The White Girl

My name is Dawn Kostelnik and I am the White Girl, Mola ‘tu ‘we’/twa. In the 1960’s my father was hired by the Canadian Government to work as an Indian Agent in the tiny native village of Fort Norman, NWT. My father is known by the people on the river as Somba ralla; the moneylender. My life is changed forever. The Dhe Cho becomes my home, the Mighty Mackenzie River in Canada’s Arctic. This is the home of the Dene, a Native people of the River. I stand on the shores of a far-away world and watch as civilization flies in politicians,whiskey and toilet paper.

I am Mola ‘tu ‘we’/twa, the little white girl that bounces around the edges of the lives of ancient peoples. My ears are cocked for knowledge, my eyes wide open, my heart hoping that I will never forget these things that I have seen. Even as a very little girl I know that this way of life is slipping away. The old life is being carried up and far away to the stars with the winds created by the great new breath that heralds the arrival of the people of the south.

From the Mackenzie River I travel to the crystal waters of the Arctic Ocean. Home to smiling faces with almond eyes, their tongues mutter a language that catches in their throats. Inuit, the eaters of raw meat, live in this vast frozen vista, witness to islands that float high in the sky above rough diamonds of sea ice. Fermented seal flipper, indescribable. Old ways are remembered still, ancient beliefs lie embedded in the DNA of forgotten bones frozen in the permafrost. Their wildness now running in the blood of the next generation of Inuktitut (Eskimo). Come, listen.