CPTnet
15 April 2006

ASUBPEESCHOSEEWAGONG/COLOMBIA REFLECTION: First Nations' voices

By Sandra Rinc�n

translated by Duane Ediger

[Note: The following reflection by Rinc�n has been edited for length.
People wishing to see the full reflection may request it from
kkcpt@earthlink.net .]

"We are Anishnaabe. The Creator gave us this land to take care of, land
sacred to us because it gives us life." These words of a First Nations Elder
in Canada awakened in my heart the pulse and voice of my South American
indigenous ancestors.

Fourteen men and two women, with ages totaling nearly a thousand years,
shared about their lives and struggles with a Christian Peacemaker Teams
delegation in Grassy Narrows, Ontario, in March 2006. The wisdom
transmitted by each Anishnaabe has borne their nation's life, culture and
traditions for more than 13,000 years. It sent chills up and down my spine,
especially as I remembered with sadness all the indigenous wisdom lost in
my home country of Colombia.

"We were removed from our homes, taken far from our parents and
grandparents, far away from our nation." I frequently hear the voices of
Anishnaabe and other First Nations men and women in Canada who survived
Residential Schools, where they "learned" religion, math and English. But
they refused to forget their loved ones' faces or the smell of home-cooked
food, and shed millions of tears hoping for a quick exit to freedom.

The idea behind the schools was to impose on thousands of Anishnaabe a
certain way of thinking and seeing the world. But the wisdom of their
culture and history kept calling out from their hearts, saying, "you must be
who you are: Anishnaabe." The same call gives me a longing to know who I am.

The voices I hear are also those of Anishnaabe women: beautiful, strong,
powerful, sensitive, sweet, brilliant; mothers, wives, daughters, nieces,
Anishnaabe. The spiritual strength given these women by the Creator has
allowed them to persist in the long struggle for their nation.

That same struggle exists in Colombia, and it has been for me a source of
energy, pride and hope. It has its origin in different world views. Most
people see their planetary home in fragments. Dams, lumber, gold, oil,
uranium, fertile lands. For the First Nations, on the other hand, "it is
impossible to possess something we have not created."

As this struggle has unfolded, the lands and lives of many First Nations
have been snatched away. Others have designed, defined and set limits to
their ways of living, their "prosperity" and their civilization. Sadly for
the First Nations, the arrival of colonists has meant mostly pain,
exclusion, death and desolation. As a mestiza (of mixed blood), I want to
listen the voices, including my own, that defy all attempts to be silenced.

Though others turn away and deny First Nations voices, as I listen they lead
me to question myself: if all are brothers and sisters, why don't we see it
that way? Why continue in the race to self-destruction?

As my ears remain open to these voices, may my life give adequate answer to
the questions they raise.