The Urban Indian
By Gordon Atkinson
My first words in print were: “A Calgary clockmaker is ticked off
at the GST.” The story about an Alberta man traveling the country
getting people to sign a petition against the dreaded retail tax made
the front page of the college newspaper where I took journalism.
In 1990, I graduated from the two-year journalism program
at Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton.
I remember once during my journalism school days our photography instructor
assigned me and my classmates to take pictures of the neighborhood where
we lived.
I photographed Edmonton’s dark side. I took day and
nighttime shots of people from other cultures drinking Lysol, Listerine,
and Chinese cooking wine. I even got a few faceless shots of junkies cranking
drugs into their veins.
That was my response to the front-page photographs and stories
I had seen in both of Edmonton’s dailies that highlighted how Natives
were abusing those alcohol- based products. My point to my classmates,
instructors and the entire college was that it was not only Natives abusing
the stuff. I received the highest mark in class for that assignment.
But my job is to report the news both good and bad. I write
about the triumphs and defeats of Aboriginal people here in Toronto. I
am Plains Cree registered with the Onion Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan
and am the fifth oldest of a dozen children. I spent my early childhood
in a town named Elk Point, Alberta. When I was 12 my mom and dad packed
everything into a rickety old truck and made the move to Edmonton.
In the Alberta capital, I grew up in a neighborhood that
was so tough you had to learn how to fight or how to run. I learned how
to run. I have no children, but I do have a seven year-old Goddaughter
whose name is Tannis Atkinson, one of fifty nieces and nephews-including
great nieces and nephews.
My mother passed away in 1994, and my dad died one year
later of loneliness. My mom and dad were always proud whenever they read
one of my stories in print. I didn’t know this until recently, but
my mom was known to carry a few of my stories in her purse so she could
show them to her bingo acquaintances.
My journalism school sent me to the Saskatoon Star Phonies to work as
a summer placement student. I worked there for about three months and
had two front- page stories.
I also worked freelance for an Edmonton-based publication called Native
Network News and when the Mohawk crisis erupted I made my way to Oka,
Quebec to cover the conflict.
In 1993, I was hired by Toronto Sun as a reporter and I
worked there for one year. Currently, I am working with the Native Canadian
- a monthly publication based out of Toronto. I enjoy being an urban Indian
and feel I could never live on my reserve even if a house were to be built
for me. Home is where the heart is and my heart is in the Big City.
Right now, besides writing freelance articles for several
Native publications I am working on a book titled “Home Street Home”-
it’s about people I have met who have made their homes on the hard
concrete of Toronto.
I feel strongly there is a need for more Native print journalists
especially in the nations dailies so if you have a hankering to become
a reporter go for it. It’s an exciting career if you do it write.
I can be reached by email at: atkinsonnews@hotmail.com
or you can visit my website at
https://www.angelfire.com/journal2/gordatkinson/
|
