Tanya Tagaq:
Number one. House centipedes. I don't like those. I moved from Nunavut to the south of Canada and there's a whole new group of insects that I'm not used to.
Number two. Wasps. Both the white Anglo Saxon Protestants and the insect.
Number three. Your president.
Number four. Anti-vaxxers.
Number five. We were with a bunch of elders in tents and relaxing on the beach in the summertime. I brought my baby and my mother out there, and I think one of the nephews had gotten a seal, and we were all very excited because, you know, there'd be oil. We'd be able to eat. We'd make soup. Tan the hides to make clothing. It's very celebratory. So, I put my baby beside the seal to show that they're both made of the same flesh, and they both deserve respect, and then I posted that photo, and it was months and months and months and months and months of these vegan trolls telling me to kill myself, drown on Mother's Day, getting petitions to have my children taken away. And do you know how terrifying it is to know that people would rather me die, or my children, than a seal? Like, we got death threats for months because of a seal.
Number six. Polar bears. In Resolute Bay I remember once opening my bedroom window and there was a polar bear right outside the window gnawing on a seal skin and I just closed the window.
Number seven. War.
Number eight. I fear for my friends and family that don't get proper health care or mental health care in Nunavut.
Number nine. Freezing to death. I've just had some friends either get lost on the land or somehow be unable to get inside during a storm, and if that happens you find them frozen. Frozen solid.
Number ten. Christianity. The residential school programs that went on for generations were run by Christians. Those were the people that were killing, beating, and fucking the children, so I don't really see them as benevolent, kind, people, of course. You know, there was just an attempt to eradicate our culture completely. Luckily there was a failure, and we're still here.
My name is Tanya Tagaq and these are 10 things that scare me.