http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/unrepentant-kevin-annett-canadas-genocide/
I have long been an advocate of aboriginal rights, now I am beyond just advocacy..I will be writing a letter of apology on behalf of my ancesters and willingly relinquish all that they gained from the terror that was perpetrated upon the first nations peoples. I think this is an important step to take on the path to transformation and healing on the planet.
So I mentioned above that I want to write a letter of apology, but I did not say what I would do with the letter. My idea is to send it to media, and invite others to copy it change it to suit who they are and who their ancestors were, I want to set up a web page for people to post their letter as well as send it to their MP/MPP , local media, and closest aboriginal governing body. I want to propose in the letter our willingness to follow native leadership and denounce the false government...Anyone have any thoughts? I want this to be a healing thing not a confrontation with the existing government, so the denounce thing maybe wrong, maybe should be wish to follow the wisdom the first nations and would welcome them as our true and legal authority. (hmm think I answered my own there, still would love lots of input)
Much Love Carol Anne
Carol Anne,
My wife was listening to public radio today about the disaster that's happening to Native Americans in the west due to storms, cold, and electricity outages right now. I don't listen to major media anymore, but I suspect that there's not much about this being reported there. (These folks do need our help now in the way of donations. There's supposed to be a way to help them online; we can google to find it. Fat chance FEMA will help them.) And, when the interviewer mentioned an apology on behalf of the US government for all that has been done to them, the interviewee laughed and said that buried somewhere in a military appropriations bill was one sentence of apology.)
So, yes, our European culture here in the Americas indeed needs to apologize, but the government(s) are unlikely to do that because that would put them in a weak place legally. (In a court of law -- or before the UN -- it could easily be shown that our entire civilization here was built on lies, deception, murder, and an ongoing program of genocide. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the world's civilizations have similar histories.) So I think your last thought is the best and most realistic. And you're right; the healing must begin.
I'm not sure I'd ask them to be our true and legal authority, however. They themselves didn't think in those terms; "legal" and "authority" seem to be antithetical to their whole view of life. It seems that their view was more about real freedom, the sovereignty of the individual. But I don't want to pursue that thought; it would lead into my own bias toward anarchism (as per Paul Goodman and Emma Goldman, whose ideas the world isn't ready for yet -- but may be ready before too many more years go by), and I don't know quite where I could take that discussion. I'll only say that the anarchistic point of view seems to be in synch with the traditional Native American view.
And I, like you, would love to see them get their lands back; if only we could turn the clock of history back. But... it might be an interesting exercise for us to ask ourselves if we -- each of us -- would be willing to give up our homes and property if Native Americans laid claim to the land they're on? How does it look and feel that close-up?
With respect for your feelings and efforts,
Bob
Australia appologised to the aboriginals a couple of years back now. New Zealand did it many years ago.
Our former PM, John Howard, refused to do it point blank. He claimed it would start court cases and have "huge" legal implications and that "we" did not actually do anything, as in, our grandfathers did it not us, so we shouldn't have to appologize. The people of Australia did not agree and sought to begin the healing process with this gesture.
When our latest leader, Kevin Rudd, took office it was one of the first things that he did, it was part of his election campaining. It is largely a symbolic gesture that I believe is the first step to true reconciliation and healing for all Australians.....it has not caused trouble legally......
Good luck I think it is necessary and I hope your governments will address it sooner rather than later....
L
Jez
When I read your post, I was immediately reminded of what many of the indigenous in South America do concerning us, the lost brothers and sisters in the western culture. they weep for us and pray for us, that we may one day realize the error of this despotic, unbalanced and destructive way.
We could simply mimick what they are doing for us, to honor how cool they are for not becoming hateful and resentful like many of us would if someone came and displaced us from what we considered our land. Maybe we can simply honor their way of seeing and behaving, their willingness to forgive and hope for our return to sanity and balance. Maybe this could be somewhat of a simple coherence raising exercise that begins to add fuel to the collective energy leading toward a new meta-paradigm...
Not many would do anything as radical as giving up there homes in a very dynamic symbolic gesture of sincerity and apology, but there may be many who would join in honoring and echoing the beautiful intentions of so many of the world's indigenous... WE are the ones who have lost their way. They hope for and patiently await our return to sanity... LLP, Chris
Thank you so much Bob, Jez and Chris,
Well, Canada did in fact make an official apology to the victims of residential schools, but that was the extent of the apology, it included nothing of all the wrongs, and atrocities. The government also agreed on compensation of about 20, 000 dollars per person. I find this to be the same as saying OK shut up already. I don't think it is heartfelt or sincere, when we still have communities without clean drinking water etc..And we still have so many missing women from native communities.
I am so glad to hear that everyone felt it was a credible concern, and the return of all crown land may be embraced more readily as well as corporate land acquired illegally, than ones own personal plot of mother earth. That refinement of the idea/plan came about as a direct result from all the feedback I gratefully received. My next step is to actually write the thing, at which point I would like to post it here and invite any and all to revise it and fine tune.
Much love Carol Anne
The concept of ownership of land is foreign to the Navtive Americans and perhaps the other Aboriginals of the world. They do not think that they own or ever owned the land but that they were the caretakers of it for the Creator, to love it, use it fruitfulness, revere it as their Mother, and to protect it for those coming after them. When European settlers invaded the continent and pushed the First Nation off of the land, their anger was that the settlers were abusing the land and the wildlife and the woodlands with no appreciation of the Life therein. They were also angry because they were being separated from the traditions and lifestyles of thousands of generations, their holy places, their very means of living. That is what was taken from them along with the millions of lives of innocents and the treasures of their histories and legends.
My great grandmother was among those Cherokees who were forced to march the Trail of Tears and when I think of her and all of those many civilized people who were physically forced to abandon their properous lifestyles in the Carolinas and Virginia, and hunker down in poverty in the Oklahoma Indian Territory, my heart breaks, and I am brought to tears and the urge to be angry. I feel the same for all of the various tribes and nations who experienced similar treatment and are now living in desparation and loosing their identity.
Apologies are nice but they are only a gesture. The offer to help rebuild their cultures, languages, and pride would be much more of value. At this point, those who still maintain at least a part of their heritage have learned to make peace with Mother Earth where they are. They have clung to those traditions and attempt to teach it to their offspring and those not of the Red Path who honor their traditions. Their is a movement among the Native American peoples to rebuild their once great culture but as one Nation, not a divided number as in the beginning. Now when they come together in the great pow-wows peoples from many tribes join together to drum, sing and dance and perform their common rituals like the Sun Dance and the Ghost dance, to have their sweat lodges, their vision quests and their Dreamings.
It is in these things that I would prefer to see support from the non Red peoples. To honor these traditions. And yes, to provide those necessary conditions like fresh water, energy and food for those who are in want at this time, to consider that the Red Native Americans are valuable citizens just as any other white, black, yellow or brown person in the United States.
Thank you Barry for the insight of a decendant of the Cherokee men,women and children whom were the victims of the trail of tears.
I am afraid that here in Canada we are dealing with living victims/survivors, of the attempted genocide and torture, sexual abuse, kidnappings (very dear friend of mine found out he was a stolen child from northern native community, he was born in 1970, when he was reunited with his parents in 1996,he could not even speak to them, as they spoke no english). The lands were recently stolen, they were valuable timber commodities to corporations. As ownership ideology had been forced on the natives in the form of reservations, that are ever shrinking, for many reasons, almost all of which involve corruption. Still we have had land disputes and claims that are not settled, people dying shot dead by police as they barricade native lands, others arrested as domestic terrorists who are native organizers. Although there have been some improvements and progress, I think it is time to stop the "white" silence.
Kevin Annett, stood virtually alone in his fight to have the native story heard in his community. What I am proposing is that we add many voices to what Kevin started...Below is a letter I wrote to Kevin, as you will see the letter I propose is only a beginning to a movement, I do have an agenda....for the future.
Hi Kevin,
I just cried my eyes out watching unrepentant, job well done and I thank you for your courage. I would have said you had informed me, but that would not be true, you have inspired me. I have had the opportunity in my life to be touched be many wonderful indigenous people and yet, other than being open minded and loving I have done nothing.
Some years ago I met a shaman named Sequoia, I was just one of many sitting in the Almonte community center listening to him speak. When he had finished leading the sharing circle he left the stage and greeted each person, when he came to me the smile left his face briefly then returned, I anticipated the same quick hello and bit of small talk as he had exchanged with each person, instead he looked to me and said "some day you will know who you are". I have laughed about that story for years, it has been one of those funny stories you tell at a dinner party. Today I'm not laughing, I am certain... that I may have realized, what is 'the next logical step'. We the truly 'repentant' descendants of the colonists must move to return the country to the indigenous people. Although this may sound ludicrous, this has its logical side given the environmental crisis and the bad standing Canada has in the world at this time, because of the governmental stand on climate change, and the oil sands. The two issues could be married with some imagination. I know Harper made the big official apology, but I have to believe that was more of a shut up lets move on campaign. The money that has been offered is so small it is an insult not a compensation.
I truly believe the aboriginal people are the answer to saving us all..And that should be the basis of how to move forward as a just society.
I propose that every riding in Canada on a federal and a provincial level have a second seat in parliament that has equal power. The second seat would be filled by an aboriginal person elected by aboriginal people. The new MP/MPP's would be governing all people in the riding alongside the traditionally held seat, all budget monies would be devided equally for distribution in the riding between the traditionally held MP/MPP and the new position of Indigenous MP/MPP. The Indigenous members would have equal voting rights in the House on all matters.
I have proposed enough to digest at this point, but, that is my idea of how we can give back the country of Canada to the indigenous people of Canada.
Peace and Love,
Carol Anne Knapp
Litha Moon
Thanks for your post about your efforts to heal your ancestors legacy. I loved everyone's interesting insights and sorrows about the whole horrible history.
But I loved hearing about the forgiving view of some aboriginal people of South America that Chris Bowers pointed out "they weep for us and pray for us, that we may one day realize the error of this despotic, unbalanced and destructive way". Such deep compassion is transformative. I can tell because I'm crying.
Maybe they want us to have compassion toward ourselves instead of the heavy guilt. After all, we are just more of the aboriginals from somewhere else who happend to get agriculture, then towns, then cities, industry and war over resources and expansion. We ARE really just them. I am so honored and touched by this profound compassion for us. What clarity of vision and hope human beings intend for one another! I hope that we will be welcomed back. We need to heal. I could use some friends.
Brian
Hi All,
Brian and Chris, you make an excellent point....and I apparently needed the double dose to see how significant and pertinent to any attempt to open up dialogue and issues pertaining to the return of true equality and power as well as property here in Canada. I think I already posted this but it is important in my opinion that this wave is encouraged.
http://transformingpower.ca/en/blog/indigenous-elders-and-leaders-across...
Like Evo Morales has re birthed spiritual leadership my hope is to see that wave spread..
Become an Elder Brother/Sister and hold open space for the change that you wish to see... The NEW EARTH is HERE now... all you must do is anchor it in your HEART. Forgive and Move Forward.
LOVE--
fairyfarmgirl
Thank you, Chris. That was beautiful.
fairyfarmgirl
Like Barbara said in "Bringers of the Dawn", hold that new frequency in your heart 24/7. Hold it for yourself, for all others and for Mother Earth. Instead of trying to figure what that is with my mind, I feel it in my Heart and hold it dear, and hold it for all... And let it grow from there naturally. We are not as lost as our delusional ego mind would have us believe...
When we do this with our hearts, we do what our indigenous brethren would have us do first and foremost, for all good things follow from there. They do not practice knowing dogma... They practice knowing intimate experience. This is real knowledge that journeys toward awakening from a head full of disparate illusory thought.
Can you feel it? It is so much easier to hold one another within Heartfelt considerate Love than it is to try to figure out what is "right" with our ego minds...... We have known this deep down inside always, but the world we grew up in expected us to develop our ego minds and ignore our feelings and intelligent intuitive hearts. This is the result of the last five thousand years of unbalanced male dominated orientation.
As Barbara said in that excellent series, even women, while attempting to get their voice and freedom back, began to act like men to do it, and now even women need to stop acting like men and remember their female intuitive heart-centered selves... The indigenous would remind us males to do the same, for we are not talking about male and female bodies, for we are all male and female oriented when we become balanced again and re-cognize ourselves and honor our true Selves...
We become the indigenous, born again so to speak, when we return to the path of being truly human again... Their prayers for us would have us return to our true Selves, for we cannot really help anyone else until we do that first... That is what we hold dear in our very intelligent and intuitive Hearts, and that will wonderfully overwhelm the ego mind so that we can hold that 24/7 without confusion.
And when we stumble again via the ego mind, we still hold that new raised frequency dear in our hearts, forgive ourselves, ask forgiveness, whatever our hearts direct us to do at the time, and return to that clear unconflicted resolve. This will add to the millions already engaged in this process, connecting to each other and mother earth, and we will hit the critical mass en mass 100th monkey effect. Our DNA will begin to blossom toward the original 12 strand DNA, and the rest of this incredible adventure of all our sovereign heartfelt intention will unfold quite naturally and beautifully from there...
May we hold this same hope for ourselves that the indigenous have been holding for us while we were away in crazy land bizarro westworld, LOL..... I love you all, and I love the indigenous for how wonderfully connected they have remained, holding the torch for humanity so to speak. May we all continue to hold these same things dear as One, for that is our true inherent power that breaks free from the gravity of heavy dark lower frequencies intent upon domination and control... We were never victims of this, but willing participants, for we are truly sovereign, and are doing exactly what we want to do, thinking exactly what we want to think, 24/7.....
My eyes were opened to this situation with your thread, Carol Anne. I will admit that when faced with knowledge of this type, I tend to become overwhelmed by the immense pain of the situation and shrink into helplessness. What can one person do about this?
You have shown me what it looks like when one is called to become a part of the transformation of these issues. Your understanding, your compassion, your courage to step up and do what you can is inspiring. Your letter was very moving and well put together. I thank you for showing me what “one person can do”.
Chris, your post was just the direction/opening I needed to find the place to step in and add something of value to the process. Your ability to take the vast amount of knowledge you have and lay out a clear path for others is very much appreciated from this one. Many thanks.
Sincerely,
Mary G.
An Open letter, to all the Indigenous Peoples of This Land (Canada),
I Carol Anne Knapp, would like to apologize for anyone in my blood line whom came before me, that may have killed, forcibly removed from lands and homes, raped, kidnapped, imprisoned, made ill by means of germ warfare, starved by means of withholding resources, any or many Indigenous human beings that hath, dwelt in peace, upon This Land, prior to the crimes perpetrated by my ancestor(s).
I would like to return to you that which is illegally possessed by "The Crown" to which I do not ascribe any allegiance, nor believe has the legal right to claim "ownership" of said lands. I ask that you grant me asylum as in your home land, I promise to treat the land with respect and share that which can never be possessed as it was meant to be, by the creator.
I ask that The Indigenous Leaders step forward to lead all, with Spiritual Wisdom and Fairness, I pledge to follow.
May the tears I cry wash the sins from the souls of my ancestors, with a humble sincere heart, I ask forgiveness.
Carol Anne Knapp.
To My Pals here at the G'Spot
I welcome any and all suggestions and revisons...I do want to keep it short (reflects my attention span)
Thank you Mary for your input, you put some fuel back in my tank....
Much Love Carol Anne
one suggestion (something akin to the following): "please let me know how you, the elders, would have me add my sincere and heartfelt energy to yours so that together we can create an expanding coherent consciousness leading to real change and balance"....
something anyway that asks them what they would have us do which would show true respect for their inherent sovereignty while simultaneously maintaining our own, or your own....
LLP, Chris
Chris that is fantastic...that is just the kind of suggestion I am looking for..., I will definitely include, I want all suggestions before I revise .
After I wrote the letter I was checking my email and this was my "daily Om" Horoscope
Cancer Daily Horoscope
You may feel passionate today about the way you think that people should be treated. You could find that your sense of fairness leaves you eager to fight against the injustices of the world. This sense of justice may result in you using your passion to help others in meaningful ways. You could find yourself thinking that resolving the wrongs in this world can be overwhelming. This might be a good time to focus on the one issue that is the most important to you. Take time to read about and fully understand the problem. Consider writing a letter or donating your time or money to an organization that focuses on this issue. Make a small effort to become more deeply engaged with just one of your concerns in the world today, and you could make a lasting impact.
When we use our zeal to do something beneficial for others, we help make the world a better place. It often seems as if there is a great deal of injustice in the world, and we might feel engulfed by a sea of inequality. Even though we are intuitively aware that life can be unfair, we can find ourselves becoming intellectually lost in our sense of righteousness. During these times it is important to pick and choose the battles that mean the most to us. If we decide on one issue of significance, it becomes easier to take positive action. Choose one concern to act upon today, and you will make a great contribution toward creating a more just world.
Love it...Namaste Carol Anne
Synchronicity on steroids!!!
What perfect affirmation...
Hi Carol Anne,
I thought your letter was truly an expression of your heart!
I did have one thing come to mind though....
Mother Terresa once said she would not attend an "anti war" rally but would attend a "peace" rally. To attend an anti war rally still gives energy to war.
Applying that principle to your note I would ask if you need to spell out the seperate "horrors" ?
Maybe....I appologize that we did not drink of your wisdon and live your example....that it has taken to long for us to awaken to the beauty of your culture.......type thing....?...just a thought....
L
Jez
Wow, Chris and Jez...The Mother Theresa quote, is the quote I have had posted on my facebook since day one...3 years ago or however long ago it was exactly that I joined fb...incoherent right now...lol.
Much Love CA
Interesting Video about how the Olympics in Vancouver is being heavily protested by native Canadians (and others too). I've sort of perked up to this cause over the weekend after hearing a local radio host say that "protestors are just a bunch of losers." It really hit something in me and made me want to investigate furhter. I sent in a complaint to the station which amongst other things said that if people standing up for their rights or against injustice are losers, then by her definition Martin Luther King and Ghandi must have really been the worst losers ever.
Anyhow, my wife found these videos, she usually shys away from 'conspiracy theories' or anything like this, and I was proud to find her watching this video this morning. Its her birthday, maybe she got wiser over night :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-p6QAZQ16A
Hi Josh,
Thank you, and thank your wife very much for me, that was the exact affirmation the final word on what my idea is all about, it is still not understood what is happening in the Native relationship with the government of Canada.
And please do wish her a Happy Birthday...
Much Love Carol Anne..
This talk of John Perkins covers how things work at present, and then John talks about the world he envisions that would definitely please the indigenous peoples...
FORA.tv - The Secret History of the American Empire
Hi All,
I set a facebook group to launch the letter... http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=106199762736224 please join me in my endeavour.
I also had the epiphany that maybe this is how Ho'oponopon works, some one some where takes action inspired by the desires of another.
Peace and Love Carol Anne