Opera Dress

Gordon Tootoosis, Aboriginal Canadian actor, activist, and band chief of Cree and Iyarhe Nakoda descent, as Cecil Delaronde in Canadian TV series Blackstone.

[image description: two stills of Gordon Tootoosis, captioned, “Leadership is about submission to duty, not elevation to power.” end description.]

This is one of the most profound statements on leadership I’ve encountered in a long time, and it really landed a hit on me. It’s difficult to discuss without getting a little weird about it, but for a long time I’ve been of the mind that the privilege of having a large readership implies the duty of giving back in specific ways – I just never thought of it in terms of leadership as submission to duty. 

This is a boy with a braid. His name is Adam, he is 5 years old and just started Grade 1. He is a proud member of the Samson Cree Nation of Maskwacis, Alberta.

This is a boy with a braid. He is proud of his hair and his 3 older brothers also have long hair worn in a braid. Sometimes he gets called a girl and other times his peers will pull his hairties out and no one to help him tie his hair back up until the end of the day.

This is a boy with a braid. It hurts his feelings when he is called names because of his long hair. He gets really shy and is still learning to establish his own boundaries with his peers. Adam is proud of his hair.

Please understand how important it is for you to teach your children why native boys and men grow their hair; they are not girls and they do not like others touching their hair and especially do not like when their hair is being pulled or hairties taken out when no one is looking.

This is a boy with a braid. We will not cut his hair because people do not understand. There is no reason why he should come home ashamed of his hair; but today he did. It hurts. The tears hurt. Hugs and words were not enough. Everyday we will push through this and everyday he will walk through those doors at school with pride because he is a boy with a braid.

This is Adam ❤

#boyswithbraids #aboywithabraid #proud #indigenous #nativepride #traditions #firstnations #native