Today I can't help but think of a breakfast I had years ago with Willie Blackwater, one of my personal heroes ...Willie found the courage and strength to speak of his experience at the Port Alberni Residential School and the horrific abuse he endured at the hands of Arthur Plint ... (Macleans's has an interview with Willie - click here) and he found the strength to see his journey through hours and hours of court and hearings and interviews in the pursuit of justice ...
At breakfast in a hotel in Prince Rupert BC, Willie spoke frankly and openly of his journey ... I wept when he said - "All I wanted to hear was some one say - 'I'm sorry' we let this happen ..." and shared with us the lack of such sentiment from the United Church of Canada ...
The next day I became angry and disillusioned with United Church when one of our bureaucrats on the floor of our Presbytery meeting said - "Willie. I want to speak those words. I want to say them. But we can't ..." He then spoke of the legal ramifications and the edict from the Lawyers that said - "NO!" to any one in an official capacity saying to Willie Blackwater and hundreds of others - "I'm sorry, for the abuse you've endured ..."
In time Willie forced our hand through the Courts ... and I for one applauded him for doing it ...
Today, the Prime Minister of our Country will FINALLY stand up before all of us and say those words that have taken too damned long to speak ... Stephen Harper will say "I'm Sorry."
Today I prayer for Willie and the others who have worked so diligently to bring us to this point ... and I PRAY that the demons that have haunted too many who have horrific tales of abuse from the Residential Schools of across our land will begin to vanish and be replaced with healing, wholeness and PEACE.
I remember sitting by the river in Bella Coola and hearing the story of one survivor ... his alcohol dependency was nothing short of understandable ... and I am forever thankful that he trusted me enough to share HIS story with me ... and I know that in death he found the peace amongst the spirits of his ancestors that had been robbed from him as a six year old boy being sodomized in a school too far from home ...
Today I weep at the legacy of pain and suffering this apology represents, and I for one, pray that TOGETHER all of us - First Nations and others, can continue our journey to wholeness and healing ... and I am thankful that people like Willie Blackwater have helped us along the way ...
I'm sorry doesn't erase the past, any more than compensation cheques make everything all better ... but saying the simple words - "I'm sorry" is about taking responsibility and committing to living out a better tomorrow ... and our First Nations people are owed nothing less ...
With prayer, I await the apology ...
With tears, I wish it had come sooner for people like my friend in Bella Coola who blessed me by sharing his story - his Smayusta !!
1 comment:
Unfortunately, an apology doesn't erase the hurt. It just begins to stop the rubbing of salt into the wounds. But the wounds will take a lifetime to heal.
I grew up hearing these stories from my First Nations neighbours. Long ago. They're dead now, and so are some of their children. Few people ever validated them; they were just "drunk Indians".*
Twenty years ago, I heard the same stories in Bella Coola. Same stories, different people, same suffering. Same brush-off.
It's good to see some recognition happening. It should have happened a generation or more ago, though.
*(We listened: Mom had been in a missionary school, many years earlier. The same thing was happening there, so she understood.)
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