On Looking Forward to 2012

Before leaving Canada I had a healing session with a T’Souke Elder. She told me, among other things, that during my trip to Uganda, I would meet a traditional male spiritual leader, dressed in brown robes and he would be my spiritual guide and mentor. Not one to disagree with an elder I thanked her and waited to meet him. The opportunity came in April at a surprise mini summit on the topic of First Peoples.

“As oppressed people, the first thing colonizers get out of you is your commonsense, so what are you left with? Common nonsense. Any country that cannot stand on the shoulders of its history is a slave. What you must anchor your education with is your own history and culture. Other languages should just be forms of communication. Our ancestors built a knowledge and developed a language and now it is time to “stand on their shoulders” and incorporate new knowledge into the ancestors knowledge. When the first peoples of every country do this to their culture, it improves the world. Work hard to recover what you have lost. Form a bridge from each of us to broaden and deepen our respective places (He speaks of all the first peoples of the world forming connections). A new age is upon us is moving towards indigenous knowledge. Together we can build a new world.”
–         A compilation of Quotes from The Afrikan Black Nation and The First Nations People of Canada Mulembe Mutinzi Mini Summit at the Source of the Nile Saturday 7 April, 2012.

As a proud Saulteaux First Nations woman I believe that there is a mutual experience of oppression among many First Peoples. (I say “Peoples” because we are not one homogenous group of people, the Canadian aboriginal population compromises the Inuit, Metis and First Nations and even among those groups there is great difference in cultures and traditions.) Much of our known history is based not in our culture, but what was done to us by colonizers. It was a tragedy that cannot be undone and there is healing that must happen for our people. But survivors are still here because we are a tough and articulate people.

After sharing my families experience of oppression with the others the spiritual leader remarked upon what I had shared and said “You are so proficient in what you said, your people are so articulate in English, imagine if you spoke in your own language.” This made me think that although our languages are dying, less than 2,000 people may speak a traditional First Peoples language but that if other youth become interested, we can revive these languages.

Why would I take French in school or do a French language exchange if I could go to my own people, to stay in the communities of my aunties and uncles in Saskatchewan and do a “cultural exchange?” Where I could learn my own language, my own traditional crafts, hear my own history in University? Why not take shawl dancing instead of ballet class? Learn to make bannock instead of cupcakes?  Learn to drum, and beat out the creator’s heartbeat instead of the saxophone? Learn traditional spirituality instead of going to a Catholic Church that shares ideas from another people and another country? Those religions are worthy and I respect them, religion is a wonderful gift, but it is not my gift, it is theirs. That religion comes from a history and culture of another people that are not my people. While religion is good to embrace I believe it is important to have a firm understanding of your own spirituality and culture, otherwise what will anchor you to your own culture?

In Uganda there are two types of weddings, they are called a ‘Traditional Wedding,’ and a ‘White Wedding.’ A traditional wedding is the same as it has been since pre-colonization by the British.  A white wedding consists of a white dress and marriage ceremony in a church. We, as First Peoples of Canada can also do this, we can celebrate marriages and love in traditional ceremonies; it is our right. Let us think differently about our culture, let it not be a way to separate ourselves from others, but let us use it to gain equity so that we do not think of ourselves as ‘oppressed peoples,’ but as peoples of a strong culture and education that can extend love and understanding as equals to any other person.