Focused Moment for July 28, 2013
Poem of Reconciliation
By Rebecca Tababodong, Waskauksing First Nation
We are waking up to our history
From a forced slumber
We are breathing it into our lungs
So it will be part of us again.
It will make us angry at first
Because we will see how much you stole from us
And for how long you watched us suffer
We will see how you see us
And how when we copied your ways
It killed our own.
We will cry and cry and cry
Because we can never be the same again
But we will go home to cry
And we will see ourselves in this huge mess
And we will gently whisper the circle back
And it will be old and it will be new
Then we will breathe our history back to you
You will feel how strong and alive it is
And you will feel yourself become a part of it
And it will shock you at first
Because it is too big to see all at once
And you won’t want to believe it
You will see how you see us
And all the disaster in your ways
How much we lost.
And you will cry and cry and cry
Because we can never be the same again
But we will cry with you
And we will see ourselves in this huge mess
And we will gently whisper the circle back
And it will be old and it will be new.