“As a first-generation immigrant to Canada, I find myself sleepless since 4am on this day of Truth and Reconciliation. I feel a deep sense of compassion and solidarity with Indigenous Nations for what they have endured on their ancestral land. The land I consider a safe haven from what my family endured on our ancestral territories. What can I do today to let the Indigenous people know that I stand with them, that I want to join them and support them in their pain and grief. And yet there is also a sense of internal conflict. Am I, the non-Indigenous person, considered to be unaware and unable to comprehend what happened to First Nations here? I want to learn and listen to the stories but they deeply scratch my own wounds that I try to heal. Can you build your happiness on someone else’s misery? The answer to this question is what keeps me up tonight. Am I perceived to be a colonizer? I only seek refuge from evil that drove me out of my land, I seek safe space to raise my children in peace and finally end the intergenerational trauma my family has been enduring. In fact, writing about it is like medicine, attempting to ease the pain and anxiety I feel, especially today.
Truth and Reconciliation has become particularly visceral for me as a mother when mass graves of children were discovered, I put on my orange shirt and wore it to work first time that year. But it gives me very little comfort, in fact, it feels superficial because it only signals my general awareness. There is so much more that I experience, especially now, that this is no longer history we are trying to come to grips with. We are all witnesses of atrocities happening before our very eyes against Ukrainian children by Russian authorities. They are being abducted, forced into re-education programs that erase their identity or just killed in place. I’m sure to a residential school survivor this sounds familiar in an awful and painful way that scratches their unhealed wounds. How do you reconcile this???!!! What kind of negotiation or compromise makes this right??!!! Why is International Law not enforced, we have UN to stand against atrocities like this and yet, UN charter is being violated with impunity and the violators still sit on the UN Security Council!! Why???… And all that the officials can do is talk about it… I won’t have peaceful sleep for a long time…
Today, my message to Indigenous people is: You are not alone! We, the refugees, know and feel what you feel, we need to unite our voices, connect the dots between what happened to you here in Canada and what drove us, the newcomers, to make the journey to Canada. Let’s share, understand each other and fight for better future together determined to honor Indigenous history and make Indigenous future our fundamental common goal, based on justice and human rights. There is so much to learn from Indigenous teachings to respect and protect the people, the land and not ravage the resources that sustain us. Only mutual compassion, respect and cooperation will help us all leave the trauma behind and pass on a better world to our children.”