White Man
Hang around my family and I long enough and you may just hear a few strange expressions such as: "Where's the ji-jish?" "You big googoosh!" or even "You little alamus!" Hang around my siblings and I and you might hear a few more, like: "Remember the time we went way up and...?" or "I need to go get my shooliyan." Remnants of phrases or expressions from a language I never learned, growing up. I was 2 and a half when my family moved to Moose Factory Ontario, and I was 18 and a half when I left to get more education. From grade one to grade eight, I was often the only white child (or one of two white children) in my class. The rest were all Cree or a mix of Cree. We had Cree classes, in which we learned some words and phrases, some of which I still remember today, but quite frankly, when you're the only WHITE MAN in your class (worst insult one could come up with back then) and there is a discipline problem in the Cree clas