As Canada day approaches, deciding whether to celebrate or not, or what to celebrate becomes more difficult in light of recent events in Kamloops and Saskatchewan.
We are a country in mourning and when we are grieving, there is no desire to celebrate anything at all. In my own personal experience, whenever I experience the loss of a love one, I’m usually the one in my family putting on a brave face and trying to motivate others to keep on living and moving forward.
So I will attempt to do the same with my fellow Canadian brothers and sisters. I’m grateful that we are alive to see another Canada day. I’m grateful that we are working to know the truth about residential schools. However painful it is. I’m grateful that I can stand by my brothers and sisters and mourn together.
Searching for inspiration on how to help, I browse through the 94 calls of action and listened some interviews from Indigenous leaders. I am sharing some of the things that I’ve been doing in the spirit to inspire others.
- I’m reading about the stories and listening to interviews about what happened and current news. This article provides a nice recap Why Canada is mourning the deaths of 215 children.
- I signed this petition to ask the Pope of the catholic church to apologize to Indigenous Peoples for the church’s role in Canada’s residential school system. It is indispensable to the healing of our brothers and sisters. http://chng.it/nwgjmPG9YM
- I sent an email to a friend that belongs to a catholic church group and ask them to sing the petition and started a dialog about what happened. I hope to continue exchanging ideas even though it has not been easy and stirred some past struggles.
- I now start my yoga classes with a land acknowledgement statement as an expression of gratitude and appreciation to those whose territory you reside on, as a way of honouring the Indigenous people who have been living and working on the land from time long past, and as an invitation to reflection in which to build mindfulness and intention before starting our yoga practice in community.
Reconciliation is going to take time and considerable effort. This starting point may feel as very little so I am committing to find more meaningful ways to contribute and help. If you come up with other actions that we can do as individuals to help with the healing process, let me know!
Just before publishing this post, I found out the Pope is coming to meet with delegation of Indigenous People of Canada in December 2021. The Bishop of Canada hopes these meetings foster meaningful encounters of dialogue and healing. I join him in that hope.