Expertise and forgetting

So I could sit that day
Another Minister
Forced to face the people
The government tried to forget
My appetite
To adorn
To show
White skin aside
We are still here.

So by accident
(not really – creator made is so)
My first born beside me
So strong
To walk up to that stage
Hand in hand with Elder
You one – you carry all
You inherited the future
-for truth and reconciliation –

When it is time
Please tell their stories
The firsts
The harm
The hope
Tell them of those other days
That same hill
Adorned with ribbon skirts
Tell them to bear witness
To hear the Clan Grandmothers
To honour our lost

Above my head
In the very stones
Who oversaw those harms
“speak truth to power.”
Put down your suits
This work might get dirty
Might last deep into night –

Come in jeans and hoodies
Separate no more
Detoxing from the drugs
Of expertise and forgetting.

Pehiw Wandering 2022