this evil dork bewitched him body and soul

this behavior is nothing new. the global south and everything in it - the people, the culture, our heritage - is seen as nothing more than a decoration or commodity to colonizers. i don't even need to bring up the koh i noor or the entire british museum; these examples are recent and egregious enough on their own.

Namaygoosisagagun First Nation/Collins has burned to the ground. The entire community is nothing but ashes after being quickly consumed by wildfires. They did not have any support from emergency services, and no one offered aid. The community saved themselves by escaping into boats because no one came.

Mishkeegogamang and Cat Lake have lost power. Families are ending up in shelters with nothing. Armstrong, Lac La Croix, Whitesand, Gull Bay, Lac des Mille Lacs are currently in the fires path and all members are being evacuated.

All this loss, all this devastation, and it was entirely preventable.

After steadily underfunding wildland firefighting and purposefully excluding Indigenous wildland firefighters and Indigenous wildfire organizations from wildfire operations, firefighter training, decisionmaking, and resource exchanges, in 2025, Doug Ford slashed the forest firefighting budget.

It's hard to ignore his decision to cut funding and leave us out of adequate fire training (even though we've lived with forest fires for thousands of years—far longer than settlers have been in Canada—and made sure fires like the ones we're all seeing today were prevented through kinisitotēn) when, despite making up less than 5% of the population, we account for 42% percent of all wildfire evacuations in Canada.

And when we are successfully evacuated, we face discrimination and racism—like Kashechewan—because it's always been easier to blame us than it is to blame the true culprit: denialism, corportate greed, and colonization.

The people of Collins and every other impacted community deserve better.

Right now, the AFN is currently accepting donations to help Collins First Nation. If you're able to, please consider donating.

ONWA (Ontario Native Women's Association) is another great place to donate to. They have outreach vans going to motels and inns and offering food, water, resources, and cultural support to those impacted by the wildfires.

Other places to consider donating to are Mikinakoos Emergency Fund, Red Cross, True North Aid, Indigenous Climate Action. You can also send donations directly to Whitesand First Nation via e-transfer ([email protected]) and they request that you add your full name in the e-transfer comment section to receive a tax receipt.

*Before sending money, verify that the appeal appears on an official First Nation, Tribal Council or registered charity channel.

If you can't offer financial support, please consider donating items of need. Moontime Connections is currently accepting drop-off donations. If you live in the Thunder Bay area, Namaygoosisagagun Health Office is also taking in donations! They can also bemailed to Superior Inn Hotel & Conference Centre at 555 West Arthur Street, Thunder Bay, ON, P7E 5P8.

items needed are: food, diapers, medical masks, men’s and women’s joggers (all sizes), children’s clothing (newborn to size 14), children’s shoes, summer clothing, men’s clothing, toiletries (lotion, Vaseline, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, etc.), strollers, adult depends-all sizes, dog & cat food

this particularly works with anything negative i’ve forecasted. “i woke up feeling like shit today, so my day is gonna suck” isn’t a particularly helpful thought, but “it’s a great day to be alive!!!!!” feels hollow and insincere when i have a pounding headache & am running on three hours of sleep

instead i’ll tell myself, “i really don’t feel good right now, but i’m open to the possibility that coffee and breakfast might perk me up a bit.” or “i’m in a lot of pain today, but i’m open to the possibility that my workday might still have fun parts despite that”

but not for long. because before he remembered the end, he remembered everything else.

he remembered eva's trust in him, how she chose him to lead the astrophage research, to be the first person on the planet to make contact with extraterrestrial life. she trusted him, and it was not something she did lightly; her trust, her steady belief in him made him the second most powerful person in the world.

he remembered following her around and round and round, he remembered her with blazing eyes and so much love for humanity she was willing to do whatever it takes to save even just a few more people. just a few more, please, just a little more time.

how she gave up herself and her future for his classroom of bright-eyed children.

for weeks, he saw himself the way she saw him all along: smart and capable, strong when he needed to be, resilient and enduring in the face of unimaginable dangers. grace saved the world just like she thought he would, even after he woke up alone to two dead friends and no memory of the last few months, if not years of his life, on a one-way trip to the stars.

his biggest crisis when he remembered the end was not even about her betrayal, really, it was that his perception of himself as someone good was shattered.

he'd been a coward, after all. not brave, not heroic, not anything. just a scared man who had nothing to live for and refused to sacrifice himself anyway.

eva stratt had put him on the hail mary against his will — but could he really hate her for that? could he cling to this anger when she had seen so much hope, so much potential in him? when she had believed that he will choose to be brave even when he never thought so himself?

what did she see in him? who did she see in him? was she wrong?

"you are my solution."

"you are fundamentally a good man"

"all those kids you'll be saving. think of them."

she might have called him a coward, but she saw through the fear, though the pain and the avoidance and the loneliness.

she saw through it all and found her hero, earth's saviour, believing not in god or fate but in him. just him.

she gave him an escape from hell, and unknowingly, she gifted him life.