This past Canada Day was filled with many emotions. For us Canada Day is a day to bring family and friends closer together. A day to be grateful for all we have. A day to celebrate the birth of a baby born into our village. A day to recognize the past, present and future. A day to be grateful for the opportunity that this land has given us.
Gratitude
Nurturing
Responsibility
Acknowledgement
Ownership
Acceptance
Learning
Guiding
Growing
A foundation we seek to instill in our children.
Through taking the responsibility of oneself.
Owning our actions and words.
Acknowledging not only the successes but the mistakes.
Accepting and appreciating the compliments as well as the consequences.
Learning through the experiences.
Guiding and sharing each other’s experience.
Growing and molding through life’s journey all while being a part of a community. As they say, it takes a village or maybe a more appropriate synonym is tribe to navigate life.
Yet, this is something that can be trying at times.
I say that through privilege.
As I cannot imagine the feeling of terror and tyranny the indigenous WERE and ARE subjected to.
That so many in this world are subjected too.
Especially when a double standard is recognized on the political level. Where a lot of the time comments of “that’s just the way things are”, “you can’t trust politicians” or “we don’t have the power to change it” get explained away. Comment such as this is what has brought us to complacency not holding the policymakers accountable.
Too often do we forget that the policies are supposed to be coming from the democracy. Not just the ones at the supposed top that we appoint as policy makers. The policy makers are the people putting it down into writing, but the people are the ones that should be putting out what direction we want our country to grow.
Like don’t they work for us????
I pay m************ taxes… I gladly contribute some tax (earned money) to taking care of the communities of all the people who live in Canada. But we have to tell the policymakers what we want.
Yes, not all will agree on the things that each want or need at least in priority order. But that really doesn’t matter because if they don’t know what we want, how are they going to even try. They’ll just do what they want. Case in point with the response to COVID… Extreme privilege was flaunted during the lockdowns in Ontario. How can one judge what’s essential? Especially when not everyone has access to purchasing through technology.
Disgusting, The ignorance that privilege buys.
For instance,
What does a light and teddy bear on a porch symbolize? I understand the acknowledgement but is this just this week’s fad on how to support indigenous communities. I understand the gesture. But does it really make an impact? Does it even really symbolize indigenous peoples? To me it’s a hollow gesture if there isn’t something to back it up.
However, I do believe that thoughts and energy going to someone is helpful. It’s all about the flow of energy.
But there is more to be done in this supposed inclusive democratic society.
SO to add to your gesture you could click a couple survey buttons at
https://action.liberal.ca/2021-summer-check-in-survey/
link and share what’s important to you. I wish I could number the choices instead of being limited to three.
Exercising your privilege by raising your voice is the beginning.
Your voice has value.
You have value.
The survey is another step, but please take it further and wright to you MP and MPP. Let them know what you want for Canada and the peoples that live on this land.
On top of that, another way for us to grow is by learning. I myself am guilty of not knowing enough. But I’m working at it. Yet, I am fully aware that there’s too much to learn for one lifetime. So chose your battles wisely…
As I was writing this article I was looking for a native translation.
A naïve statement in itself.
Where, through my first Google search I stumbled across this article.
It reads almost like an instruction history manual on how to be “politically correct” when dealing with indigenous peoples.
But it also provides some enlightenment. It points out that indigenous references the original peoples of the land. Yet, these peoples are not all the same. That there are different cultures with customs and languages. [2]
To me it references how ignorant original settlers were. But even more so, how ignorant the subsequent generations have been. So much so, that the term Indian is still used by the policymakers on some documents today…
Which is Ludacris…
If we can change the national anthem to accommodate inclusiveness. Why not change documentation to correct terminology.
An explorer’s mistake on where they landed should have been rectified as soon as they realized it was incorrect. Yet, this was not even considered. As colonialism decided to strip humanity from the indigenous to brainwash people into believing it was okay to do what they did…. [2]
Where the reality was not recognizing the difference between in my opinion different countries. Where different tribes lived in different locations. Like, what’s the difference between all of the countries in Europe? Was the difference that the indigenous didn’t draw a line on a map saying “this is mine.” Rightfully so as the Earth and the creatures of Earth are NOT subservient to people.
Yet, sadly colonialism doesn’t look at the world this way. Probably because we never gave the respect to others to help educate on a broader perspective in this world. On top of greed, power and entitlement.
With that, let’s broaden our spectrum.
Encourage teachings from elders. Learning from our past to grow instead of repeating injustices.
For us, looking deeper into our family lineage can deepen individual understanding. Where our upbringing has not provided enough information on ancestry. But this country does allow me the freedom to seek this knowledge.
Native blood lives within my tribe. We see a journey of discovery ahead. Truth be told we don’t know much about our ancestry at all. With that and our recent drive to doing what we can within our daily lives, we are looking deeper. Leading with love, curiosity and a thirst for knowledge and truth.
Honouring the sacrifice of humanity…
Learning through the drive to evolve into more…
Not allowing history to be forgotten…
When you forget, it repeats…
Rectifying areas that were overlooked…
Pushing for a better future for our planet and the peoples of this world.
JEMI
P.S.
May peace be felt by the energy of the lost.
May healing begin for the ones who survived.
May learnings sink into those who can’t see.
May our future be filled with truth of history.
We can’t take back the past, but we can take responsibility.
And own that this would be a better place if we support inclusively.
Canada has beauty, I feel it within me.
Help learn with me as there is so much to See.
I’d like to take this moment to recognize again the written word I put out in honouring the lost souls of injustice.
Source
[1] “2021 Summer Check-In Survey: Liberal Action,” Action. [Online]. Available: https://action.liberal.ca/2021-summer-check-in-survey/. [Accessed: 06-Jul-2021].
[2] M.-C. Charron, “No perfect answer: Is it First Nations, Aboriginal or Indigenous?,” NATIONAL, 06-Mar-2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.national.ca/en/perspectives/detail/no-perfect-answer-first-nations-aboriginal-indigenous/. [Accessed: 06-Jul-2021].
P.P.S. – Sorry to my readers for getting this one out later then normal. Thank you so much for being here with me. I really appreciate it. Jackie