Mastodawn

Melissa Martin Dec 12, 2022

Last month, the Anishinaabe language lost one of its most gifted teachers, translators and champions; his friends are determined his work will go on. A piece from this weekend, in honour of Roger Roulette.
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2022/12/10/a-labour-of-love-4

Roger Roulette spent a lifetime dedicated to understanding, analyzing and preserving his native Ojibwe language

It’s hard for Pat Ningewance to guess how many times it’s happened, that she’ll be working on a translation and find herself stuck. It’s never easy to translate between tongues, especially two as different as English and Ojibwe; so even Ningewance, a renowned University of Manitoba professor and translator, sometimes comes across a term that leaves her stumped.

Winnipeg Free Press

Melissa Martin Dec 10, 2022

Clare Dec 10, 2022

Your occasional reminder that you should read absolutely everything that @Doubleemmartin writes.

And we all need to do more for the downtrodden.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2022/12/09/discarded-disregarded

Discarded, disregarded

The news that dominated this week was about Indigenous women’s bodies, languishing in places where bodies shouldn’t be. A landfill. A bus shelter. At least three of their lives were stolen through violence, though whatever pushed the fourth to find refuge under a pile of blankets on a -22 C night could be called violence of a different kind.

Winnipeg Free Press

Show thread

Melissa Martin Dec 10, 2022

This is annoying because, I mean, we all love a good hate click on a bad Tweet once in awhile, but not if it risks being inundated by more of that same bad opinion for the rest of the day

Melissa Martin Dec 10, 2022

Okay, something has definitely changed with Twitter’s algorithms. I clicked two ridiculous posts on separate topics (one was a person ranting about the new Harry and Meghan doc), and now I have about a dozen recommended Tweets at the top of my TL from people I don’t follow on the exact same outraged topics

Melissa Martin Nov 27, 2022

Audra Halfdansdottir Nov 27, 2022

The #WinnipegFreePress does feel like home. Thank you @Doubleemmartin #Manitoba #newspapers
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/2022/11/25/linked-by-ink

Building bonds through words and ideas for 150 years

Some years ago, I wrote a really bad column. To be clear, it wasn’t the first time something I’d put in the paper landed with a thud, nor was it the last; they can’t all be winners. Brains (at least my brain) aren’t reliable machines. Quality control leaves a little something to be desired. You can put them to work pushing out words, but they don’t always function.

Winnipeg Free Press

Melissa Martin Nov 26, 2022

I’ve been spending a lot of time with a friend who just arrived this week from Ukraine, and her first shock is she doesn’t think Canadians dress properly for the weather. “Melissa, today I do not wear hat, like Canadian woman” was day two. “Melissa, see that man, no coat!” Today it was +3 and she audibly gasped when she saw a toddler in a stroller in ski pants and a couple layers of thermals with a coat off, I had to reassure her the parents didn’t need to be charged

Melissa Martin Nov 25, 2022

Yael Nov 24, 2022

The anxious urge to say "no worries either way" when you are actually worrying both ways plus a secret third way

Melissa Martin Nov 25, 2022

The war is a travesty; but the music has been incredible. In Winnipeg, as in Ukraine, it’s just the latest in a long history of negotiating and declaring identity through culture; so I had an amazing talk with Winnipeg psychedelic folk-punk band Zrada, ahead of their Friday show at the West End Cultural Centre, about seizing the joy with the anger.
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/2022/11/24/soundtrack-to-the-resistance

Soundtrack to the resistance

On a bitterly cold night in early November, as darkness fell over Winnipeg’s streets, a long line of people shuffled down an Exchange District sidewalk, huddled against whips of thick snow. As they inched forward their voices caught the wind to reveal a notable distinction: for every one person speaking English, about three were speaking Ukrainian.

Winnipeg Free Press

Melissa Martin Nov 22, 2022

David Driedger (he/him)Nov 22, 2022

Great article by @Doubleemmartin on the long-standing tension between Christian and Queer skateboarding in #winnipeg.

https://winnipeg-can.newsmemory.com/?publink=22754dab6_13486e6

Bravely out, disappointingly out in the cold

MELISSA MARTINWHEN Maddy Nowosad was 18 years old, she stumbled across

Melissa Martin Nov 22, 2022

Time for an #introduction. I’m a writer. I’ve written about many things, mostly with the Winnipeg Free Press.
I’m not a hard-nosed reporter. Mostly, I just long to meet the world and everyone in it, to care for the places it hurts, and to find words to describe what it all feels like.
I’m curious about most things. I love history and linguistics, Star Wars, cheap cocktails and exploring existence. I’m a karaoke ringer and the worst curling spare ever, but hey, life’s too short to be perfect.