Full disclosure : I am a 30-something white woman. I’m not sure how much perspective I really have to give, or that my words really bring anything to the table…
Today is Orange Shirt Day, in recognition of the abuse suffered by the First Nations people in our country by the hands of my ancestors.
Here is the explanation from the official website : “Orange Shirt Day is a legacy of the St. Joseph Mission (SJM) residential school commemoration event held in Williams Lake, BC, Canada, in the spring of 2013. It grew out of Phyllis’ story of having her shiny new orange shirt taken away on her first day of school at the Mission, and it has become an opportunity to keep the discussion on all aspects of residential schools happening annually…The date was chosen because it is the time of year in which children were taken from their homes to residential schools.”
Children were taken from their homes + placed into the residential school system that was in place from 1870-1996. That’s a lot of years. So many children.
Last Thursday students in my son’s school (+ schools throughout Canada) were invited to wear orange shirts to school. I tried to explain why it was important to my son, without going into all the details. + it was unnerving to watch my kiddo sitting at the table in his orange shirt, eating his breakfast, seeing in him all the other children taken from their families + forcibly made to change their identity. He’s only four. + so were so many of the children who were placed in the residential school system.
They weren’t just ‘placed’.
They were taken from homes, much like ours.
Kids, just like my son, were taken from their parents…just like my husband + I.
For speaking a language as naturally to we speak in our home.
For living a daily life rich with cultural practices passed down through generations. Our watered down amalgamation of inherited culture is really a farce when you think of what we + our history has tried to eradicate.
If someone tried to take my child from me, I would want to destroy them with my bare hands. Rip the throat + heart from their body. Just like every parent who has their child taken from them. But what if the might + force of the government was behind the taking? How hopeless would I feel in protecting the little lives I was gifted + honoured to protect?
Trauma is generational. It alters our DNA + gets passed down for generations. It alters one’s well-being + ability to cope, causes depression, mental health issues, impacting our children.
So don’t ever ask or expect an entire people to just ‘get over it’. I’ve heard that messaging too often from people who have never had to experience what the Aboriginal communities experienced. Generations upon generations of people – children – ripped from their family. Violently + sexually abused. Language, culture, identity beaten into submission. These children were handed back to their family, their people, no longer belonging as they once did, + have been told, are told to clean up the traumatic mess we’ve left them with.
Wearing an orange shirt to recognize our past, honour those who suffered, + begin dialogue is the very least we can do. The. Very. Least.
Become educated. From the very little I know + have learned, the only way forward is to listen, to not do the telling in how to heal, to stand shoulder to shoulder with those who have been traumatized, listening, listening, listening.
These are only the thoughts of a 30-something white woman, + really, they mean nothing compared to the words of the generations of people who have suffered so greatly.
For more information :
Orange Shirt Day : http://www.orangeshirtday.org/resources–ideas.html
Truth and Reconciliation Commission : http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=3