Independence Is Sometimes an Illusion

When our independence rests

on the backs of others,

we can know no lasting peace.

Their lands taken,

forced onto small reserves

where poverty and hopelessness 

dim the horizon,

the First Nations of this land 

ask for nothing more

than to be equal

in our society.

They have suffered too long.

There have been too many words,

too many broken promises.

Now it is time

for action.

Canada 15,000

I had mixed feelings this Canada Day. The celebrations on Parliament Hill were inclusive and celebratory, and paid lip service to inclusion, betterment, reconciliation. But as indigenous activists made clear, there are unaddressed problems in this land, an apartheid system that has lasted too long.

Activists set up a tent on Parliament Hill to raise awareness that the First Peoples of this land have been marginalized, their territories appropriated, and they are still waiting for a place at the table. It is long past time.  Today much was said about celebrating  new immigrants to Canada. We do welcome them sincerely. But there are people who lived here for thousands of years before our ancestors came here as Canada's first immigrants. 15,000 years for certain, possibly far longer. We need to never lose sight of this fact.

Yes, we live in a beautiful, kind, peaceful country. People are generally pleasant to each other. Life is good for so many of us, even we who don't have much materially. Still, we have shelter, food, no bombs dropping. Possibilities.

But this country has its shadow side. Many of those on reservations in Canada live in Third World conditions, in abject poverty, an apartheid society, separate and not equal.   Many reserves in the north don't even have clean drinking water. In Canada, Land of Many Waters. After this many years, this should have been rectified. They are still waiting.

It is the aboriginal people of the world who have known for millennia how to live in harmony with Mother Earth. We can learn much from them. 

The government acknowledges climate change, yet approves pipelines and still thinks economic and environmental agendas can be furthered concurrently,  in the same old way, when clearly we need a whole new paradigm, based on a switch to clean energy.

So the two things that stood out for me this Canada Day were:

* The teepee set up on Parliament Hill to raise awareness that First Nations people across this land are still waiting - to be heard, to be recognized, to reclaim their land, to live their own way, a way friendlier to the planet than ours.

* Buffy Sainte-Marie's stirring song at the celebrations in Ottawa: Carry It On. She sang that we, people and politicians alike - and Mother Nature herself - are all hanging on "by the skin of our teeth". So we are. I love her lines "It ain't governments that make the people strong / it's the opposite illusion".

It was good to see First Nations dancing and speaking on Parliament Hill. I hope to hear more of them speaking INSIDE it in the days to come.

for Susan's prompt at Midweek Motif: Independence