New followers on Bluesky may be curious as to why I answer to Mani or Mike, friends who have followed me from t’other place don’t require an explanation but think it would be a good idea to provide one.

I’m called Michael by family and neighbours, sometimes Mick. One Greek woman who laundered my overalls in Australia called me Mickey because that’s how she thought the name Mike, written on my overalls to identify them, was pronounced. Otherwise I was universally known as Mike.

The only other person who calls me Mickey is a Twitter friend who liked the Irish translation of my name, Michaèl McCool, which I used briefly on Twitter/X before I acquired my Lakota name Mani Isna La.

In a pub where I used to work I was known as Aussie Mick or Mick Dundee, because the landlord’s name was Mike and nobody else was allowed to have the same name (Mike Rogers was always called Rog).

I went into the pub some years later with a Kiwi friend with whom I wish I had kept in touch. I’d given him a guitar on condition that he had it restrung for left hand and paid me £10 an hour for lessons. I’m not a great guitarist but people I’ve asked to teach me have said they don’t know what they can teach me and that I’m good enough to teach a beginner.

There was a karaoke session that evening and I put my name down as Aussie Mick, the name I was known was known by there, but it was under new management and my Aussie accent had faded away so the landlady mistook my Kiwi friend for me. Which didn’t stop her from joining me in a duet 😅

The previous time I took part in a karaoke event in that pub it was on my shift and organised by another barman and we were the only participants. Dunno how much people liked my singing but as long as I was singing he wasn’t 😅

I was given my Lakota name Mani Isna La (He Walks Alone) when I started advocating for indigenous rights and became a member of Lakota Peoples Law Society. It’s not a case of cultural misappropriation although I did suggest it. The indigenous woman was gave me the name was not Lakota but consulted with someone who was and my right to use the name hasn’t been challenged.

When I was writing for Critical Mass Magazine my colleagues were accustomed to call me Mani to distinguish me from another Mike on the team and in acknowledgment of my support for indigenous rights.

Call me Mike or Mani, I have no preference, but don’t call me late at night 😅