Truth and Reconcilliation

 

Truth and Reconcilliation 

As your ancestors 

cry out to be heard

through the chaos 

that makes up 

this world of  lost, 

busy and greedy minds,

a world too many still cling to 

with white knuckles and heavy breath

as if it is the only reality,

my ancestors 

bow their head in shame

within me.

I feel the heaviness 

of their shoulders 

dragging mine  down

away from  ears

 full of the echoed cries of children,

of  lost women, 

of brave souls

mortally wounded by broken promises 

and exhumed from  the sandy depths 

of someone else's

unconsciousness. 

These ancestors within me

cry out for forgiveness

as they see clearly 

what they could not see

when they walked around in forms

that felt so righteous

 in their taking 

of that which was never theirs. 

The red, once proudly worn 

with national pride,

is replaced with the saffron

worn by those 

who have achieved 

the sight of truth

few will ever achieve 

in this busy world.

Though my form 

that carries the sins of my fathers

may never be worthy 

to wear such ceremonial dressage,

I do so with the hope

of healing for all. 

© Dale-Lyn, July, 2021

Sigh!  It was a sad and strange Canada day for me.  I, as if in some form of pennance for what my ancestors have done, ( yes we carry the sins of our fathers) was quite ill from the vaccine I received the day before. My immune system is working...let me tell ya.  (I am now fully vaccinated...which is truly something to celebrate!)  But I did not celebrate.  I was not so proud of both my Catholic and my Canadian history.

As someone who tends to suck up the emotions of others, I always felt, I guess , the suffering of the indigenous population around me.  I seen the totally absurd and uncalled for prejudice and even hatred directed toward them...I felt their dispondancy, their intense pain ... as well as their buried anger. I seen how "my people" ( I hate that) tried to strip their beautiful and amazing culture and tradition , as well as the land they settled thousands of years before we arrived , from them.  I did feel the absolute  injustice of it...so much so it hurt.  

But it was too much pain to carry, I guess.  It was easier to walk away from it, not think about it and pretend it didn't happen, pretend it wasn't still happening. 

What was unburied in my country, not so long ago, cannot be buried again. The sad and beautiful thing about this discovery...is that it is free and open...truth has been revealed.  We cannot walk away and pretend anymore. We must go forward into this truth.

Healing can not happen when things are buried within us...we must bring everything to the surface, as the bones of these dear children were.  Maybe , with the revealing of this gruesome truth, healing can truly begin for all of us.

All is well.