« [Rambling Reflection] »

Reading Emmalola I realize how lucky I am that my native heritage was covered under a nice blanket of whiteness, although my skin tone is dark most people don't assume I am native. I remember my Memere violently deneying she had any native in her bloodlines when not for a second could you believe that she didn't. Papere never said much about his mother, but I have seen pictures I have the same high cheekbones as that woman, I have the same darker skin tone as my Memere did. My mother looks native, you can tell that somewhere along the lines a native person became part of her bloodline as well, she is American Indian, well her grandmother was half Cherokee.

Anyway I think of the way that I grew up not knowing much about native culture to be fair the Metis tribe my great grandmother was part of resides in Quebec so there wasn't much my parents could do to teach us about that culture. I have read alot about residential schools, its shocking that they actually exsisted and that the government supported them, then again the gas chambers in Germany exsisted too. There is no way to back peddle on what happened to those students, the ones that were violently disiplined for using their language, the ones that were sexually abused by priests, the ones that went on to raise families not knowing how to interact with children when all they learned in their childhood was to be ashamed of who they were, to be beaten and abused.

I will always be glad that my father was white enough not to be subjected to that, that my Memere was white enough to not be subjected to that and that my Papere was white enough.

Although only when I was old enough did I realize why my Papere was so adement about his grandchildren learning the french language, long after he passed away did I realize the government also wanted to take away his french culture, its sad really, we are living and dealing with so many bad decisions made so long ago, what will our legacy be to our children, what will they have to deal with and try to mend in their society once our political leaders are finished?

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POSTED ON 2003-12-05 AT 10:17 a.m.

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