A Season in Chezgh'un by Darrel J. McLeod

Author:Darrel J. McLeod [McLeod, Darrel J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Indigenous, First Nations, LGBTQ+, Gay, Own Voices
ISBN: 9781771623636
Publisher: Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.
Published: 2023-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

ii

Struggling to hold back the tears, Sally hastily brushed her carbon-black hair, pulled it back into the usual ponytail and stretched a thin red elastic band over it. It was two years ago today that her daughter, Victoria, went missing, and each week of those tortuous years, she’d spent hours in front of the little shrine in the centre of her living room—disconsolate. Her weeping gradually shifted to meditation—hoping for a vision of where Victoria might be found, and in what state.

Initially the shrine had been a photo and a tea light candle, but it had since expanded. Art and Victoria’s brothers added to it from time to time, as did Sally: now a wild tiger lily, now an agate from the lakeshore, now a morsel of candy cane. Once a week Sally would remove it all so they could refresh it with new tokens of love. When the new principal had stopped by, she noticed him studying the shrine with curiosity, but she didn’t want to say anything to him about it—not yet. People always had so many questions, and with the best of intentions, they tried to explore new angles on the disquieting disappearance—little did they know each question was like another dagger into her heart.

The aroma and gurgling of percolating coffee helped to calm her and focus her thoughts. As she listened for the gurgling to slow, still in front of the mirror, she took stock of the white hair that had begun to appear within the last year. She washed her face and stepped over to the stove, which sat unevenly along the north wall of the unadorned shack that had been home for the twenty-five years she had been married to Art. In a while, she would fry thinly sliced, frozen moose meat and eggs sunny side up and serve them with beans and warm bannock—Art’s favourite breakfast. They’d had their challenges in the time they’d been married, but she still loved to cook for Art, and he loved being able to provide her favourite foods in abundance: moose nose, bear grease and ribs, sockeye, steelhead, different kinds of grouse, wood duck.

Victoria was Sally’s only girl and that made her absence even more painful. Her boys were kind and considerate. She’d raised them to be close, close to her and Art, and to each other. Historically, that was the Dakelh way: family bonds were crucial to survival and happiness. Many others in the community didn’t raise their kids like that, and didn’t show that kind of affection for their siblings, cousins or even for their parents—but Sally understood why. Four generations of Chezgh’un children had been taken away from their parents from an early age—to residential schools—where they stayed for at least ten months of each year. The chain of affection and caring had been disrupted and eroded, along with the language and culture. She knew she was lucky. She’d only gone to Lejac Residential School for one year—ten long months.

When she returned home that

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