It is only a few short days ago that the remains of 215 children were discovered on the grounds of a Residential school in Kamloops B.C and that a family of five out for a walk in London were intentionally run down by a speeding truck because they looked different. These are two instances that shook our country and so many of us have stopped to take a second look. Many of us are asking what is our call right now? How can we move with love and stand side by side with our dear neighbour in their suffering?
I heard from a friend who shared a situation that happened to her and her father when they visited one of the Indigenous communities on Prince Edward Island. There was a display set up in memory of the children and they wanted to go and pay their respects at the site. There was an unexpected bonding that took place between her father who had been raised in an orphanage over 75 years ago and the woman they met whose father had been sent to a residential school on the Island at an early age. It seemed that although their situations were different – they were the same. Places of struggle and oppression where fear and mistrust of anyone in authority grew inside of these very young children which they still carry today.
As their conversation went on, the sharing of their stories became a healing moment of vulnerability as both parties realized that they – the white settler and the indigenous woman –had a commonality in each of their lives that they could name and claim in this moment as strangers. Today, the display is to be taken down and my friend’s father has gone to assist with the task – certainly not something he would have ever dreamed of doing but now he has a new friend who is in need of assistance. So easy when you think of it? Neighbour helping neighbour.
With Canada Day in a few short weeks, words from our National Anthem come to mind as I reflected on this dark moment in the history of our beloved country and our Province.
O Canada we stand on guard for thee.
Is this our chance? Could Canada Day 2021 be inviting each of us to create a new moment – where we can truly say together “we stand on guard as a Nation for you and you and you – and you are my sister and brother and we journey together for our children and our children’s children?
-Sister Ann MacDonald, csj