Good Morning ALL! Welcome to Thursday, July 1, 2021 – Canada Day. The sun is shining and the birds are singing. We are just home from a walk a few minutes ago and I wanted to write this post before it becomes too hot upstairs in my office. At the moment there is a cool breeze wafting in through the open window. I have all of the windows open the house and the temperature is 81 F, which is the lowest it has been in the house for more than a week now.
Last night when I was going to sleep I starting to compose this “poem” if you will and wished that I had got up and wrote down the words as they have changed and evolved as the morning goes on …..
O CANADA
I was born in Canada, raised in Canada and love my country.
I knew early on that some people were treated differently and not always because of skin color.
As a child, I knew of Indigenous peoples.
We hired some of the men from nearby reservations to help out on the family farm.
Why they only lived on the reserves?
I did not really know.
Why there were no Indigenous children at our school?
We learned where the different Indigenous peoples lived, like the Cree, the Sioux and the Blackfoot.
By the time I was a teenager and we had moved to other provinces,
There were some Indigenous children in our rural schools.
No one spoke of or mentioned “residential schools.”
Our history with some being of recent times,
Not written in books for us to read,
Is filled with acts of violence that we find reprehensible and horrific of other countries.
But it is not other countries that fills the news feeds,
Not places where there are religious wars or tribal wars but here.
In this place we call home.
This place called Canada.
This Canada Day we cannot celebrate,
We must not,
Celebrate,
Without acknowledging the hundreds of Indigenous children ripped from their homes,
In the name of religious beliefs and with government approval.
These children suffered more than we could ever know,
They missed their families.
They were not allowed to speak their languages.
They were abused and neglected by “pillars of our communities.”
Many were murdered by these same members of the church and government.
While others were experimented on by the military.
The children that lived through the abuse, neglect and horrors of what was done to them and others,
Continued and continue to suffer as adults.
Their families threatened to silence and worse.
The time has come for us all to stand up.
To stand beside our fellow Indigenous Canadians,
Speak out to the atrocities that they have suffered and continue to,
Recognize and acknowledge,
We cannot go forward without looking back.
O Canada.
My heart hurts for the babies, for the children.
We must hear them, now and forever, and never forget!
Written by CY Lewis on July 1, 2021.
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As I continue to live my life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, understanding and gratitude.
Always, Carol & Alvin
My New Life @ 51 