Tuesday 17 October 2017
Good morning. I'm delighted to see some people taking up the invitation to blog. On Oct 15 and 22 St. Martin's is considering the call to reconciliation during our Sunday Worship. On Oct. 15th I reflected upon what I had learned from a friend and aboriginal Elder about residential schools, stereotypes and the need for reconciliation. My own journey was a movement from stereotype to justice, yet I still had uncertainty about how to engage with Indigenous people and whether they would hold anger towards me. Although every encounter is unique I have mostly experienced an openness to dialogue. On Oct. 22nd we will be presenting a version of the blanket exercise during worship to help us understand the variety of historical factors that have shaped the experience of Indigenous people of the the centuries. I am keen to learn about your thoughts on reconciliation and experiences you have had with Indigenous persons. Please consider blogging!
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One thing that we are struggling with is that we have an adopted aboriginal son - we adopted him in 1978 when he was 21 months old - so he would be considered part of the "6os scoop" It bothers me that nothing positive is ever said in the media about the "Adopt Indian and Metis" (AIM) program under which we adopted him. We had an indigenous social worker who was very encouraging throughout the whole process. The program also made it clear that indigenous families were preferable to white ones but that not enough were available. We were told that his mother was an alcoholic and had abandoned him at his grandparents who called the social services because they were unable to look after him (of course we do not know if this is all true). I know when we adopted him we had rather a judgmental attitude towards his mother, I now realize that her inability to parent him may very likely have been due to the residential school experience of either her or her family. We love our son dearly and he is an essential part of our family. I would love to be able to say "it wasn't all bad!" but my son tells me that now is not the time to publicly say that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your very personal comment Jenny. While history teaches us that colonial perspectives were imbedded in such programs as AIM no viewpoint tells the whole story. The shadow of the AIM legacy can obscure the important human connections that could and did occur. It is too simplistic to boil life down to right and wrong conclusions. While the presuppositions of AIM were faulty individual experiences may have been life-giving. Life is complicated. -Brian
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