I've been sharing this story much lately as the timing is pertinent to the celebratory initiatives of today, Canada Day. This is my earnest contribution to reclaiming this holiday as a creative expression of something more relevant to the changing currents of our times. I humbly hope we can all consider taking creative control to assert our own perspectives on such matters with respect, kindness and openness...
Years ago, I was working assiduously with a council of indigenous teachers near Six Nations close to Hamilton. The Mohawk elder whom led the council and was one of my primary teachers over those sagacious years shared that in her lineage there was a prophecy of the real meaning of Canada. She taught that the settlers and colonialists who came to Turtle Island centuries ago had not actually come to colonize this land but were ultimately coming to relearn their indigenous identity from the Red people of this land. She said that they were aware that these European races were sick of the mind and had gone insane because they themselves had been mysteriously severed from their own indigenous roots, which had been the cause of their madness, unbeknownst to themselves. Furthermore, her people were aware that they would suffer great violence and hardship by these settling races but that there would come a time when these peoples would awaken to the plight within them and around them, caused by their sickness, and would come to the sacred fires of the Red people for healing, to learn wisdom and reconnect to the spirit of nature. She said that time is NOW...
A few years later, I had the privilege to do a traditional, Anishinabe vision quest with her teacher in the wild of Manitoba. On the final morning when after almost four days we sipped water for the first time, I recall looking across the sacred fire and seeing this teacher's son's cap which had a Canadian flag on it. It dawned on me in a powerful knowing a new meaning for this symbol: I saw on both sides the rectangles of red representing the Red people holding the White people (who can just as well represent all settling cultures) in council in the centre. The leaf represents indigenous wisdom, which are peoples living in deep connection with the Earth, and its colour of red denoted that this wisdom would be taught by the Red people. It was one of the most profound revelations of my life...
I humbly feel that this spirit of change with regards to what Canada truly means and is destined for is becoming resonant with increasing numbers of people who are realizing not only the great suffering of the First Nations community through the centuries but our own suffering at constructing a systemic way of life that is unlawful, hostile to peace and the health of the environment and ourselves, and toxic in ways that run so deep that it's overwhelming to behold. But this is not about losing heart in wafts of pain but inspiration to rise renewed in the heroic charge to create a new vision for our lives, including all peoples in unified compassion and hope for all.
The plight of the First Nations peoples who lived before us is the great wound of this country and also its great opportunity. The destruction of indigenous peoples and wisdom the world over is nothing new but it is a cycle that has played out terribly long. As we face the spectre of environmental and species destruction, we're discovering much of our greatest challenges lie in this loss of connection to nature; to a sense of indigenous identity.
It is my dream that we will find ways to work together to understand the wisdom we need as medicine to cure the disease of civilization bent on materialism and anathema to spiritualism, the essential way of reality. It is my dream that we will begin to make certain that the First Nations people are aided in the genuine ways that are needed and in that that we as settler cultures are aided in finding ways to right our wrongs. It is my dream that Canada become awash in a great service of healing this ancient wound and will stand forth as a nation returning to a harmony ecologically and socially that will inspire the world. It is my dream that the First Nations wisdom keepers will stand shoulder to shoulder with the leaders of our political landscape to help guide the destiny of this great meeting place of global cultures to foster an ultimate peace. It is my dream that one day a First Nations Prime Minister will guide us all and that she will return Spirit to its proper stead as the only true government this Earth and this cosmos has ever known...