Today I’m thinking about my friend William. William is a residential school survivor and a member of the Coast Salish people. Vancouver Island is his ancestral home.
He often talks to me about his experiences and how it’s affected every member of his family. Of how the government offered free counseling to him but he turned it down because they refused to counsel his entire family. He said they were all affected by his experiences, right down to his grandchildren, so counseling only him would be a waste of time.
Sure it’s a start, but one day a year isn’t going to fix generations of trauma. If you’ve heard the stories as I have, they’re horrifying. There’s far more to it than children being removed from their families. It’s what they did to them once they were taken.
So, today I ask myself one simple question. As a Canadian, what can I do to make a difference? Because as I sit here in front of my fireplace, warm and dry, with a roof over my head. William is out there, somewhere, trying to keep warm and fed, doing whatever he can to support his family. He’s usually ignored until I stop to talk to him. I guess people just need to see he’s harmless. And I think to myself, if I really want things to change, I’ve got to act instead of leaving it up to a government that thinks one day a year is going to reconcile years of damage.
SUBURBAN CABIN FEVER 