so, after a couple weeks of watching this whole "Idle No More" phenomenon, many friends were asking me why i was sitting on my hands and not vocalizing or doing anything. Well, I've actually been protesting my whole life, starting in elementary school and getting into fights because i was the only native kid in a public elementary school in small towns in the prairies. I remember it getting so bad that one day I brought my hockey stick to school and nearly took a kids out because I couldn't take anymore of the beatings. It wasn't just one kid fighting me, it was 7 or 9 kids stomping on me. Yelling racial slurs, "Go back to your reservation, you dirty Indian!" It was horrible growing up there, in the prairies, no one was my friend, and I spent a lot of time alone at home. My mom was quite young and still partying and there was much violence and racism growing up. I have seen many horrible things in my lifetime.
But, let me remind you this was elementary school in the 1970's. I was only 7 years old, maybe 8 at most.
I've often told people being born Native in Canada is being born an activist, because from the day you are born until the day you die, you will be justifying your very existence to people every day. SO, after mulling things over for a couple weeks, I finally realized this "Idle No More" movement is bigger than Chief Spence, it is starting to really represent over a hundred years of injustice, abuse, racism, ignorance and poverty and lies hidden from the rest of Canada finally coming to the surface in a big way.
Here is my creative response to it, and feel free to share:
and another note,
below is my last self-published book
"Dime Store Indians & Other Tales."
I published it in 1999
and sold a few hundred copies.
It is 68 pages of brutal, vitriolic poetry
about current state
of being an Aboriginal person
in this country.
And finally, check this video out!
yeah New Brunswick, what are you doing
with that $8 billion huh?
haha! awesome!
So, there you have it. My thoughts and opinion on the Idle No More movement.
adios,
CB
3 comments:
Ahh! Dimestore Indians - I'd buy a copy! That's so cool.
alas, it's out of print. i could see about getting more made.
it's quite interesting to read this older stuff.
send me a message if you'd like to get a copy.
1 million dollars and a fast car would do for payment.
haha.
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