Portrait of a Dying People
1899 - Now
This year we get less
of a Christmas bonus
We don’t care. It is
difficult to focus,
how our multi-million-dollar
corporation
can’t find our worth
in its operation
Nervously we smiled
We’re very thankful -
we lied
Eyebrows furrowed
Our dignity borrowed
We wailed it’s better than nothing,
actually relieved at least it's something
Profits are low. Still
council increased their salaries, we say
shouldn't they cut their pay
It's not us being greedy?
What about the members
who are needy?
Who cares, we get a small
Christmas bonus
Thank you!
Good job chief and council, we say in chorus!
It matters not that
what you give us is ours
like those settlers
did from their towers
Took our culture,
language and lands under the Indian Act
Yet we are grateful
for what little they give back
Our spirit is dying
but we have no voice
because we are
controlled by a force
governed by Indian Act chief and
councillors
some of whom only care about power and controls
From the oppressors they
learnt their lessons well
they didn’t fail and that is swell
they control the supporters
by withholding vital
information that empowers
We Indian
Act Indians are powerless
We better not question, lest they think we ask out of malice
We’re dying on the inside don’t
you see?
All we want is to be consulted and to be free
All we want is to be consulted and to be free
Chief and council. Thank you!
but I am sure you must realize tho
unless you stop treating us like children and give us real information
We'll never be released from the chains of residential school and colonization
https://www.facebook.com/TaxpayerDOTcom/videos/10154868268053910/
We'll never be released from the chains of residential school and colonization
https://www.facebook.com/TaxpayerDOTcom/videos/10154868268053910/
The picture of the coin and your poem (both beautiful) remind me of a canadian blogger who has recently touched the subject of reconciliation and the first nations. I think the word 'reconciliation' is out of place in this discussion. Your people should stubbornly demand and get their land and culture back, at least partially, so that they could set up a country of their own. Colonialism is bad, but it happened, and full integration is probably not possible, so, independance would be the only plausible solution.
ReplyDeleteIsrael, where I live, is a tiny piece of land, and yet the palestinians claim it is theirs and won't agree even to a paralel country of their own, preferring years of bloodshed and terror. But as the years pass, it becomes clear that they only want to keep on getting, "rights", not taking any sort of responsability, any constructive actions. Anyone involved will only loose in this situation, especially that the whole region is threatened by violence and instability.