Coincidentally Fran was going through old photographs [of the paper kind] to put in yet another album.
This one [bellow right] is one of a series I took of the two grandmothers and GD playing rolls for a video Okalakatiget Society did back then. The video was of a tradition on Christmas Eve [hope I have that right] of children taking a tree and small gifts like cookies and candies on a tree to the person [midwife] who had delivered them when born. Neat little tradition.
The person who played the role of mid wife was Miriam Brown, since passed away, who was in real life a midwife, it was a great little reenactment.
I would think the tradition has petered out as there are no more births in homes hence no more midwifes.
Then I came across this old photo, circa London town 1979. I had just arrived for my first look and stay in London.
I had arranged to stay at a friend of a friends place, let’s call him MJ. MJ was not home when I called so I left a message.
MJ caught up with me several days later and we became good friends and went on several interesting trips together over the intervening years.
The reason MJ was not home at the time I called was that he had been detained by the Old Bill for disturbing the peace and not ‘moving on’ when ordered too.
MJ was a shop steward for the NUJ on Fleet Street when Fleet Street was the hub of London newspapers.
Rupert Murdock had just started to move into English Newspapers and wanted to gut the traditions of Fleet Street and move the printing out to dock land and gut the union’s powers.
Long story short; many of the Fleet Street junos went out on strike with MJ leading the pack. After some days of protest and agro the Old Bill were ordered in to clear the riff raff out, this picture was taken just after the Old Bill had accidentally hit MJ’s head on the gutter as they carried him towards the waiting Black Maria.
When the strike was over MJ and several other junos were black listed by Fleet Street, they subsequently started up their own co operative community newspaper. This went OK for awhile but was eventually put out of business by pressure from you know who.
In the WTF category:
While I do not agree with all this me-too-ism about honoring Wally Andersen, especially the fund raising stuff that is/was going on, I sure as hell agree with their right to do it.
Not sure what this is all about, need more information for sure, but it is in line with what Nunatsiavut Government is all about. being ready to govern in a common sense fair and democratic way.
Ooops, The other side on the above WTF. CKOK just read a news brief stating that NG did not issue any cease and desist on fund raising for Wally Andersen. "What employers do in their free time is their own business" was quoted from a NG PR person.
5 comments:
Great pictures.
I loved Miriam Brown, she was a wonderfully kind person. Even on the hardest, harshest walk along the road in a blizzard, she would be there sitting at the window in the warm lamp light, smiling and waving when you went by.
The first time I ever went to the tavern-in-the-town (um, my first night in Nain), Miriam Brown called me over to a chair beside her and said, "Are you a Canadian?" I said, "Yes." She said, "You got blue eyes like MacMillan [the explorer]. He gave me this necklace when I was a little girl." She was so fascinating.
My impression from various accounts is that midwifery is one of the Inuit medical practices, along with chiropractic, that the Moravians regarded with respect and deferred to. The traditions surrounding gifts for one's midwife are undoubtedly traditional, and are shared across the Arctic. In the Christian era, some of those traditions were adapted to suit the new role played by the godmother at baptism, so that one had a midwife who "found" you, and another midwife (the chapel servant), who named you. That they were often the same group of women is important too.
I loved this post, and between reading what you wrote and the comment of Old Brooktrout, I have learned something about the traditions of the North today! Also it's nice to hear a little bit about your own personal history. How long did you stay in London?
OBT is a wealth of knowledge on the history of Moravians and their influence/impact on the Inuit.
He is correct about Mrs. Brown, not many like her left I am afraid.
As to London, I spent 10 weeks their on my first visit, then various amounts of time on several other visits in the ensuing couple of years. All my stays were near Wapping but close to the Tower of London tube station.
Oh, I forgot to ask, Fran wants to know how to pronounce Shammickite phonetically?
sham mick ite
For some strange reason the town in UK where I was born and spent my childhood was known locally as Shammick, even though it's real name is Combe Martin. Thus people from Shammick are Shammickites!
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