What it takes.
7“To help others to make a better world is healing.” Harley Wylie (Huu-ay-aht First Nation and American in ancestry. His mother went to a residential school in Port Alberni where she was regularly beaten for speaking her Native language. from Straight.com After the Settlement Comes Healing, Closure by Carlo Pablito)
Male fireflies flashing in unison, from The Millenium Bridge Simulator Project of the University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering (2000)
I just commented on Jose’s rich post What Will It Take? and my comment or, rather, the feelings that were stirred in writing it, are rising in me.
Cynicism poisons my motivation for change. I know this about myself so I purposefully disallow it. I shake it off when I feel it coming. I have to. Some have called me a blind optimist and I’ve become comfortable in that. I refuse to allow any part of me to believe that something I see as necessary won’t happen. I think that is why I became a teacher… “Teaching is the greatest act of optimism. ” (Colleen Wilcox)
George Carlin also said “And then there are the times when the wolves are silent and the moon is howling.” The challenge is to maintain hope and positive energy until it is our time to howl again.
As I prepare myself for a new school year – one that is certain to be rife with challenge – I am paying attention to what I read, what I listen to, what I feel, what I add my voice to.
I’m filled with struggle and hope. I am deeply cut by how we can treat each other.
In June I wrote about the pride I felt for the Canadian government’s apology to residential school survivors and families of survivors. I felt it was a step toward a positive future. I still feel that way, though differently. I am confused about this apology. I hear accounts of healing, I also hear accounts that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a sham, a tool wielded by the Government and the United Church to ensure that the truth never really does come out. That the Aboriginal leaders involved in the commission and the acceptance of the apology are working in tandem with the Government and the Church for these secretive and shameful ends. That the apology comes from a misguided place. That until genocide is acknowledged it means nothing. That there are mass graves of children across Canada. That those (i.e. Kevin Annett) who try to point out these facts are lying or crazed.
When I look to the centre of my confusion around this history – and the agonizing, wretched, ripping and at the same time damming effects that continue to resonate in our rivers and hearts – and dredge out my feelings I find myself focusing on the people and the acts that represent hope. On the healing journeys. I believe that by focusing on hope for the future we have it. And we will see more of it. This is how I am preparing myself for the new year.
Recently I asked readers, ‘What are you looking for?’ and Michael Doyle (go read the post I linked to with his name. do it. he’s awesome) created a strong image in response
I am not sure I can answer this question directly, but I will tell you that I am closer to it when I am sitting at a pond’s edge at dusk watching lightning bugs attracted to their own reflected light than when I am in my cortex, trying to approach this rationally.
I am attracted to your light. That’s what it takes.
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Tags: appreciative inquiry, connections, healing, hope, residential schools
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You are the luna moth of the edublog world–seeking the light, too large and beautiful to ignore.
Healing is a powerful word. Some folks cure, others heal. The healers acknowledge mortality. The curers live in a linear universe.
What’s amazing is that you have been at this game for a bit, and still dance close to the flame.
And we’ll continue to watch, in the shadows, the heart of a true teacher.
Keep writing, you.
Michael Doyles last blog post at http://doyle-scienceteach.blogspot.com..What’s life?
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Michael,
I am really not sure how to be in this game withOUT acting on hope.
Actually, that is not entirely true. I had a rough year last year – a very needy class whose individual needs were so hefty that the group need was scattered, difficult to define yet alone even begin to meet. What I ended up doing was a crazy dance while I tried to herd cats in my classroom.
In order to maintain some sanity I focused on a few in the class, met them where they were. Some of the others I referred to counselling because their needs were beyond me, and some others I just let float. I also had a difficult time working with my classroom attendant, who I know did not like my teaching style (she told me). I’m not entirely happy with last year and felt I stopped short of what I could have accomplished with that group.
So I sit with my feelings around it as a reminder, because it’s part of who I am as a teacher, too.
Believe it or not I have accepted a different kind of challenge, though still a large one for this year. The difference is that I will be working very closely with a small group of very supportive teachers. I think herding cats will be much easier as a group of 4
(Oh, and yesterday I found out that part of my task will be teaching Physical Science to a group of Grade 11 students who failed it last year. So I may (will) be knocking on your blog’s door from time to time. Hope that is ok!)
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More than OK!
Teaching is hard, some years harder than others. Your kids are lucky to have you.
Michael Doyles last blog post at http://doyle-scienceteach.blogspot.com..Fertilizer
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Tracy,
I think George Carlin must have been in some of my classrooms over the years because ” there are the times when the wolves are silent and the moon is howling.”
He’s absolutely right when he says “The challenge is to maintain hope and positive energy until it is our time to howl again.’
When you teach in an alternative setting you learn to live in the moment, one moment at a time.
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Hi Elona,
Thanks for visiting and commenting!
I knew you could identify with the quote – though George Carlin only said the first part. It was me who reflected on maintaining hope and positive energy until it is our time to howl.
Many moments ahead…
Tracy
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For Immediate Release:
Eyewitness to Murder at Indian Residential School to go Public and Name Killer at Press Conference this Wednesday
Breaking News: May 24, 2009
Vancouver, Canada
The sister of a nine year old girl who was murdered at an Indian Residential School in Alberta will go public this Wednesday with an eyewitness account of her sister’s death at the hands of a staff member, who will be publicly named.
Charlotte, an aboriginal woman living in Vancouver, will hold a press conference this Wednesday, May 27 at 10:00 am in classroom no. 2, third floor of the Carnegie Centre at Main and Hastings st. in downtown Vancouver.
Charlotte will share evidence at this event, including a recorded statement from another sister, who lives in Terrace, B.C. and who witnessed the killing and knows the identity of the perpetrator.
The sisters and their family will be issuing a letter to the church that employed the perpetrator and that has allegedly concealed the murder since it happened. Their evidence will be submitted to international human rights agencies.
This event is sponsored by The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared, and will be monitored by The International Human Rights Tribunal into Genocide in Canada and its overseas affiliates.
For more information -
email: hiddenfromhistory@yahoo.ca
pager: 1-888-265-1007
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Breaking News:
Murder at United Church Indian Residential School Described, Killer Named, at Vancouver Press Conference
Vancouver, Canada:
May 27, 2009
Charlotte Eliza Stewart, centre, describes the murder of her sister, Victoria Stewart, age nine, at the Edmonton Indian Residential School. She is flanked by her brother Moses, and Kevin Annett of The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (left)
The family of a child murdered at the United Church’s Edmonton Indian residential school went public today at a downtown press conference in Vancouver, and named her killer.
Eliza Charlotte Stewart described the murder, and played a recording from her sister Inez Beryl Spencer, who personally witnessed the attack on their sister Victoria that caused her death.
Victoria, age nine, was struck on the head with a wooden two by four by a residential school staff member named Ann Knizky. Victoria died the next day.
“First I was hit on the back, and then Miss Knizky hit Vicky because she wasn’t coming into school fast enough. She fell down some stairs” said Inez in her statement.
“That night Vicky started complaining about head aches and she died the next day in the Camsell hospital. Miss Knizky never was tried for killing her.”
Eliza Stewart commented,
“Vicky was shipped back to us in a burlap sack and her brain was missing, so we think they did an autopsy and removed her brain to hide the injury done to it. They never told us anything. And the church then claimed she died of TB, but she never had it.”
Eliza Stewart and her brother Moses called upon the United Church to identify the whereabouts of Ann Knizky so that she can be charged with murder, along with the church itself.
“They’re not off the hook, just ’cause it happened years ago” said Moses Stewart.
“Even if Miss Knizky is dead, we want the United Church to stand trial too for how they covered this all up and protected a murderer.”
The Stewart family will be issuing a formal Letter of Demand to the United Church of Canada and its officers this week, which will require them to surrender Ann Knizky and identify her accomplices, publicly admit its responsibility for the murder, erect a memorial for Victoria, and compensate the family for her loss.
The Stewarts will also be calling on the police to open a criminal investigation into Victoria’s death.
The press conference was sparsely attended. Of sixteen media outlets contacted, only two reporters were present. Among the absent media was the so-called “Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network”.
In a final statement approved by the Stewarts, Kevin Annett of The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared said,
“Thousands of children died in this manner in the Indian Residential Schools, and not one person in Canada has ever been charged for the death of a child there, or brought to trial. The government is even forbidding names of perpetrators to be named. We will not allow these churches to get away with murder. We call upon others to come forward and name those responsible for the death and torture of innocent children in the residential schools.”
Further updates will follow once the police and United Church respond to the Stewarts, or fail to.
(A longer story along with pictures and video recordings of the event will be posted later this week on the website: http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org).
For information contact: hiddenfromhistory@yahoo.ca or 1-250-753-3345.
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