I will admit to struggling with this post. June is a challenging month both in terms of general life busy-ness but also because a couple of serious, existential social issues are “commemorated” in June. I’m speaking of course of Juneteenth, in the US, and National Indigenous People’s Day (NIPD) in Canada NIPD has been marked on the 21st, the Solistice, for the past 25 years. Juneteenth, or National Independence Day, marks the “official” end of slavery in 1865 – though it was only declared a federal holiday in 2021.

So how does one celebrate NIPD In Canada? Well, the Royal Canadian Mint announced on June 21 that it was releasing a new Two Dollar Coin (toonie) designed by a collaboration of three artists: Megan Currie of the English River First Nation, Myrna Pokiak (Agnaviak) from the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and Jennine Krauchi of the Red River Métis.

According to the Mint, Canada has been at the forefront of new and unique coin design and minting technology starting in 2004 when it released the world’s first colourized coin for circulation. It was a 25 cent coin with a red poppy. Since then there have been a number of colourized coins and many countries around the world have issued their own coins with colour. Yay, Canada, being all world-leader-y and progressive and stuff . Insert blank-faced emoji here.

The coin is gorgeous. And the story behind the creation of the design seems to be genuine and inclusive – though the promo video on the Mint’s website is terribly general. There are short quotes from each artists on the website but I would love to see a more in-depth conversation with the artists to learn more about how they approached this project. I want to hear the artists’ stories in their voices, please.

Unsurprisingly, there has been a certain measure of negative feedback to this new toonie. Regardless of what one thinks about the design as a design, why are the images depicted on our money important? I will let Run the Jewels below explain it.

It is also important to point out that Canadian coins, though they feature an image of the monarch on the obverse or “heads” side, have for nearly all of our history as a country, featured animals on the reverse or “tails” side. Our paper currency, however, is another story. The first, non-white woman to be featured on a bill was Viola Desmond in 2018 on the ten. The other denominations of our bills still feature either the monarch or one of the “founding fathers.” And that is an issue.

So, as much as this bouncy new coin is shiny and awesome, it is not enough. The history of colonialism and slavery is the history of capitalism. Money, as well as being the proverbial root of all evil, is both the goal and the primary tool of oppression, racism and inequality. The symbols on our money have meaning. We need to continue to change those symbols, all of them.

This is what is driving my creativity this week.