Greetings

Hello,





Please allow me to introduce myself, my name is Dan, and I am a proud First Nations person. Although I have been raised in Victoria my whole life, I come from the Toquaht tribe, a Nuu-Chah-Nulth nation that is near Ucluelet, BC.

You may have noticed that I have chosen the name Native Word Warrior for my blog. For as long as I could remember, I have always believed that being Native also made me a warrior. As a child, I thought a warrior was someone who was physically able to defend the rights and freedoms of their people. Following this line of thinking, I always tried my hardest to be the best athelete I could be. I took up wrestling and worked very hard to become captian of the team. At the same time I was able to join the same Kung Fu club my Mom and Uncle joined when they were younger, and was later honoured to become an instructor.

Later in my life I became a bouncer for a number of years. As I analyze this period of my life, I realize it was a self gratifying job because I was able to express my romaticized ideal of being a warrior. In a very vague sense, it was my way for me to physically defend the rights and freedom of others. Haha funny, no?

After a while, I realized I couldn't work in a bar my entire life, or least I realized that I would not be happy with myself if I did. I quit working as a bouncer to look for something else, because something felt missing in my life. That lead me to becoming a construction worker for a year and half. That wasn't a bad job because it paid well; yet, I grew even more unhappy with myself. I had finally decided to stop making excuses to myself and looked in to going back to school.

This decision lead me the First Nations Dept at Camosun College. As I sat down with one of the advisors, poundering who I will become when I grow up, I looked around and thought to myself, "why don't I take First Nations Studies?" My Mother has always taught me to be proud to be Native and I thougt taking First Nations Studies would be a great way to express my Native pride.

A few months later, I am being asked to introduce myself to the class and tell others why I decided to take the First Nations College Prep course. As I'm introducing myself, I found myself saying that I want to honour my Native pride ; by using the written and spoken word to educate and empower our people. I want to become a "word warrior."

At that moment I made a vow; to educate myself in First Nations Studies and further my knowledge in our ways. Armed with academic knowledge about our people and trained in our ways I will use my "words" to defend the rights and freedoms for our people.

To become the word warrior I want to be, I will have to find other word warriors that have come before me, and learn from their experiences. Who knows, perhaps I will join other word warriors, and we will inspire others to join us in our fight against colonialism. An idealist? Haha...I've been called worse.