When I lived in Fort McMurray I found out well known indigenous comedian Don Burnstick was performing in Anzac. (Anzac is a hamlet in Northern Alberta with less than 800 people).
I immediately bought tickets and we made the 45 minute drive out there for the show. It was in a community centre, no drugs or alcohol allowed. A gym type setting with a small stage set up for Don and a bunch of chairs. It was pretty low key, everyone was very respectful and curtious. It was a good show, I didn’t stop Laughing from start to finish. At the end everyone filed out quietly and satisfied, we bought a DVD of one of his shows for my mom and got in the truck for the drive home. Everyone was leaving the parking lot just as they arrived, in an orderly fashion, more respectful of each other than any county fair or city event you could think of.
We drove slowly through town and stopped at a pizza joint to get some nourishment for the drive home. The pizza place was super busy but everything was calm and moving along normally.
Then we left to go home.
Now in the short time it took us to leave the community centre and get on the road home, there was more police than I’d ever seen. They weren’t directing traffic, the event wasn’t that big. They were just there. And as we drove out of town, there were more. In fact 90% of the oncoming traffic seemed to be police. They weren’t in a hurry, they were just there.
I’ve been to tons of events. I enjoy music and used to frequent concerts anytime I could fit them in. I would go to almost any event they had in Fort Mcmurray just to have something to do. Now those events had drugs and alcohol at them, whether they were being served or not. The amount of people that would drive impaired was ridiculous. It was scary. It felt scary. The difference with these events? There was no law enforcement. You go to an indigenous, no alcohol, no drugs, family show on the reserve and the cops come out. Full numbers, making their presence known. You go to a large event in town where people have been drinking and drugging for hours before they jump in there vehicles and drive to wherever the next destination is and you might see a cop or two. Maybe.
Maybe I’m biased. Maybe being with people of the same culture even though I didn’t know any of them, felt more like home. Maybe the lack of drugs or alcohol and calm environment cradled my naïveté into thinking that I was safe around these people but really they were all crazy rapists and murderers waiting to pounce!
Whuh Waa- just joking, we all know the police wouldn’t have shown up if ‘Indians’ were being raped or murdered.
The stuff happening out there isn’t new. There’s just more people seeing it. I’m grateful for that.
Note- Anzac isn’t really a reserve. It’s a hamlet in Northern Alberta within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (Fort McMurray).
Kalaya Point 