Amber: One of my favourite memories actually of working at the Native Canadian Centre was helping with their march break camp one year for kids. And we decided to take them to this maple festival. We took the bus there and we get there and are there are different stations where you learn about making maple syrup.
We didn’t think there would be any Native representation at all but then we walk up to this one site where there is a little fake teepee and a fire! And there is this women sitting at the fire, with her legs crossed. i don’t know what she was doing. So we go closer and see …and it turns out to be this white woman and she is wearing black yarn braids! Yarn, on her head!
Rio: was it the Cortwright Centre?
Amber: i don’t know .. it could be.
[cross-talk]
[laughter]
So we walked up there with a group of Native kids and we just looked at her and her face just changed like “oh shit! The Native kids”
[laughter]
We quickly ushered the kids away and had to have this discussion about how wrong that was so the kids aren’t thinking like… Cuz that would, that’s fucked up, to walk into that!
And then after we had to have this conversation with her and talk to the people that are running it and be like “that was not ok. There is nothing OK that!” It’s one thing to actually talk about Indigenous representation, which should be a big part of it cuz we are the first people to make maple syrup. This is our thing. But these are just examples of things that are burned into my brain… like shit we have so much work to do !
Excerpt from Interview with Amber Sandy, July 2016