Thursday, July 1, 2021

Canada Day - A Day of Reflection

Warning: This story makes reference to abuse. 

On what normally be a day to celebrate, we are taking this Canada Day to reflect on the treatment of the Indigenous peoples of Canada. In the past month, 215 and 751 unmarked graves of children have been found at 2 of the 139 former residential schools in Canada. (Yesterday another 182 unmarked graves were found at a 3rd site). 

From 1894-1996 all across Canada, at least 150 000 Indigenous children, aged 4-16, were forcibly taken from their families to live in church run schools. Here they suffered terrible abuse and neglect. This was done to prevent the parents from rebelling against the government and to take the Indigenous culture from the children. It is estimated 40-60% of the children died while in government/church care, however, due to lack of existing records, we will likely never know exactly how many. 

The residential school system reflects just one of the Canadian government's policies of genocide. All these policies have caused generational trauma, social issues and extreme racism in the country I love. They make my heart hurt. 

Instead of fireworks, we will be lighting a candle and thinking of the horrors those poor children and their families were forced to endure. We will be looking for guidance from the Indigenous communities on how we move forward as a country.

Every child matters.

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Here is a LINK to Cree artist Kent Monkman's work The Scream (2017), that captures the removal of Indigenous children from their families.  He is an amazing artist whose works capture colonialization in a profound way. You can learn more about him HERE

10 comments:

  1. we cried while reading the news... and about the memories of a man who was there ...and how he missed his friend Bryan... that was heartbreaking...

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  2. Hari OM
    have been following this story in the news here... couldn't help but think of similar atrocities in OZ... wherever the white fella treads, the non-white dreads... Great post for Canada Day and I wish you Love and support for this stance. YAM xx

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  3. this heart breaking story is all news to me, I had no idea this happened in your country. it matches the same thing that happened here in the USA. i have seen movies and read books about this, but it was America not Canada. This also went on in many other countries, Africa and Austrailia, any where the priests and monks went they did this to the indigenous people. the painting hurts the heart to look at it. thank you for sharing this. I see Yam said she saw it on the news, our news has not mentioned it. they are to busy spouting hate filled polictics.
    I pray our world will become aware of these things and fight hard to keep them from happening again although I fear it will.

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  4. Well done for highlighting this terrible injustice. All children deserve proper protection and one hopes that by remembering and recognising past failures we can do better in future.

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  5. Well said K10! I cannot tolerate abuse of children, the elderly or animals.
    If I live to be 187 I'll never understand the fascination with fireworks. I'll never forget when I was a preteen (and lover of WKIX radio station) one of the DJ's lost a portion of his hand from fireworks gone crazy.
    Hugs cecilia

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  6. We'll be celebrating the Fourth of July soon, but with some sadness. Unfortunately, the United States lied and cheated and abused the indigenous peoples, hoping, it seems, it kill them all off. Yes, my country is guilty of Crimes against Humanity, and there are those who would call me and others like me "traitors" for trying to see and tell the truth about what happened here in the "Land of the Free."

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  7. Such a sad story and heart wrenching painting. As others have said this has happened everywhere white settlers took over land that once flourished with indigenous people.

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  8. This happen not from me. And I can recall if Indain came into a store and lot of time some one would get on loud speaker and say something like "Indian on alise 7" in tone as they were dirty people.
    But hopeful we start learning from our past, so our future can be much better for all. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/jun/30/more-unmarked-graves-found-at-indian-boarding-scho/
    Coffee is on and stay safe
    Here article from one of our near by paper...

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  9. We have followed this story here (Maryland, USA) with deep sadness, and yes, horror. Yes without surprise, knowing it has happened all too many times in far too many countries and it's truth often buried in a false history. Why is it that humans are the most dangerous and predatory of creatures on earth?

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  10. This has been one of the most horrifying stories of late. We honor all victims of abuse, especially these children and pray light will shine on this dark history so that it never. ever. happens. again. 💔

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