When after a brief but somewhat ferocious storm
we are left with
the aftermath and destruction,
when the fallen and snapped off portions
have been cut, chipped and carted
away
the disfigured remainder
left standing
now added to the terminal list,
how sad one feels
at the inevitability of losing
one more
beloved
tree
and again, everything that gets trampled underfoot
and demolished
in the
meantime
as well, great disappointment in just what we have done
to our earth
and also
to its people…
One hundred and fifty thousand Indigenous people, children
were taken
from families
not just uprooted
but ripped, limb from limb
150,000
thousands never ever returned
thousands
simply
vanished
stories for some only now beginning to surface
as numbers and young body counts
mount
the last residential school was still open in 1996
we have had this truth
yet, it is we
who have not been listening
it is we
it IS we who believe that indigenous people live ‘on reserves’
of their choosing, as ‘their own land’
instead of the very real facts of indigenous people being forced, pushed
and confined to restricted areas
systematic attempts of control
and degradation
often little access to clean drinking water, poor medical care
simple basic needs, let alone
rights and
freedoms
as a nation of perpetrators we should indeed be
ashamed
it is our responsibility to listen
to the earth
and to its people
to ALL its people
we need a deep open-hearted listening
to heal
we need less noise, less shame, less anger, less
disassociation, less greed, less self-centred bravado
less
complacency
we need more compassion, more empathy
more
kindness
we need atonement, honour and
dignity
we need understanding, possibility and Love
Above all
we need Love
we, ourselves
will again plant a tree here
as a kindness to the earth,
and to a healing
we will open our hearts
we will learn
and we will listen
as the very, very least we can do
is listen
where once again,
we Are
our only hope ♥
“If we can raise a generation of non-Indigenous kids who don’t normalize discrimination, and have the tools to peacefully and respectfully advocate for the end of this kind of apartheid system, then we’ll be in a position where First Nations children never have to recover from their childhoods again, and non-Indigenous children never have to say they’re sorry.”
~ Cindy Blackstock