By Patricia Heintzman, published in the Squamish Chief, July 31, 2017. (Source: https://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/columnists/column-a-poem-inspired-by-reconciliation-1.21387842)
Truth. Reconciliation.
Is more than an apology and deprecation,
a prayer to remove a stain upon our nation,
a shame rooted in colonial aspiration.
This failure of Christianity,
of humanity,
our arrogance and vanity,
is Canada’s unfortunate profanity.
Our era without sanity.
With complete disregard and without considerations,
deference and dignity, and with near surgical ablations,
we systematically cut the First Nations,
demoralized generations,
destroyed languages and cultures to the quick,
realpolitik.
So it’s time to be introspective.
Not just to remember our history selective.
150 years we’ve been in denial
of this bias we must reconcile.
The art of the possible is what I choose,
It’s harmony that we should collectively infuse
to rectify this system of abuse.
A country’s consciousness to transfuse.
With prisms new and a sense of hope,
positive reflections viewed through a common kaleidoscope,
evolving patterns, transparent, rotating perspectives
engender a uniquely Canadian antidote.
We’re birds of a feather,
in the same canoe pulling together.
After all, humanism is Canada’s shared endeavour,
everyone’s welfare our promotion, our devotion…whatsoever
C’est notre raison d’être, it’s in our DNA.
And it’s why we’re here to celebrate Canada Day
We all need to hear what our first peoples have to say to usher in a bright new day.
O’siem
