin, Ireland, an ocean away from where most mainstream rap artists thrive; however, Snow’s Irish origins are not the only thing distancing him from the “typical” image of an artist in hip-hop.

Snow began uploading tracks as early as 2011 on Soundcloud under the alias Lecs Luther. In 2013, after relocating to London, Snow released his EP Rejovich, which quickly climbed the iTunes hip-hop charts, dethroning well-established Kanye West’s sixth album, Yeezus. Despite only having seven songs at the time, after the video for his track “Around the World” garnered over half a million views on Youtube in a week, Rejjie was contacted by Madonna, earning himself a spot as the opening act on her tour.

Snow is breaking down the stereotypes of shallowness and emotional unavailability associated with hip-hop and rap.

It’s not surprising that one of Snow’s videos is what propelled him into rising stardom. In an interview with L’Officiel Paris, Snow said, “film is one of my passions… I’m a very visual person; when I write music, I always have a visual in my head first.” After finishing high school in Florida on an athletic scholarship, Snow briefly attended Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia to study film and design. After one semester, he made the decision to drop out in order to move back to Ireland.

Dear Annie is an impressive first attempt at a full length album.

Boasting an ambitious line-up of 20

tracks, it seems that experimenting over the last seven years has finally paid off for Snow. The album’s opening tracks “Hello” and “Rainbows” set the tone for the first half of the work. Both songs sound smooth and lively, yet relaxed.

“Hello” features barely audible words over a complicated backtrack of various synthesized dreamy sounds. Similarly, in “Rainbows” Snow raps in a laidback, almost careless tone over a simple bass line and a loop of tweeting birds.

The line “gotta girl that I love had a girl that I miss” encapsulates the bittersweet quality of the lyrics.

However, Dear Annie does not carry this sweet and light lovesick tone for long. By the twelfth track “Room 27,” Snow begins to narrow his focus to more intense topics. The title is a reference to the 27 Club, a group of popular celebrities who died at the age of 27. The track covers Snow’s apparent careless attitude towards fear, which is later revealed to be performative in later verses: “Feel like fucking flying, wish you understand my fucking thoughts/ Confidence is terminated, hatred in my fucking bones.” The reference becomes even more blatant as Snow rambles, “me and microphone, this room was 27 like the club/Dead kids, too short, life gone, mad drugs/ Suicide, genocide, responsibility for us.” The ending lines of the song drive home the track’s mission to address celebrity drug abuse, suggesting that perhaps Snow has experienced this in his own life.

Snow has said that he originally sought to maintain a clear divide between his private person and his persona Rejjie Snow; yet, as his career has progressed, the two have become more and more indiscernible. His recent lyrics allude more heavily to his personal life. Dear Annie certainly marks a transition for Snow from impassive rhyming to vulnerable lyricism. He admitted to The Independent, “I’ve matured a lot. I wasn’t ready to do that at first. I’m not really an open person, it was hard to share and be open about my feelings. Until I met my partner I never felt comfortable talking about that in the music. It’s what made the album become what it is.” Dear Annie is raw with emotion — a testament to Snow’s newfound comfort in his own skin.

Snow touches on his struggles with vulnerability in “Bye Polar,” addressing mental illness through the thinly veiled homophonic title. Throughout the track, Snow repeats “all right, all right,” suggesting that many of us repress

Tyler Mitchell | Photographer

Dear Annie is raw with emotion — a testament to Snow’s newfound comfort in his own skin. our mental health problems by convincing ourselves everything is “all right, all right.” The lines “screams and paranoia I hide/I hide all my insides/guts diluted purple and dry/dry your eyes and be kind” reveal the intensity of the feelings Snow believes he is constantly hiding. This track is also a confession to suffering under celebritism as Snow quickly raps “don’t do it all for that feed (don’t do it)/sell soul and get on two knees (suck suck)/help yourself, I’m only human.” The final line announces “I’m black, I’m weird and I’m proud (I’m proud);” a sentiment that sums up the nature of Rejjie Snow.

Dear Annie shows that Rejjie Snow is beginning to find his voice in the landscape of contemporary

hip-hop. In an interview with The Independent, Snow said, “I’m not what people expect, and that’s funny because I’m just being myself. Of course, I understand the stereotypes that hip-hop is associated with, but that’s not me. If it’s not you, you shouldn’t try and play the game.” He claims to be making music that’s more in-line with who he is instead of trying to play the part of a rapper.

Despite this, Dear Annie still fits into the broad genre of hip-hop and R&B, with a few nuances, Snow’s smooth and clear flow tying everything together.

Snow has established himself in the same category as the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Chance the Rapper, Brockhampton, and Frank Ocean – artists that have

been pushing the envelope to break down the stereotypes of emotional unavailability and shallowness associated with hiphop and rap. It may still take another album to further refine his voice and make it unique, as Dear Annie is clearly influenced by his peers, especially rapper Tyler, the Creator.

The twenty-five-year old is currently working on a new autobiographical album, Uncle Thomas, which is sure to expose even further the Alex behind Rejjie. It will be interesting to watch this young rapper develop and employ his newfound artistic freedom in the future.

Snow will be touring Montreal in support of Dear Annie on Saturday, October 6 at L’Astral.

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October 1, 2018 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily

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Lioness

content warning: microaggressions, mixed race struggle

I

am the daughter of migrating lionesses My ancestors, hungry for adventure and hopeful that the grass may be sweeter and more vibrant Towards the other side of the ocean, I followed their footsteps I wholeheartedly accepted my heritage; my wandering soul; I am the sorceress of the night and the mistress of daylight, I too made myself a siren to cross oceans and finally realize Who I am: An artist overjoyed I speak with my hands I let them create the world I wish I knew I let them lead me to the colors hidden deep...

Deep Deep Within me there’s unease I’m uncomfortable Twisting, shifting in my seat There’s something wrong There’s a hand... invading my sacred space There’s a hand that feels itself entitled to the crown resting on my head There’s a hand searching blindly, desperately, wildly through my scalp for the last precious remnants of unsuspecting treasure from my ancestors There’s a hand in my hair Stroking and patting me like one would an animal in a zoo Stroking and patting me the way slave masters used to This white, pale, and bony hand has no regard for consent.

This cold corpse-like hand of the woman who calls herself my professor This cold corpse-like hand of my oppressor Searching for remnants of life with hands that have been known to bring death in the past Her hands audaciously linger In my hair And I am powerless, for in these very hands rest my prospects for success So, I smile. Like the docile “mulâtresse” that I am, And I fantasize about the cigarette that will soothe my scalp of the first microaggression of the day.

I’ve lost all my safe spaces. I am invisible yet uncomfortably visible wherever I go. Statistically irrelevant. A drop of colour in a sea of Caucasian composition A drop of colour on a land stolen from those of coloured tradition If there were no mirrors on this campus I think I’d die from lack of confirmation Of my own existence Because there exists scarce reflection; sparse representation Of my own existence And I don’t want to just do it myself; create the spaces where I can just be Because I wanna just... be.

I am the daughter of migrating lionesses My hair grows wild around my face like an unconventional halo of blessings, and memories, and reminders that I was born at the paradox of privilege and perennial plight.

Although white privilege was mixed into the color of my skin I choose to embrace the side of me that embraces me back White privilege does seem appealing at times, but honestly… color me black Although I know how to dance and love among those of ultimate privilege, This time my toes are getting unbearably sore I can’t twirl, jump, sway, jive or thrive… like I could before.

It’s comments like “why do you make everything about race?” that catch me off guard.

Nelly Wat | The McGill Daily I want to roar as I’m told to relinquish their pain to bittersweet happily-ever-after conclusions of Canadian history But my classmates listen quietly As the teacher paints a story That’s begging me to forget, forget, forget Forget? I am the only brown body in this room so pardon me not if I cannot forget But once again I reach for my cigarette I am the daughter of migrating lionesses So, I make myself a new home wherever my wandering To soothe myself of the second microaggression of the day feet lead me and I fill my rooms with sculptures and paintings that come to life, singing sweet serenades over I am the daughter of migrating lionesses And I refuse to let a curse kill my legendary enthusiasm my scars.

I lose myself in my art and find myself in the birth of every I got that caramel curse That mixed girl melancholy masterpiece That melanin faded A reminder of my intelligence That darkness evaded A reminder of my worth That obscure clarity A reminder of the dedication to the dreams I hold deep But, my hair grows around my face like a lion’s mane.

Deep I am the only lioness you’ll ever see with a crown that casts Deep shadows lordlier than any lion’s mane Deep And like every good lioness I am a sworn protector of the Within my heart I feel outrage The great grief that grips me as I open my eyes and witness weakest members in my pack A pack of melanated bodies within which I find refuge from the ghosts of genocides past I’m in a classroom where history is being fed to me the fire of white fragility I will soothe this pain through the lens of colonialism I want to scream as I’m taught to forget the black slaves With the oils, waxes, herbs, candles, flowers and butters my mother taught me to use of Quebec I want fire to flare from my gaze the way Marie-Joseph I will break this curse With the maps of migration my ancestors left in my shoes Angélique set Old Port ablaze I will find my way In 1734, she longed to be a slave no more.

I want to protest as I’m encouraged to forget the Step by step reconstructing my mental health Finding refuge in sisterhood and in the art renaissance of Indigenous peoples who protested The kidnapping of their children by holy men in black robes this new age Knowing that I’m not alone White men with black intentions Knowing that I’m not alone A cultural genocide that continues to haunt them today Drain me of my energy and force me to recharge More often. Again and again and again and again I must return to my core to heal the sores I have From being put on trial for having an opinion about my pain I make everything about race because I am constantly made aware of my race.

Walk a day in my shoes. I dare you.

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