Today was Reconciliation Day. Many of us still don’t know what that means. We want to support reconciliation but don’t know how to do it. I am not saying I do. I remember though what Niigaan Sinclair a well-known indigenous spokesman in Manitoba told me af few years ago when I asked what an old white guy could to to participate in a small way towards reconciliation. He said it was not up to him to tell an old white guy from Steinbach what he should do to. He said it was not his business to tell me that. It was up to me to offer something. It was not up to the offended to tell me what to do.
Sinclair though did give a hint. He said I could talk to white friends. Many of those, he said, would not listen to him, or read his articles in the paper, but the white guys might listen to me. I assured him not many would, but I thought then, and do now, that this made sense. I should reach out to white guys and women and just offer my point of view. For what its worth (I know not much as I am certainly not an influencer) but I might reach a couple of people. Maybe not convince them but to engage them. That is one of the reasons I have continued to blog about some of these issues.
Today I accepted an invitation to the Seniors club in town to attend a dinner in recognition of truth and reconciliation. We were entertained first by 2 young indigenous hoop dancing girls Kimberley and Charisma Mason. The girls were 14 and 15-years-old. They were descendants of residential school survivors. Trauma from such schools, one of them said, had changed the lives of the student. For example, it disconnected them from the love of their parents, kin, and communities. That was not surprising. Until fairly recently, indigenous people were not even allowed to practice or share their ceremonies, including dancing or potlucks. Who ever though such a prohibition was a good idea?
They explained how pleased they were to present to us Steinbachers as for many years indigenous people were not allowed to perform their own dances or ceremonies. They also explained that the dancing “told a story.” For example, with the hoops they made images of an eagle fledging from a nest. Or a hunter firing a bow.
Later Lorne, an indigenous male dancer also performed in full regalia. He said he was a professional dancer who was paid a lot of money to dance. As well he had spoken to music students at Yale University to explain his form of dancing and how it was related to music. He said he had used the example of a baby at a powwow falling asleep to the beat of loud drums, because the baby felt it like the mother’s heart beat in the womb.
The most interesting thing for me was seeing how thrilled the performers were to share their culture. They were very proud to do it and were very happy to have us old white people from a seniors club in Steinbach see them perform.
Reconciliation, no doubt, will take generations. Probably as long as the abuse took, which is about 150 years. But it was nice to participate, even in a very small way.
Meegwetch