Yesterday I attended an event “Creating Cross Cultural
Connections” for community building supported by many local non profit
organizations. Leaders from all organizations were invited to attend this day
long event to bring us together to build bridges of communications
between First Nations people and ourselves. The hope of the workshop was to bring an
understanding of each other and to begin to move forward to once again becoming
a community of wholeness.
It began with one of the facilitators, Kathi Camilleri,
a facilitator of experiential workshops regarding Canada’s Policy of
Assimilation and Colonization, helping us to understand the village life of the
First Nations people. She shared her story of being a Métis Cree and an Irish descendant.
Through her we created a First Nations Village.
As we sat in a circle ( there were over a 100 people in attendance)
blankets and skins were placed in the center. She talked about how to know when
you were home, how to know your village and as she did people came forward and
placed the objects in the center. The First Nations people knew their village
by their music, the food that they ate, the canoes that they paddled, the
patterns of beads on their clothing and the language they spoke. No one owned
the land, the land was there for all. They only used what they needed.
We then created our village. Those wanting to be the
children of the village came forward and sat on the blankets. Kathi shared with
us how the children were loved and cared for by everyone. Each child was looked
on as a gift of the Creator and each child had a special gift to bring to the
village. If they were off playing they were fed by whoever’s home they were at.
Those people wanting to be parents came and sat around the children followed by
those wanting to be the aunts and uncles. You didn’t have to be blood related
to be an aunt and uncle, everyone who cared for the children were their aunts
and uncles. They were all family and they had an understanding that it took a
village to raise a child.
Next came the elders, not the elderly but the folks who
had knowledge, who had lived life and so therefore had knowledge on one aspect
or another. At this time I moved forward and sat with the elders. I have never
felt such a feeling of being wise and knowledgeable in my life. The remaining
people then stood around the outside of the circle representing the braves and
hunters. These young men would hunt and bring food to the village sharing with
everyone. They did not just keep the food for themselves but everyone was given
enough food. The braves protected the village and kept wild animals out,
keeping the village safe from harm.
The village life centered around love, respect,
kindness and generoursity. Their love for all of creation, their respect for each
other, and their shared kindness and generousity to all people was the
foundation that kept the village whole and complete.
When the Europeans came to Canada, they were not bad
people but they had been raised in another world with other practices, where
the rich owned the land, their children going to private schools while the poor
worked the land and their children taken out of school early to help with the
work. They had been told there was free land here for the taking, and take they
did. The First Nations people were forced to change their way of life, moved
off the land they had lived on and given sacks of flour to sustain them. Then
the most horrid of things happened. They were stripped of their sacred items,
banished from hosting potlatches and their children were taken away from them,
put into residential schools, forced to speak English and punished for speaking
their own language, the only language they knew. Parents were threatened with
the removal of their sacks of flour (their only source of food) if they did not
turn over their children or tried to hide them. We were read a statement of
Canadian law that stated that they could face up to six months in prison if
they did not comply. Parents could go for weeks not knowing what had happened
to their children before finding out that they had been taken away to a school.
Alcohol was brought into the community as a way of coping. It dulled their pain
if only for a little while.
As we re-enacted this part of history each group of
people, the parents, the aunts and uncles, the elders and young braves were
asked how this all made them feel. The pain shared was heartfelt. We heard from
First Nations women who told how their grandchildren were still suffering from
what had happened to their grandparents, their lack of being shown how to
parent and how to love. We heard from an Irish descendant who shared her
feeling of shame of what was done to these people by her ancestors.
Afterwards, people playing the role of the children
were returned to the village as adult strangers. These children had been raised by underfunded Christian Residential schools. Most were underfed and abused. When they returned families did not know each
other and their connections were broken, their languages different, unable to
communicate to each other they were lost. The traditions had not been passed
forward to this generation, the stories not shared, the lessons of the elders
not taught. They did not know how to cope or live in this new world they were
returned to. They did not know how to show their love or to parent their own children.
The room was filled with so many emotions and many
tears were shed. At lunch two of the Cowichan Tribes women kindly offered their
services of cleansing with “brushing down” using cedar branches. The lineup was
long, but the gift of their tradition that they gave to each of us and the
tears and hugs shared was very healing.
In the afternoon we broke into groups sharing our
thoughts and ideas on how we can move forward from this day. How we can bring
together the people of this valley to be as one, to remove the racism that is
shown towards and is felt here each day by the First Nations people. We know we
cannot let it end with yesterday. What we learned and experienced needs to be
experienced by all people. Reading about it does not give the sense of feeling
that one has when they actually participate in the experience of what happened.
There is hope for monthly social events to bring people together, for groups to
host this workshop for all others and for it to be brought not only to the
school aged children but to their parents and their grandparents so that we can
all learn and understand together.
I was raised in this valley as were my parents and my
parents, parents. It was in the late 1800’s that my great grandparents and
great uncles came to this valley as homesteaders and began to farm the land. I
have always been so proud to be part of my family, to know my ancestors had
lived here in this same place, swam in the same rivers and worked the land and
been part of the community. After
yesterdays sharing of stories my pride was replaced with guilt and shame. The
pain I felt for what was done to the Quw’utsun people and all First Nations
people of Canada was overwhelming.
 |
| The Cowichan Valley, home of the Quw'utsun people and my Welsh ancestors |
As I ran on the treadmill this morning, thinking of the
actions of my ancestors, how they were here living in the valley when the
children were removed and did nothing to stop it, the pain and shame feelings
returned and the tears flowed and as they did the words of Jesus came to me “forgive
them for they know not what they do”. These words flowed over and over again
through my mind and I know Jesus was right. Our ancestors did not know what the
outcome of their actions against these people would be. Like all of us we learn
from our elders, not from what they tell us but more from their actions and
what we see. The disrespect for our First Nations people has been passed down
from generation to generation and I know for healing to take place forgiveness
must be given. As Jesus said I need to forgive my ancestors for they did not
understand what they were doing. I need
to speak with each of my children and ask for their forgiveness, for my racist
remarks and actions and for the times when I did not show them or others the
love, respect, kindness and generousity that they deserved as being gifts from
our Creator. I need to forgive myself. There needs to be forgiveness so that healing can begin and we can
move forward together as one people, as one community no longer judged by the
colour of our skin or by our ancestor’s actions.
Huy ch q’u, thank you for taking the time to read this
and for your understanding. I apologize for it’s length and it’s lack of
pictures. This is my first step in moving forward from yesterday. I hope it is
just a small step of many that I can make to work together with others to bring
wholeness back to the Quw’utsun people and all people of our Cowichan Valley.
"Forgive them for they know not what they do"
Luke 23:34
