BREAKING NEWS
Atrocities were done to Canada's indigenous children.
At 08:19 in this next video, the reporter covering this visit says that their biggest surprise was finding how FEW people knew about the Doctrine of Discovery...
...That's a major reason for posts like this and the ones listed below...
Why I'm learning and writing about this topic and other forms of racism
A few years ago, Eileen and I had the good fortune to be introduced to Multicultural Solidarity of Long Island and their Friendship Circles. During one of these meetings, we were invited to sit in circle with members of the Shinnecock Nation at their home on the East End of LI. This face-to-face encounter began a heart-opening awareness of a chapter of our American history that I was never taught. And this led me to become a student - so I could learn and pass along the stories of what really happened as a result of colonization.
This same heart transformation is occurring through our participation with members of Long Island's Baha'i Fellowship. We met this wonderful group of people through the Multicultural folks. As I've written in other posts, our Baha'i gatherings in peoples' homes and at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum State Park enable us to meet with members of other races who have been and still are mistreated because people with white skin think they that their white skin pigmentation makes them superior.
For me, the biggest impact is happening as I share space with my fellow human travelers...hear their personal stories...share a meal with them...laugh and cry with them...These close encounters are much more powerful than simply reading a book or watching a documentary about the various forms of discrimination.
Come join us...
Pope Francis visits Canada's indigenous and apologizes...
While a long overdue first step, much healing needs to follow...
"We were planting corn and they were planting crosses." ~ Faithkeeper Oren Lyons
[from this article] While cautiously pleased by what finally happened this week, he joins many indigenous scholars and activists in saying the announcement does not go nearly far enough, and that it should openly concede church complicity in centuries of cruelties involving native people.
Still, Lyons was not sure he would ever see any church recognition, at all, of such damage. He recalled how Francis faced repeated calls last year to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery during a visit to Canada – following chilling disclosures of unmarked burials at old church-run residential schools, which tried to forcibly strip native children of their culture and beliefs.
Step back and think about it, Lyons said:
"What kind of school needs its own graveyard?"
Residential Schools: Canada
Residential Schools - National Film Board of Canada --A selection of films by Indigenous filmmakers and allies about the tragic impact of residential schools in Canada. Here's one of the selections.
[from the text] This short documentary explores the legacy of residential schools through the eyes of two extraordinary women who not only lived it, but who, as adults, made the surprising decision to return to the school that had affected their lives so profoundly. This intimate and moving film affirms their strength and dignity in standing up and making a difference on their own terms.
Residential Schools: United States
[from the article] Shortly after, the first off-reservation boarding school was established in 1879. The Carlisle Indian School located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania was founded by Richard Henry Pratt. He modeled the boarding school off an education program he designed while overseeing Fort Marion Prison in St. Augustine, Florida. He developed the program after experimenting with Native American assimilation education on imprisoned and captive Indigenous peoples. Pratt served as the Headmaster of the Carlisle Indian School for 25 years and was famously known for his highly influential philosophy which he described in a speech he gave in 1892. He stated,
“A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”
Related Posts
#DoctrineOfDiscovery #CatholicChurch #ResidentialSchools #Canada #UnitedStates #Vatican #PopeFrancis #genocide #HumanRights #OrenLyons #JohnLennon #MulticulturalSolidarityOfLongIslandFriendshipCircles #ShinnecockNation