Time to bring all the Children Home

Today I am not writing about Dementia, today I am not writing about my adventures. But today I am writing about events unfolding here in Canada that have such a deep and profound impact on me, that I feel I need to help be a voice for these children and their families.

Here is two small clips outlining what has transpired in the last few weeks including today discovery.

Preliminary findings from a survey of the grounds at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School have uncovered the remains of 215 children buried at the site, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation said 

Today this was announced :

Sask. First Nation announces discovery of 751 unmarked graves near former residential school

Once again I found myself sitting in a puddle of tears, my heart aching for those children, for their families. It is time we search and find all the children who were taken and never returned from the residential schools here in Canada.

I am not normally one to talk about religion but in this instance I find myself compelled to say a few words. I know many people who are deeply religious and very good and kind people. I believe that many churches need to get over themselves and their attitude that they are somehow superior to others. Religion can and often does many many good things, but we cannot ignore the things that are not good. You cannot hide behind the church or the cloth of the church, and allow that to justify and excuse the events that unfolded in our residential schools. I don’t care what religion, what believe system you have, right is right and wrong is wrong. That people outside of the church, politicians and citizens alike, somehow felt that they were superior to the true owners of this land that we live on today, allowed them to subject these children and families to these atrocities.

Maybe many of us were not directly responsible, many of us were just children ourselves, but knowing what we know now, we must speak up and demand that we do everything we can to find all these children, to allow our aboriginal people to be in charge of the process, to be in charge of how to provide healing for all their people, we all must ask for forgiveness for the wrongs done, we must all be part of a better future for all. We all need to be part of the healing.

We are not superior, we are all just people. I am someone born in Canada, but it does not ever leave me that my family came from another country. They settled here, build a life here. Being born here, Canada is my home land, and I want to be a proud Canadian, I want to be that country where we truly to honour all who live here. I do believe we owe our deepest gratitude and thanks to the Aboriginal Peoples of our Country, who cared for it and nurtured it, so that we could have the life we have. It is time we offer them help, help to heal and recover. We can no longer blame the problems found in many aboriginal communities, with alcohol and drugs, on them, for it is us that caused these catastrophic events that perpetuated these issues, we are the ones who forced them to live on what we termed (reservations), we are the ones who thought it ok to place the children in residential schools without any accountability for what was happening inside those walls.

Today I am not so proud, I am deeply saddened and sickened by the events unfolding in this country, and whether there is a pandemic or not I believe it is our duty to place finding all of the missing children, and looking at ourselves and really deciding who we are as people and who we will be going forward.

We need to ensure that this can never be forgotten, we need to take stock, and whether we are directly responsible or not, or ancestors, the people elected to power in politics, the people who attended church, without standing up and saying this is not ok are responsible, it is up to us to say I’m sorry, never again will we be willing to turn a blind eye, because it was in fact that fact that non one did anything that allowed this to continue for as long as it did. I am saying I’m sorry, I am saying enough, I am saying I will use my voice to try to ensure that every child is found and returned. We need not look far, look at your own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews take a good look, because just because it happened then and just because it didn’t happened to you, doesn’t mean that if allowing it to go without full accountability means that next time it could be you or yours. These of course are my own thoughts, sorry if its offensive to some, put I am truly heartsick over this.