I just read an article from the Huffington Post which discusses research into residential school deaths. Numbers, names, causes of deaths... millions of documents revealed… all interesting in itself. While none of it is particularly sinister... this does not change the fact that these deaths were the direct result of an environment that never should have existed in the first place. Group home environments were incubators for diseases like influenza and TB… and pre-1960 was just an evil time in our (white) history. Corporal punishment was the norm. Fathers were free to molest their children, most girl were sexually abused by one or many male relatives. Native culture did not view children as property and did not have biblically sanctioned abuse of its children. It must have been so confusing for these babies to be thrown into such a hateful environment. I'm a very tolerant person; I understand bad decisions and errors in judgment. What is unconscionable is that these schools remained open for 100 years. When the first generation of graduates left these places (10 years in), damaged, broken and lost... Somebody should have said, "That didn't work", and shut the damn things down.
Followers of my Angels of the Road blog site are well aware of my
involvement in social justice issues, particularly as they relate to our Native brothers and sisters. This may seem like a very political discussion for a spiritualist website like this one and more suited to the other blog, but I want to share with you what I am seeing here. I see a new age … an end to ass-covering, finger-pointing and blame-setting. A time to look squarely at where we have been as a society…this is a sad and ragged piece of Canadian history which we all need to own. NO guilt, just awareness and a coming together in our grief to end the injustice which shamefully still exists. As I said in Silent No More, “regardless of when we were born or when we got off the boat, we are all responsible for what comes next”.
Followers of my Angels of the Road blog site are well aware of my
involvement in social justice issues, particularly as they relate to our Native brothers and sisters. This may seem like a very political discussion for a spiritualist website like this one and more suited to the other blog, but I want to share with you what I am seeing here. I see a new age … an end to ass-covering, finger-pointing and blame-setting. A time to look squarely at where we have been as a society…this is a sad and ragged piece of Canadian history which we all need to own. NO guilt, just awareness and a coming together in our grief to end the injustice which shamefully still exists. As I said in Silent No More, “regardless of when we were born or when we got off the boat, we are all responsible for what comes next”.
I think this is such a beautiful picture of courage, hope & pride.
Photographed at the Idle No More demonstration
on parliment hill January 28, 2013.
Read the article and view other photos on the Huffington Post website.
Photographed at the Idle No More demonstration
on parliment hill January 28, 2013.
Read the article and view other photos on the Huffington Post website.
RSS Feed
