OPINION Bell Let’s Talk, to your plants

JACE KOBLUN jace@tworowtimes.com TWO ROW TIMES

For a lot of us who grew up on Six Nations, no matter what challenges or struggles rez life may bring, Six Nations is always called home.

Home is such a powerful word. It is the place to which we return. Usually filled with the people and lifestyle that we are accustomed to and feel at ease with.

When you are away too long, the physical and emotional drain of yearning for the familiar can make you feel like you’re a floating alien — not really connecting with the world around you because your spirit is consumed with thoughts of home.

And for those of us who are the descendants of the original Six Nations families who settled here at Grand River Valley from the Mohawk Valley — that sense of having a fraction of your spirit consistently taxed with thoughts of home are part of our identity.

It’s also a part of why we are so ferocious in our protection of this community.

Before the American Revolutionary War it was estimated that there were about 10,000 people in the Iroquois Confederacy.

After the war, our population was reduced by half. Just 5000 of us remained, and we were not ok. Traumatized by the ravages of war and a campaign that dedicated 85% of the US entire budget on killing our people, we fled to seek refuge at the final British stronghold at Fort Niagara. Often arriving with nothing but the clothes on our backs, and no shelter, families were left with no other option than to dig holes into the earth to try to survive the harsh winter of 1779. Many did not.

For those who did make it through the season it was another three years of refugee living until our ancestors received the fulfillment of the promise for a new homeland, and restoration for their allegiance to the Crown.

When our great grandparents arrived along the Grand and began to build permanent homes and settlements — it was finally here where the healing began. So this land, the Grand, is truly the place where we put our collective burdens and trauma down first, into the ground, and began to build homes once again.

At least, it was supposed to be. But we know the story of our collective struggle goes on. Political tensions with squatters and wealthy land speculators fuelled further displacement and by 1843 government instituted cultural erasure brought us from all sides of the Grand to this southern shore, on a consolidated reserve — with the work to separate our children from our families and into residential schools becoming the new mandate of the Canadians work with the Indians.

It has been removal from home, removal from home, and then more removal from home. Removed from the Mohawk Valley and settled along the Grand. Removed from our Grand River Valley settlements and sent to the reserve. Removed from our parents homes and sent to residential schools.

Removal from home is the source war wound and core trauma that we still, collectively carry in our spirits. It is at the root of our colonial pain. For all the descendants of the Six Nations.

This is why the issue of the current housing crisis in our community must be the top priority of all levels of leadership to resolve. It should be problem number one. All efforts, at all levels, should be primarily focused on how to make pathways for our people to return home. How to make the Six Nations Reserve a safe home, a home with provisions and economic capacity to sustain our own people on our own terms. Safe drinking water, safe homes, safe streets, and finally — real safe spaces for us to finally be able put down the intergenerational burdens and trauma, putting them into the ground, and finally get back to the work that our great grandparents started all those years ago — of building homes once again.

It is Bell Let’s Talk Day today meaning it is time to remind ourselves again of the importance of talking about mental health throughout the year. By doing this we can all take meaningful action to create positive change toward stigma surrounding mental health in Canada.

Not to make light of, or take the spotlight away from Bell Canada’s efforts to raise awareness, but in thinking about a topic for this week’s column I wondered if there is any science behind the claim that talking or singing to your plants helps them grow better and faster. I started digging and turns out there might be some weight behind it.

Gardener Colleen Vanderlinden said in an article on thespruce.com that talking to your plants does make them grow faster. Especially to the sound of a female voice.

“In a study performed by the Royal Horticultural Society, researchers discovered that talking to your plants really can help them grow faster,” she said. “They also found that plants grow faster to the sound of a female voice than to the sound of a male voice.”

Ten people were each supplied with a tomato plant and the month-long study recorded the participants reading scientific or literary works to their plant through a set of headphones attached to each plant’s pot. The tomatoes were the same variety, planted in the same soil and underwent the same care regimen.

“At the end of the month, the plants that had been attached to female voices grew an average of an inch taller than those attached to a male voice,” said Vanderlinden.

The Frisella Nursery looked at the same study and also viewed an episode of the popular TV show “Mythbusters” that conducted an experiment to determine if plant growth was influenced by sound and concluded that yes they are.

“Plants are influenced by all of the environmental changes around them. Plants respond to the vibrations of nearby sound which turns on two key genes inside of them that influence their growth,” reads the Frisella Nursery website.

I have never walked up to any of my plants and had a one-sided conversation with them. But I do talk, hum and sing to myself for a large chunk of any day I am at home. Hayley Dunning said in an article from the Imperial College of London that during photosynthesis plants take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use some of it for plant growth and some for respiration. With that information, you can also come to the conclusion that talking or singing to yourself near a plant gives it more carbon dioxide to work with. Helping it grow.

Another reason that favours talking to your plants comes from Markus Eymann in Edmonton. He said that you are likely spending more time and paying more attention to the plant than you would otherwise.

“This helps to notice when something is wrong, like if they need water, or weeding. I am sure this is why plants appear to do better when people talk or sing to them,” he commented online, adding why he hopes that it isn’t true.

“Some people believe that plants respond emotionally to singing or talking. I hope they are wrong, because I routinely rip my plants out of the ground, chop them up, then boil them to death. I eat some of them alive. It would be very troubling if they had an emotional response to this treatment.”

Publisher: Jonathan Garlow Head of Production: Dave LaForce Editor & Social Media: Nahnda Garlow Writer: Donna Duric

Website Manager: Benjamin Doolittle Senior Writer: Jim Windle Writer: Jace Koblun

Make

Oneida Business Park Suite 124

Generations Drive, Box 1

Advertising Sales Co-ordinator: Marshall Lank Advertising Sales Executive: Christine Patton Advertising Sales Executive: Ashley Smith

Distribution Manager: Tim Reynolds Brantford Distribution: Christian Kovac

Main office: (519) 900-5535 Editorial line: (519) 900-6241 Advertising line: (519) 900-6373

For advertising information: ads@tworowtimes.com General inquiries: info@tworowtimes.com Website: www.tworowtimes.com

January2023

TheSixNationsLanguageCommission willbeenteringits16th yearin2023-2024.Sincewe’veexisted,therehavebeenover22 differentsponsoringagencies(excludingnumerousindividualdonors) thathavefinanciallycontributedtoprogramming.Thereareabout8 howeverwhofaithfullyandconsistentlycontributetokeepingour languagesaliveeachyear.Wewouldliketotakethisopportunityto acknowledgeandthankthem.

Itisabsolutelywonderfulthatourcommunityseestheimportanceof savingourlanguages.Thiscommitmentissupportedbyvarious organizations,agenciesandschoolsinthecommunitythatoffer languageprogramsorcreateresourcesandopportunitiestolearn.

Weextendourgratitudetothefollowingsponsorsforfiscalyear 2022-2023whohavefinanciallysupportedtheSixNationsLanguage Commission.

Asalways,wewanttoacknowledgeourLanguageCommissionBoard Membersfortheirvolunteerserviceandtheirlife’spurpose:Rebecca Jamieson,Chair;AmosKeyJr.,Vice-Chair;JoanneLongboat, Gawenni:yoRep.;ThomasDeer,FederalSchoolsRep;BrandonMartin, CommunityRep;MelbaThomasandMichelleBomberry,SixNations ElectedCouncilsReps.

Savethedate!TheCommunityLanguageSummitwilltakeplaceMarch 24thand25thattheSixNationsCommunityHall.Staytunedfor registrationinformation