Before beginning this post I want to acknowledge that the land I currently live on is a part of Frenchman Head Territory and Treaty 3. There are many pieces to the story of this land that I do not yet know or understand. I will continue to do the work that is necessary to live in a way that honours what it means to be a treaty person.
“A journey to decolonization”
-The forever unpacking settler
It doesn’t feel good. It’s not supposed to.
These privileges we were born into…
We deserve exactly as much as
As a First Nation’s person
deserves discrimination and injustice.
none of it.
we deserve none of it.
Start there.
Start at the connection- we deserve none of it.
And dig deeper in your heart
Deeper than you ever imagined you could
remember-
Write it down
Read it and repeat it!
The choice-
The choice we were born into!
No more denying…
the heavy lifting
The harder than hard conversations.
The unlearning,
And unpacking….
It is ours- settlers.
It is our work to do.
Don’t know where to start?
Lean into love, and curiosity.
Ask questions
And…..
Speaking to racialization
“If someone has the courage to tell you something you have done has hurt them, and your response is anger, that is your work to take somewhere else and do!”.
Thank you Majd !
Find a community of folks who are at the same place you are in your decolonizing journey. And unpack that heavy stuff with them. Check in on each other, be kind. And don’t keep your gifts locked inside of you, the way we were often taught to do.
Don’t pity
Don’t sympathize.
The strength that pours from
the people
and the cultures
that have been here all along.
It Is so far beyond.
So don’t pretend to understand
We don't.
Just stand.
Listen.
Be kind.
Adopt progress over perfection.
And maybe check out some of these songs....
or read some of these books….
or check out this app you can download on your phone to learn more about the land you are travelling on-
Or…
Walk into the grocery store with the understanding that every single person you interact with has a story you know nothing about. But IF there is more space to be given.... it should, it must, go to those who have been most marginalized, most oppressed and most underrepresented.
Albert Einstein- you got this one right forsure!….
“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know”
Keep going, keep growing.
I promise to do the same. And to do my best to teach my son along the way.
love,
the ever unpacking settler mother.