I have had made so many connections over the past year since I started writing.  I really didn’t think it would take the whole year to explore my adoption, but here we are.  The biggest question I hear from most is how can I do more and how can I help.  I’ll outline now, what I think are the biggest and yet simplest ways to think about this Friday and growing forward.

Photo Credit: Vincent Elkaim for the New York Times

As we head into this week of the first anniversary of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Day, Friday September 30th, we take pause to recognize the generational trauma to those effected by the Residential School system.

What does this mean this year?  After the recent passing of the Queen, there was extensive media coverage on this loss for the Commonwealth Countries.  The voices I heard outside of mainstream media were those of my online Indigenous communities.  Here is where there were two clear camps.  First, the hurt voices of those who are against the monarch and how the effects of colonization have left generations of trauma.  The other small voices were those who felt some hope with a new King.  When he when visited Canada earlier this year, he spent much of his time with First Nations.  He did include many words of Allyship to marinate on and we shall see if there is a change with him in his new position.

To understand what an ally is, you need to recognize what the settlers have done to indigenous communities that had ben settled for millennia in Canada.  For those in Ottawa, the Algonquin people had been settled in western Quebec and eastern Ontario along the Ottawa River for over eight thousand years.  

We are at a time in history where I feel change is in the making.  Having a national holiday to allow for people to pause and take another step in becoming an ally allows us to listen and follow the teaching from Indigenous leaders.  There was a clear understanding of how elders are revered by First Nation people.  In turn, children are also treated as such special gifts from the Creator.  I saw and heard this first-hand while at my Pow Wow this summer.  Elders were given special treatment and people knew who the elders were and showed great respect to them.  It is these knowledge keepers that we need to listen to.

Finally, never take more from the land than is needed.  Be aware of the resources you are taking.  Living off the land has been how First Nation communities survived for generations.  I think that we are now all seeing the effects of climate change and how we have destroyed much of the resources we need to continue to survive.  Bringing this back to the new King, he is also an advocate for environmental issues.

With so much change, I feel positive.  We can look back, and we should reflect and learn.  True change will only happen if we do not do that.  Upon reflection, we look forward and make positive change.

Chi Miigwech