It didn't have to happen the ways it did

People have lived with these waters
with these trees
with these animals
for a long time.

Guolahan hosted us in this place
where grandfathers of grandmothers ....
have participated in the seasons
surviving, thriving, in this place

looking south west from Bulkley house

It didn't have to happen the ways that it did
the newcomers that brought whiskey and took a generation
after generation
after generation

It didn't have to happen the ways that it did
but it did.
We lived that week
on this land
understanding the intimate legacy of that great disruption
in our lives, in our bodies, in our minds
our spirits

[we spent a week with DueNeh and Guolahan on this land with 8 boys lost to their families, languages, ways of being, land, history. We did this in a good way. Deeply rich and meaningful.]

{click for larger view}

To not name the perpetual colonial realities alive in

our governance, politics, legislation, language, economics

and our own minds

is to give shame/guilt/anger/hurt/sadness 

power over us.

by naming, by not running away anymore,

we shed light on a darkness that we choose to let go.

what happened has happened.

we need to accept this - 

not as right, or just, or ok

but accept that our past was

residential schools

intentional assimilation

racist

Only in this way are we able to come together

Let us be honest

and live together