This year I have mixed emotions about Canada Day. I have always been patriotic and worn red and white. Often I wore a teeshirt that represented all the wars Canada participated in. Little did I know that there was a war going on in my own Country!
In my last blog, I talked about the discovery of 215 graves of children at the former Kamloops residential school. This occurred on May 27th. The Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation helped by using ground-penetrating radar to discover the bodies of children as young as 3 years old. On June 24th 751 gravesites were found on the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is actually a Cree name for the “Kisiskatchewanisipi” or “swift-flowing river.” They were discovered on the Cowessess First Nations land. Adults who survived their ordeals at Residential schools have said that children had been disappearing for years. Many spoke of physical and sexual abuse along with starvation. This was done by our Government and mainly the Catholic Church to take control of the Indian children and to remove their culture, and identity to family. It is estimated that 150,000 children attended residential schools from 1830 to 1997! 1997!!!! Even now social services remove more native children from their homes than any other Canadian group. Jails too have more native residents. More indigenous women are missing and murdered. Yes, there are some people in this category that get into drugs and alcohol. When you look at their history and their attempts to try to tell their stories, which were often suppressed, can you honestly say you would do any different?
I think back to the times when white folks came to Canada. They were greeted and welcomed as guests by the native population. Without Indigenous peoples, they would not have made it through the harsh winters. Fur trade kept things equal for a while until that disappeared. Peace between both groups was exacerbated by the settlers’ increasing encroachment on the land, resources, and ways of life of the Indigenous Peoples of North America. Treaties were not honoured and the land was taken away from them, leaving them on unfertile land.
Gord Downie from the Tragically Hip brought the plight of Indigenous culture to the forefront. Gord began Secret Path as ten poems incited by the story of Chanie Wenjack, a twelve-year-old boy who died fifty years ago on October 22, 1966, in flight from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School near Kenora, Ontario, walking home to the family he was taken from over 400 miles away.
We are only now beginning to see the depth of these crimes. I for one am appalled and ashamed of my country. I hope that we can all learn to be more tolerant of each other. We need to be able to understand what is going on in someone else’s life.
One further note: Four members of the Afzaal family in London were mowed down by a young man full of hate for a different culture. A young boy is now orphaned. It has a similar ring to how the indigenous people were treated i.e. as if they didn’t have a right to live and enjoy their own cultures with their families. We have many Muslim friends who totally enrich our lives. We have broken bread with many of them and just love their children. Yes, they do many things differently than we would. We just find that this broadens how we learn about different cultures.
I hope that Canada and all its people learn more tolerance. I for one am learning as much as I can about Native culture. It is only as we learn and grow as individuals that we can be more open to different cultures. We also need to stand up for what is right and make both Government and Religion accountable for telling the truth. In telling the truth it needs to be a part of our history books at school. Yes, it is shameful and very painful, but if we do not learn these facts then we are bound to repeat our history. I for one am not willing to do so. I hope that when you read this that you too will learn more about different groups and be more supportive and tolerant.
As our country opens up after Covid19 may you all have a better summer than in 2020. Continue to be vigilant as we progress. Thank you to all who got their Vaccines! We are protecting each other by doing so.