Ode'imin: In Defence of the Berry Pickers

Ever heard someone called a berry picker as a derogatory insult? Well, according to Green's Dictionary of Slang, it has been recorded in American slang since at least 1968 as "a rural person, a country dweller." Meanwhile, the Wabanaki have been harvesting wild blueberries for thousands of years, by hand or with hand-held rakes "which look something like a dustpan with fine metal teeth." But what I'm really talking about here is how "berry picker" is slang online, particularly on Indigenous TikTok (#RezTok), directed at men and hunters who come home empty-handed. Instead of harvesting big game like a moose or a deer, the joke goes, you might as well go back to picking berries. There are hashtags and duet chains of creators from Treaty 6 to Tlingit country demanding moose meat. Urban Dictionary offers two definitions: a person without the means to provide meat for their partner. a person lacking masculinity And an example sentence: "All you women out there; quit asking other men for…