Notices by Shantell Powell (shanmonster@c.im)

I should be doing homework, but instead I am working on a memoir piece about how, despite being a Jehovah's Witness kid, I was obsessed by witchcraft and the occult. #ExJw #AmWriting #Memoir #occult #witchcraft

Oh wow! Just received word the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund has given me a grant for my writing. Yay!

I dreamed that I was about to make a post about where I lived when I worked in the city: a white camper my dad built around 1979. The photos showed it set up out behind a shopping mall. It had no windows except on the door. It had a skylight sort of thing that could be cranked open for ventilation.

Inside was a tiny stove with two burners, a double bed in the part that sat atop the cab of the truck, and a bed over the table that folded up during meals. There was a toilet but no plumbing. In another photo was a bottle of Crown Royal next to the stove.

I woke up when my alarm went off. For a bit, I thought the dream was true. The camper was real. I lived in it for a while with my parents, sister, dog, and cat. The photos were not real. And I haven't seen that camper since I was nine or ten years old and we moved into a 31' travel trailer instead.

To this day, I get the horrors thinking about living in such a tiny place with my loud family. Cabin fever is real. There's no privacy inside tiny homes. I finally got my own bed and own bedroom with a door when I was almost fifteen years old. #dream #DreamLog #GrowingUpPoor

Happy International Men's Day to all my man friends!

Hahahah!

Well, at least it's not telling people to eat poisonous mushrooms or make chlorine gas. #AI #enshittification #knitting #sex #yarn

He was also an athlete and competed in the NATO Games. He was a cross country skier, a distance runner, speed skater, and a sharpshooter. His professional competition sport was biathlon. He once told me that he was the one who came up with the skating style of cross country skiing, but I don't know about that. But who knows? He was a speed skater, so I'm sure the movement translated over to skiing naturally for him. #IndigenousVeteransDay #Indigenous #NATO #biathlon #CrossCountrySkiing #SpeedSkating #sports

Today is Indigenous Veterans Day, and I want to honour my Inuk/Mi'kmaw father, Chesley Powell. He was a peacekeeper in the 60s and very early 70s. He was exposed to all sorts of awful chemicals (PCBs and Agent Orange) which caused skin issues for him and likely caused the joint issues my sister, her daughter, and I were born with.

He was a private with the Black Watch and served in Cyprus, Israel, Jamaica, as well as in Canada during the FLQ Crisis.

He wasn't born in Canada but in Newfoundland when it was still a British colony. He ended up as the honour guard for Queen Elizabeth and her mother, probably because he looked very good in uniform. He was a very handsome man in his youth and made for primo arm candy.

Fun trivia: at one point, someone had the bright idea to change the way the Black Watch presented arms to the Queen. Previously, they all kneeled on both knees. On the occasion of the ill-thought-out change, they instead knelt on one knee with the other up. Considering they were all in kilts and were in full regimental mode, the Queen saw a lot of soldier junk swinging free. Dad was in the front row and totally flashed the Queen.

She didn't lose her composure but decreed that the Black Watch should go back to their previous method of presenting arms.
#IndigenousVeteransDay #Indigenous #PeaceKeeper #warrior #Veteran #military #QueenElizabeth #BlackWatch

Self portrait photography. This was part of a project for my photography course when I was a design student. I went around southwestern Ontario photographing all sorts of naked folks in this same pose. #photography #NudePhotography #BlackAndWhitePhotography #nude

@freemo my father was in the Newfoundland equivalent of residential school. He didn't admit to me he is Mi'kmaw until a couple of years ago because his abuse there made him ashamed.

Yep.

My little sister was born in 1975 when I was three years old. When Mom was pregnant with my sister, all sorts of Jehovah's Witnesses kept asking me if I was excited she would be born in paradise. After all, we were all told Armageddon would happen in 1975.

I don't remember ever wanting to have kids. I've been childfree by choice all my life. I can't help but wonder if it's because I always knew my kids would never be born into paradise. #ExJW #ChildFree #Armageddon

In the 90s, I was invited to a Halloween party hosted by my boss who also happened to be the frontman for a punk band. Most of his friends were musicians, and that included a few very popular bands at the time.

I showed up to the cool people party. Almost all of them were awful. My boss's roommate was there with his new girlfriend, who happened to be a sex worker. She was the first sex worker I'd ever met, and was super nice and friendly. Almost the entire time, everyone else made snotty, snide remarks about her. She ignored them and hung out with me instead. Maybe she was used to being treated like shit, but in my opinion, she was a far better person than the rest of them. They were a bunch of condescending bullies.

I hope she's doing well, wherever she is these days. I don't give a shit about the rest of them. #stigma #SexWorkers #bullying #bullies

In the early 90s, I took the book Shogun to the counter to get it signed out. As the librarian was stamping the card, she asked me if I was researching my heritage.

I asked her what she meant, and then she said, "aren't you Japanese?"

This was the first of many times that people assumed I was Asian. I've been mistaken for Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino over the past thirty years. As far as I know, I have no Asian relatives.

That being said, my Inuit ancestors were related to Mongolians, so I guess that's carried through a lot of generations. Going waaaay, way back, I may have a Mongolian doppelgänger.

I'm waffling over what kind of oscillating fan to get while climate change, fascism, and genocide are off the rails. How can I be thinking of such mundane things while the world is in the shitter?

@RickiTarr I grew up in a hunting/foraging/gardening family. I still garden and forage, but no longer have the strength/stamina to do it all the time. I'm grateful I was brought up that way, though. I feel a connection to the land and nature which I rarely see in folks who grew up differently.

Kitchener City Hall security recently beat the shit out of a disabled senior. Why? Because she was making chalk art in support of queer/trans folks in the civic square. https://fightbackkw.wordpress.com/2024/10/01/justice-for-stephanie-woodland @waterlooregion #violence #ElderAbuse

@waterlooregion I just got a response which uses the word "unique" a lot without actually clarifying if Six Nations has been consulted or not. I'm thinking not.

"Indigenous communities have a unique role in land use planning and development.  They contribute unique perspectives and traditional knowledge to land use matters including cultural heritage, natural heritage and water resources protection.  The City/ Township/ Region values the ongoing relationship with Indigenous communities. We look forward to continued collaboration with Indigenous communities on our Official Plan to continue to inform decision-making."
 
"In consideration of the existing trees on the site, City Staff work with the applicant to conserve trees whenever possible, recognizing them as essential infrastructure within our community."

_____

Personally, I question what "collaboration" is going on. The Land Back camp, after a lot of harrowing life in Willow Park (Victoria Park), managed to negotiate free use of the park facilities. It is a traditional/historical meeting place for Indigenous Peoples in the region. Yet within the last month, the City of Kitchener has started charging Indigenous groups money to use it again.

That is not collaboration. That is colonialism.

I also mistrust what they say about the trees. Last year, in the middle of nesting season, those trees were trimmed and the branches--baby birds and all--were thrown into a woodchipper. When I sent complaints to the city, they promised to get back to me and rectify the situation (I don't know how since they can't resurrect baby birds or undo the damage). No one ever did get back to me.

#LandBack @waterlooregion #ProtectTheTract #Haudenosaunee #SixNations #Anishinaabeg #DishWithOneSpoonTreaty #HabitatDestruction #AnimalAbuse

I received a notice from the city regarding a nearby property. The neighbours want to put an additional dwelling on the property, and the city wants to know if I have any issues with that. I said I personally have no problems with that so long as the big maple trees aren't damaged/destroyed, but I do want to know if the city contacts Six Nations re. any development. After all, this is their land, and they have placed a moratorium upon development. I'm curious to hear what the folks at City Hall have to say about that.

Edit: I heard back. Response in the comments. #HaldimandTract #ProtectTheTract #SixNations #IndigenousLand #LandBack #Haudenosaunee #Anishinaabeg @waterlooregion

I went for a 4 km walk today. I had more energy than I did yesterday, thankfully. However, I am starting to have hot flashes again. What gives?

Tomorrow morning, I plan on wearing my orange shirt and joining the #EveryChildMatters walk. I hope my body cooperates. I still want to know why Truth and Reconciliation Day is only a holiday for bankers and politicians. A lot of Indigenous people can't participate because they don't get the day off. Hardly seems reconciliatory, does it?
#LongCovid #Menopause #HotFlashes #fatigue #OrangeShirtDay #TruthAndReconciliation #IndigenousMastodon