Tag: indigenous

Worth

~ Vanessa ~ 1 Comment

I want to know of my ancestors.
Yet the epic of colonialism,
Has for generations,
On multiple lines, kept faces, names, and ties
From kith and kin;
Kept us inextricably separated by imagined borders;
Separated with skins and flags of
fabricated colors;
Holding weapons and wealth
Unequal, unequitable,
As motive
For a status quo of harm,
Because just maybe one day
One of “us” will be on the “winning” team,
With change in pocket
And blood on hands;
Yet when in the moment of judgment
Will you be able to
Confess honestly
If any of it was worth it,
As we finally face our
Ancestors.

Yet

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

Performative, superficial.
Bandaid for a gaping wound.
The warriors cried,
the elders cried,
the parents,
the children,
and now Mother Earth cries.

Spirit watches
over children made capable
of atonement,
This day
is an attempt,
Though never enough,
to salve the genocide bled;

Yet

Stolen

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

They are unearthing babies,
Children
Who never had a chance,
Against a system we still don’t understand,
That takes and takes and takes,

My human heart hurts,
My sentient heart hurts,
My living heart hurts,
For a wrong far too late to correct,
And as the numbers tally up
Let us not lose sight of the numbers that are really lives,
Of the lives that were not lost
But taken
Stolen,
Genocide in and of our recent time,
And we haven’t learned our lesson,
As we hold stolen children,
This time immigrants in cages,
For being the wrong…
Color,
Creed,
Nationality,
Ethnicity,
Race,
An inconvenience to other plans,
Inconvenience in this land,
Stolen,
Stolen lands,
Stolen children,
Stolen lives

Pre-Colonial Truths

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

Daughter of an immigrant,
Callouses of colonial bonds keep me tethered,
To a past always out of touch,
Wanting to know my people,
Longing for a home that has been fragmented,
I am perpetually in mourning,
Of what truths,
now post-colonial,
I can never know.

Discovering the “Doctrine of Discovery”

~ Vanessa ~ 2 Comments

Once upon a time ago
A Pope sat upon his throne
And decreed all that all will condone,
Doctrine of Discovery,
–This land, this people, this wealth “we” now own,
For God has seen that only certain Christians may decide
who is wrong, and who is right,
And black and white,
And red and yellow,
And East and West,
And North and South,
Left and Right,
Carving up the world,
Like a pie,
Deciding who lives,
who dies,
To whom shackles are assigned,
As slaves to God’s domain,
And on and on it goes,
That was then, 15th century,
And still well meaning “explorers,”
And “freedom” fighters get to cut apart the globe,
Causing wounds so deep they never close,
And this is good,
And this is right,
For the Papal Bulls
and now our government tell me so

Too Tough to Taste

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

We must remember their pain
Let not unease make
Discussing, recognizing “Genocide,”
in it’s various forms,
A topic too tough to taste,
It is in our history,
It is in our blood,
It is in our now,
The stories,
The memories,
The fears,
The politics,
Of a present world,
That we now shape,
It is our duty to make right,
As much as we can,
And to be the seraphim,
Watching over,
To keep a new pain
From beginning again