Chapter 11: Indigenous Canada There is no paranormal. The spirit world is just part of our world. It just is. I first spoke with spirit investigator Erin Goodpipe for the Superstitious Timesin October 2021. I had just finished writing a lengthy feature about the lack of diversity in the paranormal community and had sought out Indigenous sources. With only one source tracked, I wrote the feature. A few weeks later, I fortuitously connected with both Goodpipe and Mi''kmaq Paranormal''s Tee Sock for separate articles and later returned to them to talk about the impact of both residential schools and the Sixties Scoop on Indigenous spiritual beliefs for a Haunted Magazine article. That''s the reason I spoke with Goodpipe again about this book.

She''s incredibly knowledgeable about social-political issues and is in tune with the spirit world. The thirty-six-year-old is Dakóta and Anishinaabe and has appeared on APTN''s The Other Side and T+E''s Paranormal Revenge. I spoke with her in October 2023, hoping to get a little more perspective on the spiritual beliefs of Indigenous people. Keep in mind, according to the Government of Canada, there are over 630 First Nations communities in Canada. They represent more than fifty nations and fifty Indigenous languages. And they have been living here since long before the Europeans decided to show up like unwanted guests. Archaeologists like Jacques Cinq-Mars estimate the Bluefish Caves in the Yukon Territory had inhabitants living in them twenty-four thousand years ago. I wanted to know more about Indigenous beliefs on spirits and the afterlife.

Though I was not sitting with Goodpipe in person, there''s a responsibility not to share very specific details about Dakóta and Anishinaabe culture. Goodpipe is quick to acknowledge that she doesn''t speak for all of those communities. "We have a lot of diversity as far as our protocols, our beliefs, and our understandings," she said. "There are so many nations across what we call Turtle Island." It''s important to Goodpipe to remain humble, and not to be seen as an expert in all Indigenous knowledge systems. "I have been having more and more conversations with people who are working in the field. It''s part of the decolonization work," she added. She''s quick to point out that the paranormal is "really white.

" It''s something I''ve addressed in an editorial in the past. With so many different people in the world, and so many different beliefs about what happens after we die, why is that only a few white paranormal investigators and writers control the narrative? "If you''re writing a book about the paranormal in Canada, you have to talk about that history and the different cultures that are here, specifically, Indigenous people who have been here for thousands of years," Goodpipe told me. For Goodpipe, her Indigenous beliefs are rooted in the belief that we are spiritual beings who for a time live on Earth. But there is a spirit realm around us. "Everything in creation has imbued spirit or spirit value," she shared. "And because of that, we live relationally. We''re always trying to honour our relationship with other parts of creation." There is an afterlife, and our existence on Earth should be spent always trying to become better people and live righteously by a code of ethics.

"We understand that when we move on, we also receive a judgment," she said. Ancestors play a major role in ceremonies and understandings, and although it is often very fragmented, communication does happen with them. "That''s hard to explain in English, but there''s a communication that can happen for only a specific amount of time," Goodpipe added, saying her grandfather would talk about death often. Death is a topic that white Canadians typically avoid. But there is a normalcy to it in the stories shared by the Indigenous.