Welcome to SpeakUP! International with Rita Burke and Elton Brown!
On SpeakUP! International, we seek to inspire, to educate, to inform, and to enlighten through the stories and life experiences of our guests. So far on this particular podcast, we have had the good fortune of interviewing community activists, labor leaders, educators, and one visual artist. Today, we will be meeting visual artist Makatele, who is a person I have known for nearly three decades.
Mac, as I call him, is a self taught artist whose love for art was shaped by his childhood experiences, games that he played in his native country, Nigeria. Mac started drawing in dirt, on wooden slates, on paper bags, and, as a matter of fact, on any surface at his disposal. I'm sure he probably drew on his parents walls as well. He's now an established artist whose work is shown and sold globally. Recently, Mac returned to Nigeria and opened an art gallery and studio.
To our listeners, meet my good friend, Mr. Macaulay Eteli!!
Thank you very much, Rita and Elton! It is a pleasure to be here and having this discussion with you. Yes, I am called officially Macaulay Eteli, but everybody knows me as Mac or Mac Eteli. This is part of my life story and thanks for inviting me to be here.
The pleasure is mutual. I am sure. To start off the podcast, I would like to ask you a question that probably is from left field. What fruit do you like to eat during the summer?
Summertime, it depends on where we are. If it was back home, I would say mango season, I'm there. Orange season, I'm there. It depends on the season back home, what fruit is up in the market there. Over here, I tend to favor orange. Over here, in Canada, I tend to prefer orange.
They certainly are refreshing, aren't they? Oranges. Particularly when it's very hot. I like that. I guess I can say that strawberries are my favourite. I can manage oranges as well. Now, you're living in Nigeria right now, which is the country of your birth. But we're talking to you in Canada. Now, what brought you back to Canada, Mac?
As I've been, I schooled here from college to university, and I worked here for so many years until retirement last year. I chose to retire in Nigeria and become the snowboard from here to Canada, from Canada to Nigeria and Nigeria to Canada. So this is one of those trips I come back to visit my children. I have two of them here, born here and raised here and grown up here and working. And I also have two grandchildren from my son, so yeah, this is news to some people.
Yes. the Grandson, the second grandson arrived in March, so I thought it was time for me to come and fraternize with all of them and meet you too. So it's a pleasure, to be back in the Canadian soil and do what I used to do as a Canadian. That's the reason why I came back, to visit my family here in Canada.
What role did your family play in who you are today?
Oh, my family, Give me all the latitudes in life. They said, you go and explore. My father in particular said, I will assist you training you educationally until you finish your high school and then that will show us that's the parents that you want to further your education. You'll show us that added interest. And we'll continue to support you, but as a child, my parents home was my canvas. So they supported me. My mom did. She was a contractor.
She supported me while my father was preaching the education. She was preaching the humanity in us. So we were well groomed in that sense.
Sounds to me as if you had two truly wonderful, encouraging, supporting, loving parents. It is interesting that sometimes when we talk about males in the family, fathers They're absent, but I think that's stereotypical in most cases. I'm glad to hear that you had a wonderful father. Mac, I wanted to share with our listeners what it was like coming to Canada for the first time. What was that like for you?
It was for every young person back home, aspiring to be somebody, you want to be somewhere. and build yourself. Sometimes we're lucky to do it where we were born. And in other cases, we aspire to go someplace else to be explorers. And in my case I wanted more of education. And I put in for every application back then in Nigeria, when I'm in Nigeria now.
Government used to give scholarships, what I mean give scholarships, thousands of young people used to have the opportunity to vie for scholarships. And I was one of those lucky people in my group, in my time, I think 5000 of us were sent to Canada to school in different colleges. And universities. So I did the the exams and did the interviews. And I was fortunate to be given a scholarship. Now, let me paint a little picture with that. When in Nigerian families we're large.
Not the large Canadian family, which is maybe three or four, that's large. In Nigerian families, we can go up to 30. We can go beyond that from one family. Not from one mom, though. If you understand the African culture, they are allowed to do that. So when you're born into a family of 24 children you have to vie for a spot. And that means you have to study. My father preached education. He was an educator. He was a dispenser or senior nurse back in the days when nurses were viewed as doctors.
He was one of those that run the dispensaries in the part of Nigeria that we were, so he was well educated in that sense. He went to the nursing school or the hygiene school back then and became viewed and revered as the local doctors in the in that sub region. So what it is, it's in some places back in the 60s. You don't have doctors per se, as we have it today. So the doctors will go to the rural area, maybe once in six months.
And in, in the absence of that doctor, the dispensers become the medical officers that manage the health of the people in the area. So that's the role my father played for so many years before he retired. And it went from place to place, wherever he was assigned to go. He went and did that. So he preached education.
And made it sure that whatever money he is spending on us and whatever money that we can get and spend on ourselves is worthwhile pursuing the education because that's where your growth will come from.
Did you do the same thing for your children in terms of education?
Yes. I think I was the provost marshal on that. Like every day when they were growing up with me here in Canada, they were born here and raised here. And I made sure that they are studying and studying. And I attended the parents teachers meetings when they are called.
And if a teacher did not inform me of anything that went wrong in school and my dad comes to tell me about it, I will go to the school and have a meeting with the teacher and tell them that I am also a teacher, I graduated from University of New Brunswick as a teacher. As a bachelor of education graduate. So I did not go into the classroom to teach because I veered into my technical part in my engineering part.
But when I have the opportunity to be in the school system to speak with teachers, I tell them exactly what it is that needs to be done with my child. I said, we'll follow the curriculum. But if my child is out of place, I want to know. And yes I preach the education and practice it with him. Even to the point, I will give them mock exams at home before they go and do their test. So educational education was paramount and still paramount for me,
It's amazing how important education is for marginalized groups, because without that, we find ourselves stuck in a area and a level that is not desirable. So it's great to see how you followed in the steps of your father to make sure that the legacy continued through education. I'm wondering how did humanity play a role in your art? How did
what? Sorry, missed it.
Humanity. Humanity. Play a role in your art. Yes. It,
it it is very prominent in so many ways in my thought processes before I do any piece of work. I want to make sure the concept that I'm working with. Is one that would challenge people and also respected. For instance, there's a particular project that I was given by environment Canada when they were running a program. to predict lightning before it before it strikes. So I was called to do some paintings about lightning and I thought about it and I went around the neighborhood.
I went around Durham region where I used to be and I traveled and looked at different scenarios that I want to paint. And the one thing I picked was I want to situate this painting in a rural area, but then I had to think what impact that will have. So I boiled it down to, I'm going to paint a rural farm area. With no humans involved in the situation, because I don't want people to see as if I was wishing lightning to strike their farms. You have to be a little bit sensitive.
Yes, I want to do the project, but I wanted to show that, okay, this is when the flash happened, the lightning bolt came down, hit the ground, and the fire starts flaring. So two paintings, one is the lightning bolt striking, and then the other one is the aftermath of what happened when the lightning bolt hit the farmland. I was able to do that without getting any opera from any group of persons. No livestock. No human beings in that particular event.
So I give a little bit of thought, into my works. And see what I want to get out of it.
It's fascinating that you've said that, because I was just going to say to you that it sounds to me as if you do give thought and sensitivity to the work that you produce, Mac. Now, I did a little bit of art in high school, you wouldn't believe. I can hardly draw a straight line, and I believe at one of our exams, they asked us to draw a dining table with some chairs. I had, not writer's block, but maybe drawer's block. And since then, art and me are arch enemies.
However, I'm going to say to you now, if I were to say to you, teach me how to draw, how to become an artist. Where would you begin?
Good question. In my own style, I would say, okay, let me put it out to the audience listening. So we're going to go into a space of time now that everybody's going to be created from my story. I say, Rita, you want to learn how to be an artist. I said, okay, the first thing I'm going to do with you and everybody that is listening, they said, I want you to tell me a story. I'll pick the story. I'll give you a title. I want you to tell me a story. It doesn't involve brushes.
It doesn't involve paints, but all of those things will be in your head, in your imagination about the topic. And this topic is. I want you to tell me a story about a rainy day. A rainy day does not have age brackets. It's open to the newborn baby, it's open to the toddlers, it's open to middle age, it's open to everybody the old age. How does a rainy day affect you? Tell me a story. And from listening to the person tell the story.
I'll begin to build in that person to start listening to their story and imagining the colors that is seen in their story, right? So once that story is done and I give them a few days to brew over it, as we're doing now, you're going to go home today and you'll be thinking of a rainy day. Same to you, Elton. You're going to go home and you're thinking about a rainy day.
Okay, let's, let me say, I was that little boy in Nigeria, and I saw the Columbus clouds coming, dark clouds coming, and I said, Oh, it's going to rain. What do I do as a young man, five, six years old? I want to take my shorts off. Put them on and take my shirt off. I'm ready to run into the field with my ball. So I have a football in my hand, no shoes on the legs. I'm running to the grass field and I'm ready for the rain and raindrops are coming down.
So we've created so many different pictures. If I'm an older person, I'll be. More or less probably inside and I have a whole different feel for those of us who stayed in houses made with corrugated metal sheets or as roofs. You have a rhythm of music that is coming from the pitapatapata of the rain, and that creates a feeling inside of you that transfers your mind to a faraway place and you start building that picture in your head.
If you're a middle aged young adult, now you're stuck you're stuck in your house. You can't go anywhere because it's raining. And now it encourages you, not force you, you don't have a choice in the matter. You cannot go outside. You don't want to be in the rain. So you're forced to go and create something different that will amuse you during the rainfall.
So based on what I'm hearing, Mr. Mac, there is hope for me.
Yeah, this is for everybody.
I will be able to draw a dining table. I thank you. That was, that's reassuring. I really appreciate that.
Thank you.
It's amazing how you were able to give them the motivation to draw them don't have to be good, but to be able to take that image and put it on a piece of paper, and I find that to be the most
difficult.
And you've said it in a way that even. I can understand it. Maybe you should have been my art teacher at the time. And maybe I would have been a better artist, as opposed to being an individual who draws stick figures.
Ask Rita, some of my thing is that you're saying it's triangles and Geometrical shapes, squares and triangles. I turned them to human figures. So you're not far away. Not far away, drawing a stick man.
So you're going to release some of your images to the world. What does that feel like?
The, initially, when I started, people just seen my works and say, Oh, we like your work. We like your work. And this was before the printing stage. I just had the originals. And somebody says, look, I like that work. I like to buy it. I found it difficult in the initial time to let go. Yes, because I thought when I started young, I didn't have any concept of reproduction, how to go and reproduce a piece of work. I never had that.
But at a certain point, somebody wants to buy the work and you have to do it. Yeah, we take the best you could do at that time or just take a photograph and then let it go. Yeah, but as I keep progress, as I progressed on in Toronto here, I met a few other gallery owners and curators. Who have been involved in the printing process and then they showed me and worked with me and produced some of my images in print. And it made it a whole lot easier to let go the original painting.
And also because not everybody can afford the original paintings, it made it easier for the other people who want that same image to get a piece of it and hang it in their house, in their homes.
I have seen many pieces of your artwork, more than likely you've got pieces now that I haven't seen because I haven't seen you for a long time, but somehow in my heart, in my soul. Tropical woman makes my heart sing. Tropical woman is my favorite. What was the inspiration for tropical woman?
Oh, you're taking me back far. Hehehehehehe! Tropical woman. When I started painting here, I started showing my work in Ontario. We started off with... Little market, bazaar, walk in there, you put two pieces on and all that stuff, and start seeing people happy about the work they're seeing. Now, Tropical Woman, the birth of Tropical Woman was very special. I was invited to a wedding of a fellow Nigerian here in Toronto, and the wedding took place in Pickering, and then the reception.
Was in Scarborough. I can't remember exactly where it was, but in the garden in Scarborough. While we were in the church, during the wedding process, I was just reflecting. This girl is getting married, and I've seen her from a young age, and she's older, and she's getting married. And, I start playing now, just like telling you the story about doing a painting. I start playing now, I watch and I say, wow, a few years ago she was a little girl, and now she's grown up.
A beautiful woman and somebody has fancy that so much that he wants to take away from his, from her parents, and I started thinking I said, after they get married in a few years time, she's going to be having her own offspring, children. And then at that point, my brain switched to my mom. I said, Wow. So my mom went through that process. 10 times, had children 10 times, and probably with no epidural at that time.
And the strength of her having kids, and this young girl is going to go through that process, just took me in a different scope of thinking. And I saw the strength, I saw the beauty, I saw the elegance of this young lady, and that drew me back to my mother. And I started to reflect on my mother's old pictures, the black and whites, before I started snapping the colored ones. And I said, she is forever young. That's my mom. She's forever young.
And so it's this lady that I saw that day, once the wedding was done. I drove to Scarborough Garden and I was too early to get into the garden. So I sat there in my vehicle and threw my head back and the picture starts coming. So I picked up my sketchbook and I start sketching and sketch and everything was just coming. I know I see the face looking up. I know what was coming. I said, this woman has a pose. That is so powerful. She's sitting down, but she's standing up.
That is the aura of tropical woman. When I looked at it, the first sketch I did, I looked at it. I said, No, I don't want curly, wavy hair coming down the back. I said, I want my mother's traditional hair. But they use the thread, hold on the strands up individually and then they put them back in different style forms. And I just wanted that cage going up and back. And once that came out in my drawings, I said, yes, it's time to paint it. This is Tropical Woman.
And it just turned out to be that way because when you saw it. And you start framing it. People came and asked for different frames. And it didn't matter which color of frame you put on Tropical Woman, she was still Tropical Woman in command. And that's the beauty of this painting, the print did so well, and it's still a fast selling painting for me.
Two things I want to say before Elton asks his question. First of all, I'm learning that every piece comes with a story. Every piece comes with a story, and I certainly appreciate that. The other point I want to make is, since COVID started, I've gone to lots of meetings and events online. And would you believe it, Mac, I have seen Tropical Woman in people's backgrounds at three or four of those events. It was amazing. It was amazing!
Thank you. Thank you for all that opportunity to get my face out there and get my image and become part of people's families. I'm really appreciate to hear that. I really appreciate it.
Your stories about your paintings are mesmerizing!
Thank you.
I am wondering, right at this moment you spend so much time with the development of images, and I know that this is something that's difficult. Because sometimes you see things in your head, and then when you put it down on paper, you go, that's not it. And I remember being in Italy and seeing the works of Leonardo da Vinci, the thinker, David, and especially when you go to see David, they actually see the works that were created as he moved closer and closer to his vision.
So when do you finally say, Enough already. I've picked at this thing. I've poked at this thing. I've added all of these colors. I've taken them out. I've put them back in. When do you finally say enough? And you just, and then you release it to the world.
You, I think every artist has that moment in their head. Yes, the initial part is you're progressing. You increase in the painting, you put in everything that you had seen in your mind, the way you want it to be. You do all that and it gets to that point. You step away from it and you look at it. At that moment, when you look at it, you said, okay, I'm done. That's it. You're not putting anything at that point. You're not.
Because if you go to touch it again, after you told yourself that you're done, then that's going to be a different painting because you're going to deviate from what you have on canvas. Yeah. You have to have that moment. There is no time clock to it. There's no bell to ring, but it just comes in your head that, okay, I have done everything that. I had in my vision to, to paint, and you walk around.
Before Rita asks her question, do you find yourself working on multiple paintings at the same time? Some artists they, they're very sequential about their Production may work with one image at a time, as I'm interested to find out, can you or do you work with.
No, but the most fun for the most part, I stay with that image concept on from start to finish. And when I'm done, I put it away. I don't go back to it. It's done. I don't do multiple images, if I, if that happens, it means I lost the concept somewhere along the way. And I could not get it back. So I'll put that painting away completely. That may be one or twice that has happened in my career time. I put it away.
And that, I think where that comes to is you are not totally amassed in the concept that you're bored. You'll, so you want to do something. So you keep pushing without the vision of what you want to paint. So in essence, you're creating this work as it comes. And there are times you look at what you've produced in the day. I said, no, I don't like that. So you go back, try to find, you look, looking back to see where your original concept started from.
So you might end up repainting some of the work that you've done. Initially, when I started, I. Used to call my style, no fault painting. If I'm painting and somebody accidentally walk into me and move, jerk my hand and my brush or pencil move, I look at it and say, okay, I'm going to incorporate it into the painting. And it works out well, but that is different from when you actually lost the concept that you started with.
Which more than likely means that you are not totally immersed in the theme that you're trying to present to your world. So you need to be engaging, you need to engage with the work I'm hearing so that you can produce what you want to produce.
Right.
We've been talking and we've been focused on Mac the artist, Mac the son, Mac the father, Mac the traveler. Now, I'm sure our audience would be intrigued to hear the story of Mac the boy. Tell us a little bit, share some of the highlights about growing up as a child in Nigeria, and I'll paint as you speak.
This is, I think this is the part that brings out my independence. I was with my mom and dad in the dispensary quarters. in a town called Nembe and because of my adventurous nature, I always get out of the house, do sculptures mud sculptures. Yeah, get mud from the shoreline and do my little moldings and here and there. There was a day my uncle came from a place called Brutu, which is I think it's about a day's travel back then. Now they can make it in four hours by driving.
He came to spend his working holiday and he was returning when he stopped at my father's place. I said, I want to go with, Brutu is the name of the town where he was working. He was working with the United African company, UAC back then and he was working there as a, played as a foreman. Now they call them machine shops. So he was going back there and he stopped at where my father was. And they were chatting and I was standing there and they see rain clouds on my face.
And my father looked at me and said what is wrong? I said, I want to go with Papa Brutu, which means I want to go with my uncle to Brutu where he was working. I requested to go with my uncle, maybe five, six, I can't even remember the young age back then. So I started crying that I want to go with him. And they looked at each other. My mom was there too, I think she came and heard my request.
And the next thing I know they picked up a loincloth, a wrapper, spread it out, tossed my clothes inside. Tie it up and say, okay, here you go. So I went with my uncle and served him, stayed with him, grew up, been nurtured with him, for seven years. My mother came by one year, probably around maybe the fifth year or so when I was away. And I never forgot that request because it took me out of my immediate environment. And give me the opportunity to explore.
I think that stay in Brutu for seven years without my parents, give me that internal strive to be out of Nigeria for so long and don't crack. So that's one, the second one, an adventure that I took while I was at Brutu. I love to go on. In the bush, I have my sling, my catapult, as we call it. And went to the bush by myself. I'll say maybe around probably around seven, eight years old. I just got levant away from the quarters where we live and went into the bush.
And the particular area you can walk under the canopy of all the trees tied up and wait for the bus. Every evening we go there and we stay there and make some noise, call the river bus to come. They're coming back to. And we start shooting to kill a bird, right? That was hunting for me. So there was a day I went there, it was daylight, broad daylight. I went through the passage and I was under the canopy making my noise, making calls and let the birds come and fly.
They will hear the sound and they'll come. And then something, a noise was behind my back. And when I turned around, I'll say about maybe a 50 feet distance. A very big python was trolling by exactly! The way you the python was just going by and when I saw it from the corner of my eyes, I just barely turned my head a little bit to make sure what I'm saying is correct and all those stories that they've told us about pythons start coming to the head.
And you wouldn't believe, I was frozen for a few seconds, and I took off! I ran and never stopped until I got to the house, and this was quite a ways! I ran for a good ten minutes going home, did not stop. I got there, I was panting, and people said, what is it? What is it? I couldn't speak for a while. Eventually, I told him, Python, Python. That was the kind of person I was, adventurer.
I hear the word explore. But in spite of the fact that you were exploring, and you like to explore, you still have a deep draw, pull, for Niger. No question about that.
Yes.
I was just thinking about your paintings, and I got the impression that some of them are quite, I'll say, earthy, very into nature, and I know that you work with a regulatory body that ensure protection of life, health, property, and the environment. And. Nigeria and how do you see that regulatory body functioning today?
Okay, I'll make a correction to that. I would say that was an assumption that I work with the regulatory body in Nigeria. No, I did not. I worked here in Ontario with Ontario Power Generation as a nuclear project technician. My background is in civil engineering, so I worked there. I didn't have anything to do with The regulatory regulatory processes, but if because what you're asking me is you thought I worked in Nigeria and their nuclear industry. No, I did not.
We don't have nuclear, Nigeria doesn't have a nuclear power plant or any sort of that. They do have a training model that they use, but that's just about it.
So how do you see nuclear energy? Functioning in, in Canada, do you see it as something that is safe? Maybe you have your own personal bias about the use of nuclear energy. Tell us, please.
I will not say I won't say the use of nuclear energy, but I will say that I worked in O. P. G. I worked in Ontario Hydro and O. P. G. I first worked in Ontario Hydro in my early years of employment. I think about 3. 5 years. And we were down, downsized. I think 7, 000 people were let go at that point, and we were downsized because of the change in economy or whatever. I don't know exactly what triggered that.
We're downsized and I left for about 10 years doing my art, and then I returned back to the company OPG, Ontario Power Generation, and I worked there until my retirement, a total of about 24 years. The best I could speak, right? I won't speak as an individual. For such questions, I will refer you to the Public Affairs Department. Of Ontario Power Generation, and they could give you a better response, as opposed to my response from an individual perspective.
Yes, every process that I went through was very well orchestrated. You don't go into any place without going through a pre job briefing and all this stuff, to know that you are trained, qualified, training qualified. For the job you're going to do. And on the day of the job, you get briefings and briefings before you go into the job and do your work. All protective gears that were given to me were perfectly done. And they have inspected everything before we go in.
But like I said, short of that, I'll say, I'll refer you to call the Public Affairs Department. Of Ontario Power Generation, and they will give you, they have a session that they will put you through to give you a better understanding, but as far as I know the station has been in, in existence for 50 years plus now, and so far, and so good, there was, there's no incident of any calamity. To speak about.
So I think, no, I think I'll say my time was safe and I still stand by that all my inspections were safe, and I still stand by that. But anything beyond that, if you wanna go into deeper part of how the system is run and all that, it is not part of my my portfolio. So I can say anything about that. But I will encourage you to call the Public Affairs Department, and they'll be glad to put you through.
Mr. Mac Attali, your story, there's no question, is enlightening, it's inspiring, it's informative, it's educating us and our listeners. Here is my final question to you. We're going to write a book about Mac
Wow!
What would you want the book to be called, and why?
Rita, you're putting me on the spot right now. Okay. As we speak, I just, like I said, I opened the gallery in Nigeria, in Yenagui, Biafra State from that exhibition. There is a spin happening with all the, the exhibition of the gallery and all that stuff. People come in and they do their wow, awe, and the story is spreading. And from that, somebody else called and said, I'm a cinematographer. And I saw a video about your place, and I want to come and take a look and meet you as well.
So the gentleman came and took him through the gallery and the courtyard, the compound, and I said, Okay, are you satisfied with what you came to see? He said, Yes, and more. He says, Sir, what I want to do is, I want to do a film of your story. I said, you want to do what he said he wants to create a film, a documentary of my story. I said, okay. All right. We can talk about this. So I said, if you commit me, and that's I start laughing. I start laughing really loud. What's funny about it?
I said, no, when I designed the home, where this gallery is going to be, I had it in mind that when I am done with the design, and I've moved in, that someday, I see Norliwood, Nigeria, movie industry, entertainment industry, I see Norliwood, and I'll be open to the prospect of them coming to shoot movies, In that compound. So he looked at me and said, Really? I said, Yeah, I said it several times to my folks. I said, When I'm done, I want the movie industry to come and take a look at this.
And I do have some other places that have gone on tourism excursions. And I also marked that this place would be good for shooting movies. But this one is my own property. And because of that, the way I've designed it, I know that it will be proper, it will be available, when they want it, to come and shoot movies. And then, yeah, the young lad came and said in that case, I want to put my name on the record that I want to create a movie that is going to be superbly well done.
I said, okay, and he did not disappoint. He brought the sample after they came and set up and they did the shooting. We spent the whole Saturday, and then seven days later we did another shoot of the external scenes. And then he went and did his editing and brought the sample to us and showed us. That's it. You're kidding me. It was so far beyond my imagination, because not did he just like you read in the beginning, part of my bio, what I want to do what I'm doing and what is all I'm all about.
He took my childhood story and went to my village without my knowledge. And reenact that segment of my life and put it in the movie. He also talked about a painting, which is my favorite painting. Sorry Rita in this particular case, not Tropical Woman, but the storyteller and my reasons for the storyteller is that's the way we were raised. They tell us stories every day.
And we use that either to scare the crap out of ourselves or feel good and dance So when he reenacted that old lady tell a story with all the kids sitting around and looking at her, that just melts my heart. I said, yes, he has initiative to do something proper and he did it. Yeah, so the movie we did a premiere in in the gallery because I had this new projector that. You can keep the projector about 17 inches from the wall, so that people are not walking into the projection line.
So 17 inches from the wall is too close for the wall for anybody to walk through the projector and then I saw this is a new type of projector. That throws the image within a short distance. And when I showed him that, he said, We are going to do the premiere in this gallery. We're not taking it anyplace else. And that's exactly what has happened. We did the premiere there. I have some of the pictures on my page on Facebook.
And when I arrived here to visit with my kids, my son said, Okay, I know you've done a premiere in Nigeria. We need one here in Canada. This Saturday, that premiere is happening. And that's the story. When you say you want to write a book, this is, it's snowballing, and I like it. Even after the other premiere in, in Nigeria, there was a magazine that came, and they interviewed me right after the premiere that they want to come back for a real interview to write a magazine story over there.
So I'm taking it as it comes.
Give us more details, Mac, about your event that's happening on Saturday.
Saturday is going to be a premiering event of the 25 minute long movie. I think 25. 46 or something like that minutes. And it's going to be at my daughter's dance studio. She runs a business. A dance and music and theater and all that stuff in one academy. She calls it the Academy, Inc, and she has a studio in Oshawa. I sent the invitation to you and Sam. So if you take a look at it, you'll see all the information there.
It's on Simcoe Street, 44 Simcoe Street, and we're going to host the people that will show up there on the Saturday, the 15th, 15th of July at 6pm. We're going to have a one round show, and then a little chit chat. And then we'll call it a day. Then the movie itself now will be uploaded to YouTube and we start spreading the word. So you are not far away from what is going on. You just, this is a big buttress you're giving me.
To support me, to keep me standing at the, okay, you have done this and, we wanna make sure your name still stands here, north America! So thank you very much, Rita. I really appreciate it!
Thank you. What a storyteller you are! And that's what we want to do because we've been talking to people across our community map who we consider to be sometimes silent giants and sometimes not so silent, but they are community builders, and I know that you are one of those people, and I'm happy that you agreed to join Elton and myself on this podcast. Thank you so much!
I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you for helping. I appreciate it.
You are most welcome, and it was a pleasure meeting you.
Same here. Thank you. Thank you for listening to SpeakUP! International. If you would like to connect with Macaulay Eteli, please provide your name and email address to info@speakuppodcast.ca. Please state in your email that you wish to contact Mr. Eteli. Would you like to be interviewed by SpeakUP! International, please drop us a message containing your name, company, name, and the service you provide to your community and email address to info@speakuppodcast.ca.
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