A choir starts to sing as we stand amidst the 70,000 people, waiting our turn to walk. “Oh happy day (oh happy day), oh happy day (oh happy day) when Jesus washed (when Jesus washed) my sins away (my sins away).” My heart wants to sing along. There’s hope in the words, a lightness and freedom my heart craves. But my heart is still heavy with the pain of what I’ve just heard.
150,000 children. One hundred and fifty thousand. Wrenched from their families and placed in residential schools where the mortality ranged from 40-60%. Forbidden to speak their own language. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, sexually abused. And all in the name of Jesus. The man who speaks has listened to 7000 of them tell their stories of pain, an echo of his own story.
My cheeks are wet with ache for those children turned adults who have carried their pain on into their own families, and for those who’ve wound up without families, living on the street. I hear someone mourn that a full 40% of the people who end up in our shelter program are aboriginals. It’s no wonder their numbers are so high on the streets, with this kind of pain flowing through their veins.
But even more than the stories maybe, even more than my imaginings of the anger and pain I would feel if my own nieces and nephews were taken from our family and taught to be ashamed of our language, our ways, of us, this one statement pierces me. I hadn’t known it was the victims who set aside $60,000,000 to establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The “truth” part doesn’t surprise me. That they would need to tell their stories I understand. But the “reconciliation” part? That they would seek relationship with us again brings me to my knees. We who have decimated their lives, destroyed their families. . . why? And that the victims themselves would pay the full price to seek reconciliation with the perpetrators – it seems all backwards, all wrong. I want to do something, to repay somehow not only the first wrong but this second. It feels easier to repay than to receive.
His words still ring in my ears: “Truth to reconciliation is a difficult jump because in between there needs to be forgiveness.” I wonder which is harder, the offering of forgiveness to those who have caused such pain, or the receiving of the forgiveness offered?
An hour before, we had wiggled down between close wood pews to pray, trying to wedge our stiff bodies into a kneel. Why have we made it so hard to kneel? We should be flat on our faces at grace like this.
We had hoped in our schools to teach children gospel. With our ungentle ways, we broke them instead. Now I kneel, broken and grateful, learning gospel from them.
I watch them walk together, one a white man owning his place as a minister of the church, carrying around his neck the church’s shame and hope, history’s horrors inflicted and the cruciform promise of forgiveness; the other a chief, his brother, wearing the symbols of which we tried to make him ashamed. Hands on each other’s backs, fear and shame have both lost their power as they walk, brothers together.
What at first seemed the mournful tears of heaven soaking my sneakers and wetting my cheeks now feels like rivers washing us clean, a baptism of blessing.
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Thanks Carolyn for this very meaningful post.
Nancy
I first heard the plight of our Native friends when only in Canada a year, in the early seventies. I have felt connected ever since– one of my daughters is part American Native. I am so glad Darrell addressed the truth last week– it made me cry. Thank God for reconciliation, thank God for forgiveness, thank God for our native friends for forgiving us and wanting to reconcile to us, that in God’s eyes forgiveness is available at all times. And— thank you for all those in my early years in Canada who made the truth so real to me, my many native friends who were so real and honest to me,especially those in Vancouver and in the Yukon, and I will love you always.Thank you Carolyn for sharing this post and being so honest and sensitive to the truth.
I am so grateful that finally some form of justice and sharing has taken place. My heart is so glad for the recognition and the healing that can take place.
Hi Carolyn, I am at a loss to describe the emotional impact of this post. Thank you, Ahillya On Monday, September 23, 2013, Hearing The Heartbeat wrote: > hearingtheheartbeat posted: ” A choir starts to sing as we stand amidst the 70,000 people, waiting our turn to walk. Oh happy day (oh happy day), oh happy day (oh happy day) when Jesus washed (when Jesus washed) my sins away (my sins away). My heart wants to sing along. Theres h” >
Hi Sweetheart,
Just wondering if this might possibly be the Mrs. Sankar from Sacred Heart… It truly is a very emotional post and I feel doubly sad that we really didn’t hear much about it here in Hfx. I think it was much earlier this year and has been moving across the country??.
Yes, Mom, same Mrs. Sankar. . . . We’ve chatted intermittently over the past couple of years.
Hey,
Thanks for this post.
I didn’t know you were at the walk. I was there too, but arrived after the speeches. Sooooooo crazy.
I had lunch recently with a lawyer who is documenting many cases of sexually abused individuals from the residential schools. Meanwhile I am also managing a project inspecting assets of first nations communities, and was wondering why they don’t always manage things well. I have a better understanding now.
Thanks for sharing this.
Bonita
On Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 1:29 PM, Hearing The Heartbeat wrote:
> hearingtheheartbeat posted: ” A choir starts to sing as we stand > amidst the 70,000 people, waiting our turn to walk. Oh happy day (oh > happy day), oh happy day (oh happy day) when Jesus washed (when Jesus > washed) my sins away (my sins away). My heart wants to sing along. Theres > h”
I recently read the book ‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee’ by Dee Brown. I have been shaken to the core that we don’t have a holocaust wall, no adequate memorial for the slaughter of men, women, children, and who held up the white flag of peace (ignored and mowed down). And now this article gives me hope that a sister country is starting the process – even if it has been initiated by those who deserve the apology. Thank you for the blog. Wow.