Let’s bury “enough”

Métis enough?
Pass muster
Red River
Rebellions
Warriors
Check

Métis enough?
No community
No fiddles
No stories
No lands
Check

Métis enough?
Never labelled
But
Time on land
Water beast
Ancestors hope
Check

Métis enough?
A kaleidoscope of teachings
My territory
River to parliament
Bureaucracy to home
Check

Métis enough?
Tattoo a lie
Story by broken child
Force fed shame
Still afraid of braids
Check

Métis enough?
Long afraid to claim*
No languages
No medicines
No skirts sewn by aunties
Check

Métis enough?
When I quiet
When I brave
When I hope
I hear the ancestors
I quicken - their blood shows
I gather harvests of their hope
And I/We are enough
Let’s bury enough
To seed tomorrows of abundance

Pehiw – Wandering 2022
*Kim Anderson see "Life Stages and Native Women: Memory Teachings and Story Medicine"