Victoria Day on the May Long Weekend

Longsuffering

Surprising

Inspiring

I am thinking of my Treaty relatives today, the Monday holiday of the May Long Weekend. 

Longsuffering.

Not only waiting, but how we act while waiting

Extraordinarily patient

For settler colonials like me, Victoria Day may be a time of Treaty promises renewal. 

1819 Victoria is born on May 24th and becomes Queen at 18 in June of 1837

1874 Canadian Treaty Number 4 is signed by the Crown

1876 Indian Act is established in Canada, breaking Treaty promises

My Treaty relatives practice "longsuffering", a teaching that my sacred scriptures address, where one lives a patience "which has the power to endure whatever injustice or unpleasantness comes, with good temper". 

Longsuffering

Unexpected

Not owed

This morning, on Victoria Day, I texted a new friend and spiritual brother. "I am honoured to walk with people like you, who follow the red road, who walk with a strength that must come from great Creator above."

long/suffering

LONG/suffering

long/SUFFERING

I dedicate my energy, on this land, to honouring my side of the Treaty handshake, mindful that my people have historically and systemically benefitted from the sacred Treaties while not offering reciprocity on any scale.

Longsuffering

patience, which has the power to endure

whatever injustice or unpleasantness comes, with good temper

Yesterday in church, my old friend and spiritual brother, preached a message he called, "While You Are Waiting" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hrzKHYBHJM His sermon, based around Psalms 37, verses 3-6 came to life as I watched the smile of knowing grow on my nine year old granddaughter's face. She is an Indigenous girl. 

Longsuffering.

She knows a lot about waiting.

She reaches within and without for strength.

May we settler colonials wake up in time to address these injustices in all ways, relationally, economically, spiritually, and practically. I do not take this extraordinary patience for granted, but live in gratitude and try to follow the good, spiritual patterns my Treaty relatives live daily.

Walks Far Woman

Walks Far Woman by Sheena Muirhead Koops

This mixed media artwork began with the outline of a buffalo – offered by White Bear Education Complex teacher, Marylee Morrison Lees – and a hand full of red willow that I had picked, using local protocol, learning to make traditional tobacco, peeling back the red bark, harvesting a second layer of green bark. I added sage from my childhood pasture, gathered as taught by my Treaty relatives. I added cedar given to me in a woman’s sweat lodge by Jaclyn Yuzicappi. I added the tail end of a sweetgrass braid, gifted by Dakota and Anishinaabe educators in the Osseo Area Schools when visiting Minnesota with our Treaty Education Alliance Youth Leadership Team in the spring of 2023. I also added one strip of birch bark to honour that tree I used to visit on my way to White Bear, stopping to say a prayer of thanksgiving before entering the community. Learning more about Tatanka Oyate, the Buffalo Nation, from White Bear Elder Sara McArthur and remembering the Buffalo Treaty through Dr. Leroy Littlebear’s teaching and witnessing the individual and collective power of the buffalo artwork lining the hallways of White Bear Education Complex, I thought of my late Treaty relative, Keitha Brass, whose father was from Cote First Nation, while her mother was from Pasqua, the granddaughter of Pisqua, Treaty 4 signator. While I was first Treaty Walking and posting faithfully on my blog, Keitha had called me, Walks Far Woman, as I entered Fort Qu’Appelle’s Community Outreach. We were alone and Keitha’s grin shone like her purple runners that matched her purple bunnyhug. I knew she was teasing me, like you tease a little sister, but I knew she was also honouring me, because she always cheered me on as a big sister does. This artwork became aspirational for me as I contemplated the buffalo matriarch as the true Walks Far Woman, who cultivated the medicines with her hooves as she went about her lifeways, always in deep and spiritual ceremony with the other nations who relied on her sacrifice for their survival. Perhaps my late, big sister was inviting her little, white sister into a sacrificial life as I walk this land, continuing to benefit from broken promises, colonialism, and genocide. From my own sacred teachings, there was one calling in the wilderness, who prayed to decrease, himself, as the One who would suffer greatly increased. I will pray to be worthy of Keitha’s teasing and encouragement, listening to her calling Walks Far Woman on my long journey from privilege into sacrifice. Keitha’s smile reminds me of the irony, that the medicines under hoof smell sweet and the crocuses springing through the snow are fuzzy and purple. The land and my own sacred teachings call me to work, but also to rest, to soak it all in, and then my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. This is the way, walk in it.

Questions We Can Live By

Where will we be as a nation

on this road of truth

before reconciliation

in one year, less one week

as we live-into-a-second

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

on Orange Shirt Day, 2022? 

Maybe this is the wrong question.

From my own sacred teachings,

from Indigenous wisdom traditions on this land

I hear that today, right now 

is the only moment

we can embody and live.

What will we do today?

Will we share a glass of clean drinking water?

Will we visit someone who has lost his mother?

Will we remember the one who has lost her life-partner?

Will we remember those in jail?

Will we feed those who are hungry?

Will we clothe those who are without?

Will we take someone in?

 

Letting the Light Shine Through

letting the light shine through

treaty 4 flag

as long as the sun glows

the river flows

the grasses grow

letting the light shinre through

every child matters flag

illuminating our darkness

with orange healing fire

handled with care

letting the light shine through

the Union Jack flag

exposing the crosses born in

England, Scotland, Ireland

settler colonialism afoot on this land

letting the light shine through

the Canada flag

settlers taking up the crosses bourn

by Treaty-relatives through broken promises

this is a truth that may lead to reconciliation

Photos taken in Fort Qu'Appelle, Treaty 4 Territory

September 30th, 2021

First National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

All Nations Healing Hospital

 

Listening to Flags

when I walk or drive by these flags

they are always telling me a story

some days, when the wind is still

they scroll straight down

a colourful curl beside a silver pole

but today, on the first ever

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

September 30th, 2021

I am driving by the 

All Nations Healing Hospital

and I step on the breaks

because I see a new flag

every child matters

waving orange promise in the wind

I park my husband's truck

on the edge of the grassy ditch

run across the road

and conduct a photo shoot

the flags floating, falling, fluttering

with so much to say

I am nearly blinded with listening

my eyes gazing into the sun

 

Flags Flying for All Nations Healing

 

we are all invited

all nations

offering our best

to one another

in humility

knowing that we don't always know

what is best for someone else

in humility

for past and present arrogance

systems of racism and errasure

genocide 

on this land

we are invited 

all nations healing

together

in humility

flags flying

for all nations healing

Photos taken in Fort Qu'Appelle, Treaty 4 Territory

September 30th, 2021

All Nations Healing Hospital

Tell Me an Old Story: Every Child Matters

every child matters

with a Treaty 4 flag waving

a reminder

the Canada flag and Union Jack

fly at half mast

a reminder

every child matters

in Nation to Nation sacred agreements

a reminder

for an old story to guide us

into treaty-based relationships

a reminder

Photos taken in Fort Qu'Appelle, Treaty 4 Territory

September 30th, 2021

First National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

All Nations Healing Hospital