I have been fairly quiet the last few days as I've absorbed the news of 215 children being found buried near a residential school in BC. My silence has come from a place of processing all I am feeling and thinking. I have cried. I have been angry. I've talked to loved ones. And I have realized how many people just still don't know all that has happened to Indigenous People. So much of what has been done to us is covered up or explained away. I have had many friends reach out to me personally, and for that I am grateful. One thing I want non-Indigenous people to know is that while it's not your fault what happened, you have the power to walk with Indigenous people toward healing and reconciliation. Listen. Learn. Grieve. Acknowledge us. Love us.
Perhaps the next time you see an Indigenous person and judge why they're an addict or why they're homeless, the next time you wonder why they don't just "get over it (their trauma)"... you can know without a doubt, they have not had an easy life. They have experienced some form of trauma from what our country has done to them. Residential schools left a deep wound in our People that we have not yet healed from. We have been grieving the lost children for the last hundred years. As Indigenous people, grief is always close to our hearts as we are still healing from all the pain we have experienced.
So the next time you see us standing up for our rights, our People, our culture, our land... remember this, it's never been about money or revenge.
We would take our culture back over payouts every time,
we would take our land back over payouts every time,
we would take our children back over payouts every. time.
It's no secret to us what our country has done, because it's not history, it's our experience.
We have always been grieving the ones that never made it home from the schools. I honour these children who have been found by shedding my tears. I honour these children by taking responsibility to reclaim my culture, my language and my land.
They couldn't fight, so I will do it for them.
