L E A D E R S H I P

They drugged us from the start
I bought it full
The heady expectation
We 3 entered
Hallowed halls
An Indian in a Cabinet

- I jest –

We sat behind
The Minister
Of the Affairs of Indians
He offers candy
That we are not supposed to eat
A gesture full of kindness?
A trap?
A joke?
A lie?

I take one piece
But he exhorts us
“Take at least one more”

I sit behind the man I come to support
I have the “Indian file”
They give it to us kids
We too fooled to see it
A half millennia of loss
Much to fit on one tight page

You taught me how to write
Like each word cost us money
Buy no more than you need.
History heavy body*
Your “first”
made space for others

Some I met
Who told their stories
I carry in my bundle
“conspiracy” they cried

Too many Jews
To look at fishes
Too gay
Too Black
Too “other”**

Don’t forget these roots
These battles
And our fallen.

To you Mr Moses
The first P O L I C Y
Indian
I thank your son
Who tells your stories
Those paths
You showed the way

To all you women, other, servants to the civil
Your minds
Your truth
Excised***
We carry you
Return you
To the hallowed halls of men
To the endless hope we carry
Our DNA will tell
We water seeds
And plants and forests
We harvest
What was sown
By those who came before
The very job I hold
-why I never noticed?-
The same!

I found your Photos
The internet my savior
You worked
To build economies
With people
And cooperatives of fish
Machines to ease the load
Roads to build
I see our programs
New words
The hope the same.

Did you feel shame
To get your ticket****
A beggar to the state
Or
Let that go
The work too important
To tell our truths
Though no one listened
Not then
But later on.
I took the day
I needed witness
The watering of your seeds

A century almost gone.
So I could sit that day
Another minister
Another court tell you
We is real peoples
You don’t listen
When our Leaders refuse to give up
Grandma’s
Who refuse to forget
Youth
Who refuse to gentle

Still here!
Don’t know where I fit
But this ballroom feels right
I greet
The sons
Grandsons
Of the men
Who planned for today
The men
Who taught
Children to read
The women who guarded children
The Elders who cherished our ways

What next?
Reconciliation

At the table
That poisoned our kids
That oversaw our harm
The corpse I live off?
That’s not table for the future

Grab bundle
Bring hoodie
Let’s feast
Leave table behind
And invent new ways to nourish.

Pehiw Wandering 2022

*Herb Grey was the first MP of the Jewish faith. 
** For all the other others who lived their truths when the costs were high. Thank you to Joe who shared his experiences as an analyst in the 1960s civil service. 
*** Expulsion of married women, gay purges
**** Jim Brady who had to ask for train fair to attend the Half Breed Commission