09/30/2024
Truth and reconciliation, work that is undertaken in my own home first. I don’t share this often and certainly only talk about the challenges faced on rare occasions…
I have a lower tolerance for ignorance and rude behaviour, I require a higher standard of care for those around me, I fight fiercely when the scales are tipped with bias…
I also carry an insight on situations from a history of first hand living, I expect the worst from situations and crowd settings, I have a fire inside that erupts with frustration when poorly treated or spoken to, I watch actions of others with intent, I have a very soft place for less fortunate people that carry deeper scars, I speak up when I see injustice occurring, I ask for accountability when I used to sit in silence…
My eyes have seen things the majority of people haven’t, I have heard things that have imprinted on my being, I have felt my heart pierced by ugliness, my energies sense when someone is around me with ill intent…my survival requires that I tune into those spaces. It always has….
I teach my son how to read a room, how to have insight to another’s intention through their actions, behaviours and words….
I look at how our communities are facing a soft genecide that is coming like a wave through our communities with our cemeteries filling up.
Those policies built long ago still carry impact and residual effect this very day…
Reconciliation is arresting the extinction we soon face…in manners that are effective to support the rebuilding of harshly affected communities. Understanding that losing 5% of any given population is worth the initial dialogue in a solution based process instead of a dependant based power and control model.
It is imperative that our leadership not only understand this but advocate and negotiate fiercely before there is little to discuss…
As a community, band together and hold up and support each other, rebuilding the spirit from a legacy of harm, there’s alot of peace and authenticity that awaits…this is not the work of one, it is not a blame game, it isn’t about deflection and avoidance, it’s about stepping into the mud on a cold foggy night and simply guiding the way to a better tomorrow. One we all benefit from…
I’ve had to learn how to put down the shame, shake off the dirty Indian, leave others opinions behind, walk away from closed minds and open my own to find self acceptance, find my light, stand strong through chaos and storms and proudly smile at my son when his eyes are upon me watching what comes next.
Being angry about what unfolded is natural and common when understanding immense grief. Those are the badges and scars we carry as a legacy of residential schools and policies that were created to cause long term harm and impact.
I hoped that Maddex wouldn’t experience racism, that was a dream of his mother…shattered as he attended primary grades…my only thought was-here we go again…he now knows about discrimination, racism, poor attitudes that are carried and shed on our children, and walks with similar experiences…so my hope that he would have it better left me feeling defeated…so of your wondering why I don’t tolerate bu****it behaviour-understand that it has more to do with this lived experience than it ever has with one individual experience…it’s been a collection…like a sad story book…
Reconciliation is an effort to resist this impact to our children, to bring understanding and hope for our children-cause that’s the only conversation that matters…the one about our kids!
Trust me-I can handle the awful spaces ignorance and entitlement create, I have those skills…but is that a penance to be paid?
End of the day-I’m simply a mom who loves her son…
I am yours and you are mine…❤️
