Native Pride.
What does it mean?
I remember when I didn't understand why someone felt they needed to wear a piece of clothing with the words NATIVE PRIDE boldly printed. I remember thinking, "isn't it obvious that people are proud of their heritage, why do we need to be obnoxious about it?"
As I grew out of my adolescent age, I began to learn and uncover the tragedy of the Indigenous story in Canada. The colonization of a entire people, from" savage" to civilized. The mothers whose children were taken and beaten for the color of their skin and the language they spoke. Children who are now our elders, making sense of life after what they've been through. An entire nation of Indigenous People now on a journey through the fog, and as the dust has yet to settle, we are making sense of our lost culture.
As I learned about what my family had been through, and I learned about what every single Indigenous person alive in our country right now on this day has been through, I realized Native Pride needs to be encouraged.
No longer will we wash and scrub our skin raw to lighten the color, no longer will we be struck down when speaking and learning our native tongue, no longer will our children know the pain of being torn from their mothers and fathers, no longer will we hide our regalia in shame but wear it boldly, proudly and dance in it with honor. And no longer will I question the elder wearing his native pride hat, sitting silently on the corner of the street, knowing he has made it through hell. Indigenous youth, you have been tasked with learning our painful history.
Like the elders who have gone before us, you must now rise above the pain, and continue paving the way for future generations. And finally, hold your head high, your Creator made you exactly as you are.
Creator is proud, and so you should be too.
My Shoom and Kookum (grandparents), 2015