Sago Akwatsire:
The cry from the Indigenous public should go out if anything ever makes us feel and look like we are worth two cents.
Winnipeg is being scoured as we speak for a middle-aged Caucasian suburbanite that has gone missing after her morning jog. A personal item was located at a park – time to call in the whole resources of the Winnipeg police department. I truly empathize with the family. We have all lost loved ones. Some peoples more than others, but hey! This is the war we’ve been born into.
I pray for Thelma Krull’s safe return to her family. In the same breath I pray for the healing of Tina Fontaine’s family and the Onkwehonwe sitting in the waiting room of a Winnipeg hospital, waiting to see if their little girl might need a blood transfusion after her third operation after being barbarically assaulted. Only she wasn’t from the ‘burbs, she was from a Rez in the middle of nowhere that Suburbia doesn’t even know exists.
Actions speak louder than words in these ways. In Canada, institutional racism has become politically incorrect so it went underground. It has not been eradicated in anyway. It is blatantly waiting in the shadows just like the person or persons responsible for this Winnipegger’s mysterious disappearance in the early morning hours. Every indigenous family that has ever felt the pain of a disappeared loved one should be marching in unison with the Krull family, turning over every stone and shrub in Manitoba until she is safely found or the perpetrators are brought to justice.
This could be the bridge that’s going to bring a national inquiry to fruition, a few weeks before a federal election while Harper still has his plastic smile on, shaking hands and kissing children in front of the media. We as Onkwehonwe must put pressure and keep pressure on the federal government on this extremely sensitive election issue. We will not stand aside. We are warriors. It’s time to step up and break the institutionalized bias of the status quo. The victory tastes that much sweeter after a hard fought battle. This battle is intensifying as the campaigning heats up. We must force whomever the winner is to stay on topic when it comes to Indigenous issues.
Even though most Mohawks would even vote for a class president in high school, few participated in a Canadian federal election for fear of declaring ourselves Canadian citizens which we are not and never will be as long as we have a beating heart and fire running through our veins. We are sovereign autonomous nations with our own country and code, and it’s not open to debate or insidious tampering from foreign entities that don’t have our best interest in mind, just their own selfish exploitive agenda. This is a sad reminder of how far we’ve come but how much farther we still have to go in this battle of rightful Indigenous world recognition – only by Onkwehonwe inclusion can there be world peace.
The dream of the peacemaker was true harmony amongst all directions. This can be achieved through hard work and open minded perseverance so Kati Ni ion Ton Hake Ne Onkwa Nikon Ha – let our minds become one mind of love.
Wakiro!
