Another Perspective on Canada Day
In a printed editorial it was stated that we all have reasons to get involved in the St.Croix anniversary and by extension Canada Day celebrations, that there have been winners and losers, and that this anniversary is a time of celebration, for others an occasion for somber commemoration, and that it is a milestone by which we can judge where we stand today.
Even though Indians are mentioned in the piece, I cannot help but think the opinion was written with only non-Indians in mind. Given the fact that Indian people have been deliberately and callously overlooked (not seen) for the past 500 year, my thinking should not come as a surprise to anyone.
In my musings after having read the opinion, I thought, as an Indian person, how do I celebrate or commemorate this transplanted European anniversary? An anniversary that, if not for the kindness of Indian people, probably would not have been necessary to observe. And if Indian people had been more like the Europeans and had inflicted upon those first Europeans the same fate as what Europeans inflicted upon the Beothuk only a few decades later, the need for this debate would have been rendered moot.
How do I, as an Indian person, celebrate or commemorate the genocide of the Beothuk, Huron, Saco, Abanaki and on and on right across this country? It is like Germans asking Jews to help celebrate the Dachau, Auschwitz, Majdanek, Treblinka death camps. As a so-called “loser” how do I celebrate the loss of my identity as a human being, as a Wulustukyeg? How do I celebrate the loss of my homeland? How do I commemorate the loss of my traditional spiritual ways and the traditional spiritual teachings? How do I commemorate the loss of my language? How do I commemorate the loss of my ability to pass on our Traditional teachings, language etc to the Seventh Generation? How do I celebrate the loss of my culture?
How do I celebrate the loss of my sacred burial site of my Ancestors? How do I commemorate the loss of my milestones which reach back thousands and thousands of years and generations?
I ask these questions from my heart. Painful, but necessary questions in my ongoing effort to get our European brothers to honestly face the legacy of the past and to honestly and truthfully address injustices in the present.
Our Elders teach that in order for people to move to an equal, healthy, peaceful and just future; that those people must first take four steps in order to reach the starting point.
First step: to recognize the truth of their past actions. No matter how ugly
Second: to acknowledge the truth. No matter how painful
Third: to accept that truth. No matter the cost.
Fourth and final step : an honest, equal, healing and peaceful reconciliation can now begin.
Failing this, all of the words of our eurocanadian brothers on “honestly facing the legacy of the past” and “addressing injustice in the present” will continue to ring very hollow to me, the Ancestors, the People and the Seventh Generation.
I end with the words of Chief Seattle, Duwamish:
“To us, the ashes of our ancestors are sacred, and their sacred resting place is hallowed ground. We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The Earth is not his brother, but his enemy… and when he has conquered it he moves on.
He leaves his father’s graves, and his children’s birthright is forgotten. And when the last redman shall have perished, and the memory of my people has become a myth among the white man, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my people. The white man will never be alone in my People’s homeland.”
I humbly and respectfully ask anyone who cares to respond to help me in my question on how I, as an Indian person should celebrate or commemorate my losses.
But before anyone responds, I would ask that they first weigh their response from a reversed perspective. Meaning that the 500 year scenario be reversed. That my people had invaded Europe and my people had inflicted similar diseases and losses upon Europeans which could be comparable to what occurred here on our beloved Turtle Island.
These words are from the Ancestors and a child of the North American Holocaust.
All My Relations,
Dan Ennis
