Orange Shirt Day in Canada: Truth & reconciliation

As I sit here in Hamilton Ontario, Canada, having spent two weeks here with my dear sister and colleague Rebecca Llewellyn who heads our North American Cohorts, I am moved to write today’s post as we sit in the late Sunday, fall sunshine, co-working, conversing and communing together.

We are listening to Indigenous musician William Prince, pausing every now and then to speak about our time here, the work we do both together and separately, and why the acknowledgement of what we’re talking about this weekend matters. So what are we talking about?

Almost as soon as I landed Rebecca gave me a copy of the book 21 Things You May Not Know About The Indian Act by Bob Joseph, advising that everyone who lives and work in Canada should read this book, educate themselves on this history. I feel this is true for all citizens but especially for those of us working with some of these traditions and practices.

It’s a humbling, shocking, and for me, enraging book to read. The absolute suppression of a people and their cultures, the horrific treatment of the children who were abducted and removed from their families communities and homes, and the damage that created, ongoing in many ways, is incredibly important to understand. In fact, it’s fair to say that without understanding, we could very easily breach into appropriation over appreciation and allyship.

I admire Rebecca’s commitment to her practices, her work and her path, and whilst she walks the path of the South American Andean cosmovision, she knows I walk the North American path, (merged with core shamanic practices I have been tutored in over the last three decades)..

I am a white European woman. We were the settlers, the colonisers and the ones who stole land, eradicated cultures and in many ways still live with that internalised entitlement. It is time to reconcile our histories with a ‘prayer’ for repair where there has been rupture, and to take action to do things differently going forward. Looking at the state of the world right now, it feels like we are a long way off that repair.

National Truth & Reconciliation Day, 30th September, Ottawa, Canada 2022

I’ve managed to read most of the book Rebecca gave me before I leave tomorrow. It’s not lost on me that the day I land back in the UK on September 3oth is National Truth and Reconciliation Day here in Canada (Turtle Island), a day often called Orange Shirt day where many wear orange in recognition of the disappeared children, women and other people who disappeared, or lost their lives and cultures in the enforcement of the Indian Act.

I’m shocked by so much of what I read in the book, not because I’m in any way naive but perhaps because in many ways I remain ignorant of the depth of this stolen land and culture and how it continues to play out today. I don’t live in Canada but I do work with folk who are part of this cultural suppression and continue to be impacted by it today.

A perspective to bEAR in mind.

The last Residential School in Canada only closed in 1996!!! Read that again! 1996! So children were still being taken to eradicate their “Indian-ness” until that last closure. Let’s be clear that this closure does not mean there is no more attempt on the suppression and eradication of these First Nations, indigenous peoples, but at least this day goes some way to mitigating recognition of this enormous trauma and cultural theft. The forcible abduction of children, the obliteration of languages and practices deemed ‘savage’, the theft of land and territories and the continuation of some of these ‘laws’ and governing principles hold a nation of indigenous people in a double bind. To eradicate the act may leave many in vulnerable situations whilst true repair and reconciliation happens.

So, as I land back in the UK, I leave with an ongoing commitment to be more vigilant in my own work, to share this information as widely as I can, and to humble myself enough to recognise the harm that has been done, and legacy this has left. I commit to working with Cultural Appreciation over appropriation.

I have much to learn, I’m sure if you’re reading this you might too, meantime we must do better if humanity is to come back into balance as inhabitants of this beautiful Earth.

Thank you Rebecca for your care, your graciousness and your devotion. I appreciate that you shared your own knowledge with gentleness over shaming, with encouragement over righteousness, and in that frequency we learn. What can you learn?

To discover more about Orange Shirt Day and Every Child Matters on September 30th every year here in Canada, please click into the links shared in this post, or go here:

https://www.7generations.org/what-is-every-child-matters/

https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/national-day-truth-reconciliation.html

https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/every-child-matters-defining-what-orange-shirt-day-means

Rebecca’s Truth & Reconciliation Resources: https://www.yourdivineroots.com/truth-reconciliation