I am awake, I am alive, and this morning I cannot help but think … if only it had been done right.

Because if it had been done right, settlers would still have landed on our shores. But instead of trying to “tame the land”, they would have noticed the people who already lived here. They would have attempted to learn our languages so we could communicate. They would have observed our ways of living and being and doing and replicated how we hunt with respect, how we take only what we need, how we live in harmony as caretakers not just takers.

They would still have been Christian. They no doubt would still have had a Christmas tree and celebrated Thanksgiving. We would have thought the houses you wanted to build strange but chances are good we would have watched and maybe even made a suggestion or two (“Make it warm, winters are really cold here.”)

As relationships developed, we would have asked you questions about your way of living, as you asked about ours. We would have lived alongside each other, each doing what we do, and as long as the land wasn’t harmed, we would have been fine.

That is the goal – that is cohabitation, that is what reconciliation must bring about. So do not utter land acknowledgements if that is all you will be doing. Do not invite us to participate in your gatherings for we have our own to attend. Instead, clean up your yard. Quit destroying the rivers. Quit inflicting harm on Mother Earth, our people and our homeland.

Do not expect us to guide you for we are busy repairing the damage, healing from what white ancestors really did because they definitely did not do it right.

But we can. #ibelieveinyou
 

I love you!
HUGSSSSSSSSSSSS
Sandi

#ibelieveinyou #ibelieveinme #icreatespace #celebrateandsurvive #repairingfeathers