Khatsalhano

Kitsilano was named in honour of Chief Khatsahlanough, a leader of one of the Squamish First Nations Bands that originally inhabited the land around Kits Point in Vancouver. It is one of the most stunning locations in the entire city and apparently was inhabited only during the warm summer months - much like it is today packed with bodies lying in the warm sun. The Vancouver summers are so brief that literally every sunny day counts before fall comes and with it the dark rainy months of winter when the earth tilts backwards again and the nights get longer.

One of the main reasons I love Africa so much is that it straddles the equator and thus is mostly sunny and warm and dry all year round. Unlike Canada which is mostly dark and cold and wet all year round. But it is almost July in Vancouver and the beginning of the two most beautiful months of the year.

When I look at all the people lying in the sand at the beach I wonder how many of them have been to Africa or are contemplating a trip. And if they had a chance to purchase one of our hand made t-shirts would this mean anything to them? Or if they had a chance to learn about Chief Khatsahlanough and the summer fishing camps that were here, would this mean something amidst all the bikinis and sunglasses and footballs. There used to be a fish and chips shop here run by the Parks Board which makes me wonder if this evolved somehow someway through the strands of history of buying fish from the Squamish people. And still in this beautiful new restaurant in front of me called Watermark - fish is still being eaten here off big white plates swallowed down with cold white wine from the Okanagan.

So where did these people who eat fish, just like the people who eat fish in Kenya, where did they go, where are they now? Apparently Chief Khatsahlanough wasn't his real name, he just made it up one day because he was going to meet the Queen. And it reminds me of all the Kenyans I meet who tell me their names are Barbra or Joseph or Alice when I know their real names, their African names are something else like Atieno which is Luo for 'born at night'.

The Canadian flag we fly today replaced our first flag in September 1964 which was called the Red Ensign and had a small Union Jack in the corner. Unlike Kenya we are not independent from Britain, we are still a Dominion with representatives of the Queen here on soil. Kenya did shake off the last shackles of being a British colony -it succeeded thanks to the Mau Maus - of rebecoming itself again born as a Republic in December 1964 - 2 months before Canada flew it's first maple leaf.

dbwa, Sue