By Ron Momogeeshick Peters

This is a pencil and ink drawing on acid free-paper.

This is a fish out of water statement. Or maybe it is a water out of fish statement. It this point in my life I had dutifully followed my path of curiousity and had travelled many miles and walked in many shoes. I had worked hard to find out a way to find a place and to build a community of like minded people in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
I was involved with Nishnawbe Homes Inc., a non-profit housing concern that aimed to develop, maintain and procur housing for fellow Anishinawbe. I was the Chair of the corporation and we started out modestly and we grew. It was and is successful but for me it was ironic in that while I helped provide housing for hundreds of people , when it came to me and my familie’s housing, we didn’t have any stable place. I eventually had to seperate my family and I became homeless and slept underneath the Bathurst Street Bridge. Sitting under that bridge , one fine sunny summer day , I remembered this story that I had told the Nishnawbe Homes Inc. Board of Directors to keep us focused. I told them this story that my great grandma and great grandpa had told me.
We found this man and woman shivering in the morning over by the water. We knew they were hungry and sickly. We offered them our lodge and food. Over time they became healthy and we grew to talking. They were always only thinking about themselves and we tried to teach them about belonging to community and that the community took care of you better than you could on your own. They took the warmer positions in the lodge. They complained that it was dirty and wanted somebody to keep it clean. They were the first to eat and the last to feed the fire. They told us their God was stronger then ours. Soon we were all by the coldest spot and we were eating gristle. And shortly after that we were outside huddling in the cold. Our guests had taken over and threw us out but they still wanted us to keep them warm and feed them. We can go back in and we can make them share this house even though we want to throw them out. Or we can just build another house.”I decided to draw this eagle while I thought about the power of the events in Vancouver, B.C., Canada that showed me how 2000 Anishinawbe could change things with their blood, sweat and tears. We didn’t need money. We had built housing for over 5000 of us there and I thought we could do the same in Toronto.The drawing of the mask represents humans attempt to get closer to our nature.The turtle on the mask’s nose, held our life and the world on it’s back. The sturgeon designs chasing the turtle are the wise ones that have a tailfin to our past and the head to the future. On the horizon is the buildings of the town/city and over to the right are the trees that are the foundation of the houses and the artwork. The foreground has an outline of a longhouse or is it a church?

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