
Kim Senklip Harvey
the present truth
The complications of making peace with how each Indigenous person has arrived to the present moment is complex, punishing, exceptional and personal.
It is so personal.
It's inconvenient for non-Indigenous folx to comprehend that for every Indigenous person, there is a unique story as to how we got here.
The government and those upholding the state want a singular story, a formula to wash the violence away but the mess they created will not dissipate. The violence acted upon Indigenous peoples will never go away, it is here for the rest of our lives and generations to come.
That is the truth.
Dealing with non-Indigenous peoples understanding of this sometimes feels like dealing with an impetulant child where they think if they whine or cry enough it will just go away.
Look around canadians, look to the other countries who have enacted genocide - it doesn't go away.
It's insulting to believe that in your lifetime by reading enough books, attending enough Indigenous events or sharing enough posts, the continued acts of Indigenous dispossession will somehow be assuaged from the reality of colonial existence.
Non-Indigenous folx this is your inheritance, how you receive it and what you do with it is the opportunity of the present moment.
I think about this concept of what we inherit all the time. As a Salish womxn this inter-generational journey of stewardship and community based living is deeply tied to my spirit. It's how I know if I'm living a life my Ancestors are proud of.
Am I making decisions that give the next generation a more supportive environment than the one I've inherited. Living this way, I find it actually nourishes my spirit. When I neglect to bear witness to the truth, it starves my spirit and ultimately the strength of my people and our community.
There is a list of the government genocide programs that my Ancestors and family have battled, known ones like residential schools, the smallpox chemical warfare and the divide and conquer war tactic reflected in the creation of the reservation detention systems but there are so many detailed phases of how these genocide programs continue to impact me that not enough people know about.
It makes me feel quite hopeless with the amount of education the majority of non-Indigenous peoples have to do to get to the present moment with me, all of me and all the Indigenous peoples who have endured so much.
This duty, this responsibility to understand the complex and exceptional journeys of Indigenous peoples is a lot of work and I don't see enough of it happening. I don't.
I know this because when I'm in it, when I'm feeling like I could tear time through the heart with my hands and blast into a battle when settlers started arriving - there are not many people who I can turn to.
Not many that have done The Work.
There is nothing more disheartening than having to take an emotional time out to educate someone in the midst of trying to honour the truth of your feelings.
Could there be anything more isolating.
I know many Indigenous peoples who stop turning to outside folx because it's just too much work. It's why a lot of Indigenous folx turn to each other and the conscious divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples keeps getting more vast. It's why the pendulum swings - it's why racism is on the rise in canada.
Racism is on the rise.
Get to know the details of policies and systems like,
Bill C 31
the violent and continued history of the Ministries of Children and Family apprehending our children
the state run incarceration genocide program
the euro-centric centered pedagogy of white health care systems that refuse to care for the wellbeing of Indigenous peoples
Indigenous dispossession
the minutia of inter-generational trauma as an embodiment - not just a term.
You've got to get knowing.
Please.
When I look at what I've inherited and it is a many of things, I try to figure out what needs to be honoured and then transformed.
It is a power we all have and I want to say this:
To those out there feeling alone, know we have the abilities to transform the pain into energy and then healing power. It's been something that I've been deliberately working on for the past 4 years and I will be for the rest of my life but know it's transformative.
I wrote this last night when I was in it.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
the pain an Indigenous person feels when we experience the impacts of colonialism from our own peoples
is an in-fathomable mix of rage, torture and grief
the misguided shots fuelled by sorrow
fired by and against our own peoples
inflict the battles most brutal wounds
but up we get
for rising is the healing action
peace harnessed in our eyes
we walk to the weaponized relation
shot after shot
again and
again and
again
they try to separate us
but our desire to bear witness
to belong to our blood
will make us battle through the fields of all the eternities
we know
rage transformed is the healing action.
so bring it on,
I transform it,
for I am Indigenous continuance
and these shots
of energy
compel me back to my people
my blood
my blood
is the healing medicine
my act of peace
is the fearless voyage of Indigenous love
I see you slaxts
I come back to you deeply
always
with love for my people
always.
Tales of a displaced indian.
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kim.

My Ancestors.