The International and Inter-generational Harm of Colonialism and Christianity – The Context Behind Finding This Particular Graveyard.

(Comments on this post will be closed. I don’t want or chose to invite the racism that I’ve seen on Twitter onto this piece. This is a very sensitive issue.)

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Since the news broke this week, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what to say, what to feel. I do have people I have valued who were part of this story, but their tale isn’t mine to share.

In school in a European mostly area, raised in a fundie Christian church, in a nation that breathes British and French empire allegiances, we just weren’t taught that such history existed inside our own borders.

So I’ve been gathering this continuing history this past year. I took a course in Indigenous Canada history this past year.

This is heart-breaking to know. As it must be for other caring people in other lands. The Colonial nations and the Christian churches have a LOT to answer for. And we need to sit with that. We need to feel our shame. Our horror. Because now, we can’t claim ignorance anymore. It’s not just in Canada that we need to hear this tale either.

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Empires come and go. Empires rise and fall. Their armies go forth and spread their faith, assimilating the children, killing the resistors. enslaving the ‘enemy’, taking property and expecting everyone to deal with it. That is what it’s always been, right?

Someone sees themselves as having divine right to do whatever they want, to whomever they want.

…..

Till we come to why we just found a school graveyard in Kamloops BC:

It all began in Europe centuries ago.
First there came the ‘Doctrine of Discovery’

• Papal “Bulls of Discovery” (Doctrine of Discovery): Romanus Pontifex (1455) issued by Pope Nicholas V and Inter Caetera (1493) pronounced by Pope Alexander VI.
  No matter who they ran over

…..

People got tired of seeing the priests of the Catholic Church make money when they were supposed to be keeping their vows of poverty. And keeping concubines and wives when they were supposed to be chaste.

• And then along came Martin Luther in 1517 with a little something to say.

Things got crazy in Europe and the Catholic Church lost a LOT of it’s priests and church members.

• So the ‘loyal’ ones went looking for more. They decided to convert the heathen and set up schools to teach their young. In a time of mass enslavement of African people and reservations and enslavement for Indigenous people around the world.

…….

Mission schools began in the 1600s around the world –
India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand (Maori) , Scandinavia (Sami) and North America as some of the earliest ones. Though there were others.
Children were mistreated. We know that now.

…….

Spain in California – mission schools
Spain was responsible for the missions, which scholars believe were attempts to colonize the Pacific coast of North America. There were 21 missions in all, lasting from 1769 until about 1833.

United States – In 1879, the first off-reservation boarding school, Carlisle, was founded by Richard Pratt.

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New France –

‘Indian’ residential schools existed in Canada since at least 1620. In that year the Recollect Order of Franciscans (Roman Catholic) established a boarding school at Quebec, which they operated until 1629.

• Canada –
  residential schools became part of government and church policy from the 1830s on, with the creation of Anglican, Methodist, and Roman Catholic institutions in Upper Canada (Ontario).

In 1879, Nicholas Flood Davin, a Regina Member of Parliament, sent a report to the federal government, advocating that Canada adopt a similar system to that of the United States of America established by Richard Pratt.

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New Zealand –
New Zealand’s first mission school opens
12 August 1816

Following the 1840 signing of the Treaty of Waitangi that established New Zealand as a British Crown colony, the state began to use education as a means to ‘civilize’ the Maori peoples

…….

Scandinavia – Lutheran missionaries arrived in Samiland during the 17th century and encouraged them to speak Finnish, the missionary language.

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South India – began at first in Tranquebar by two young pioneering Danish missionaries Bartholomeaus Ziegenbal and Henry Plustschau. They established an institution in 1716 A.D for the training of teachers to be employed in the charity schools.

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The European colonialists were bent on being the big wigs of the world. The French, Spanish, Dutch, Portugese, English spread over the world. And claimed it as their own.

…….

The system we are now becoming familiar with in Canada :
The ‘Indian’ residential schools in Canada were predominately funded and operated by the Government of Canada and Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and United churches. To a lesser scale, some Indian residential schools were funded by provincial governments or by the various religious orders.
source

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In Canada, the last school was closed in 1996. And you’d think the story would be closed?

• But the work of these schools is continued by Children’s Aid thru the foster care system. Many First Nations’ children are removed from their homes and are mistreated, have been from the 60s scoop till now, and even die in foster care today.

So the end of this story is yet to be written.

…..

That is the context, but this week many are too deep in feelings to place it properly. And it may be too early to ask that of them when today’s picture is of a church with 215 tiny pairs of shoes on the walk in front of it. Of a little child dancing mourning in a beaded dress.

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Now that we know there are children buried at one school, we need to check the others’ grounds too. We know now that they didn’t all run away and not go home. We need to find a way to honour these little lives without intruding on the people who mourn them. And I think it’s going to take some time and listening to figure out what that entails. But I’m pretty sure it should be more significant than Canada’s flag (or any nation’s) being lowered. Things need to change.

……. more resources

ictinc.ca
bbc
britannica
nzhistory
ijarnd.com
cdn encyclopedia
laits

Urban Planning – What does it take to create a sustainable community? /vs Human Extinction

Short answer? It depends on who is in the community.

People need to be able to access their daily needs. Food, water, transportation, mail, activities for them and their kids, schools, jobs, parks, restaurants…. you know – convenience.

People want to feel like they have a support network for when they want a coffee with a friend, a babysitter when they need a date night, and those moments of hazard. When they need an EMT, a cop, a doctor’s office or clinic, a hospital, and a coroner. They want to know that help will arrive quickly. you know…. comfort. Security.

People want to know that their community doesn’t get shot up everyday, that they don’t live in an area that will get carpet bombed soon. That they don’t live near things that terrorists like to blow up. And we may have that in North America for the larger part, most years, but that isn’t a fact in every community, in every country.

Then along comes a pandemic….

And communities that had a good system in place were able to buffer their residents. Carry on for the most part in their daily activities. Maybe switch to online school and work.

But nothing significant changed for them.

In poorer, more fragile communities things collapsed. And they’re still collapsed.

In some ways that collapse needed to happen. The world we live in now doesn’t serve everyone, (reserves, ghettoes, refugee camps) nor is it sustainable (the earth itself is in crisis). Yet the top 1% are invested in it’s continuing as it is. And so are the govts (taxes, lobbies).

And the people are invested in keeping their jobs, their homes, their communities and finding a time machine that takes them back to Oct 2019. To resume life as it was then.

But time machines don’t exist….. yet. Picking the date of Oct 2019, knowing what we know now, is that the right one? If we bypass this pandemic, the earth and it’s people are still in crisis. And another pandemic will be coming soon enough. So really, what would that change? If anything?

It’s like being in a maze. You know what the start (creation of our species) and finish (extinction of our species) are, and you’re just trying to get thru it with the least amount of damage. Hoping that the extinction doesn’t come when you and your children are here fighting the battle. And these days seeing all the signs that that hope isn’t as sure as you thought.

And you might have some ideas of what would get you and your family and friends out, but if you can’t influence the world, then all you can hope for is a gentler way of passing your remaining time. Fully aware that the clock is running out.

People usually think of me as Pollyanna, so this must come as a surprise for me to see the negative end and no way around it. I’m not sure that it is an end though…..

It will be of humanity being on earth. Don’t get me wrong. But most people believe in something larger than us, whatever you call it.

• Maybe we will find another planet to start ruining with our selfishness in time to save some of us.
• Maybe aliens will come and fix the worst of the harms.
• Maybe there is a hereafter where the good will see Nirvana and the bad will see retribution &/or healing.

Or maybe we’ll just be erased when the time is up. Living thru water wars, mass migration and mass extinction, sterility, food becoming more and more scarce as the earth gets drier, flammable, or submersed in salt water…..

What do you see happening?

Feminism – Have you heard of ‘Stand Point Theory’? (plus pandemic and vaccine hesitancy)

Getting into a debate and being stuck at

‘you’re wrong cuzz I know better than you, these theorists are smarter, their studies, their school is better,’….

is a waste of time. Yet again.

Even science is all about perspective. As a woman, as a mother who gave birth, I have had a different life than any doctor or man can know. Unless that is their life too. A man can only know child birth thru observation.

So sure, you could legit say that you did an OBGYN rotation in med school. You could even legit say you’re an OBGYN. You could even say you’ve been in it like forever and seen a LOT. And be right.

But there are some things that you just cannot say unless you’ve been thru it.

And that goes for things that are cultural, racial and gendered experiences. So sometimes even the brightest doctors on the planet have to take as gospel from their patient’s experience. That make researchers and scientists have to listen first.

They’re even finding culture/history to be a factor in anti-vaxxers. And how do you blame them when the govts have experimented in black and indigenous communities. How do you trust someone holding a needle and saying ‘this is good for you’?

How do correct for culture in the way it’s all represented? Can you even think you’re being ‘aware’ or ‘sensitive’ to that complex a history? Who can present this issue to the group and communicate the urgency to the hesitant members?

That is the gist behind stand point theory That your experience determines your POV, not just your education or logic.

Bill C-10 Media Regulation in Canada

source

Recently, the media and the opposition leader of Canada have been harping about this act. They say it means that you and I are being denied our freedom of expression. You and I aren’t losing any rights. MSM and govt officials are being curbed if anyone.

And in a day when Canadian artists have to fight to get on our airwaves, this act is a good thing. It protects our culture.

It’s not Bill C-10 that stops you from posting hate or sedition, or sites that don’t regulate kiddy porn or sexual trafficking. That is the Criminal Code.

It’s not Bill C-10 that protects your freedom of expression, that is the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Bill C-10 regulates the sites themselves and MSM. It makes them post more Canadian content and it makes them be more aware of what their members post. Like Porn Hub which was caught with it’s pants down this past year.

After this past year of Trump and Q-conspiracies, how can this be a bad thing?

Don’t let the politicians tell you what this change means to you. Look for yourself. Makes you wonder what they’re posting if they are so scared though, doesn’t it? Have you looked at the Conservative politicians’ websites lately? (hint hint!) What is your mayor, MP, or MPP putting out there?

Fertility & Women’s Bodies – God vs Science and the Law

So many of the right wing protests against abortion, transgender, gay relationships have begun with ‘divine authority’ and ‘it’s always been this way’.

They say that anyone who thinks otherwise is an evil doer and anti-God. That the traditional family is all. Well, maybe. Or it could be a social control mech designed to keep white women ‘in place’- bare foot, pregnant and in the kitchen. Well at least in the home.

And there are a few things so-called experts and Christians use when in power, when they have money that deny what they’re saying:

Coercive fertility:

• Artificial insemination (AI) and intrauterine insemination (IUI)
• In vitro fertilization (IVF)
• Natural cycle IVF
• Donor eggs
• Surrogacy
• Egg freezing
• Fertility drugs
  source

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Then there are the lengths gone to to reduce entire populations of people who aren’t in the dominant group:
Who don’t fit the standard:

coercive sterilization

……..

and coercive contraception:

• The first large-scale human trial of the birth control pill was in Puerto Rico in the 1950s.
  “long-acting reversible contraceptive” devices like IUDs and arm implants.
  source
• Depo-provera/Norplant used by:
  population controllers in Africa and the Caribbean and among those “caring” for native peoples in Thailand and New Zealand.
  source

…….

And when a woman can’t ‘breed’ to their satisfaction,

coercive hysterectomies or tubal ligations.

vs vasectomies which are less intrusive (also reversible) and solve the issues of rapists getting girls and women pregnant, and runaway dads.

……

…… coercive gender

If a baby is born with unclear genitalia, surgeries are performed to assign a gender.

coercive body image

breast and butt implants and vaginal reconstruction.

…….

But anyways, it seems God has been side-stepped when it suits those in power, so why are they deciding when and if that baby is born? Why are they forcing the decision onto women?
unaids/who

……. Answer: Because they can.

She Hunts Her Own Clan – A Story for World Goth Day!

You see them everywhere. But if you can’t see their auras, you’d never know that they were anything other than human.

But Priscilla could see them. Heck, she is one of them.

So why would she hunt her own kind?

Priscilla had always been a maverick in the vampire world. And it had gotten some shade thrown at her. She was ok with that. Really. She took her lumps and walked away in peace.

But that hadn’t been enough for her clan. When they didn’t get the reaction they wanted from her, they went after her family. The frail, the loners, even some of the kids.

Because they thought they could get away with it. They thought she wasn’t paying attention. They thought she was so placid that they could do anything they wanted to her blood.

They were wrong.

Every member of hers they went after, she hunted down one of their leaders. Even not knowing them by name or lair, she knew them because their aura was different than the ordinary members.

More streaked with darker colours like black, dark grey, wine colours. Sometimes they had a brown or golden shimmer. She was only powerful enough to take out one at a time, they were so strong.

Priscilla could sneak up on them, because they never considered her a threat. Till the axe or machete she carried was against their neck, from the back. They were stupid enough to turn their backs on her.

To be sure even their spirit couldn’t tell the tale, she burned their corpses, and scattered the ash to the winds.

Nobody caught on that she was the one killing their own leaders. But people did notice they were disappearing soon enough.

Leaders didn’t wander off.

The elders were looking for a human hunter in the area. And it never dawned on them that Priscilla was on a journey of vengeance. She played meek and mild. Subservient to the laws of the clan. Bowing to the hierarchy.

Those who never bothered with Priscilla’s family or friends never lost a leader. But nobody made that connection.

Vampires are known for being arrogant.

• Should Priscilla have stood up for herself in the first place?
  Maybe.
• Would her having done that protected those in her circle?
  Not likely.

And it would have tipped off the clan that she wasn’t the lap dog they thought she was. Then they might be looking for her now, instead of some human.

Imagine a World Where… (History of Scotland – Women and Girls)

A girl lives with her parents till she is old enough to go into domestic service for training. Stays there till she can be married. Does some crafts and cooking/baking for the local farmer’s or crafts’ fairs. Till her husband dies. Then is either a brewster, pawnbroker or midwife.

She might work as a clerk for her father or husband if he has a shop, restaurant or secretary if he has a small office.

She has no dream or plan of her own. But to follow her community’s design for her. Or be called lazy or a prostitute, shamed and run out of town.

To do what? What skills and social network does she have?

In a highly Christian society, the likes of which raised John Knox, would she be able to return if they saw her as a miscreant?

This was Scotland in the not so far off past.

Was it much different in your culture/nation?

Lady Ryal Vass – (a story)

Lady Ryal Vass

Lady Vass was from old money, that went bankrupt, and barely had the family land left. And she married a man of similar title and constraints. Blood was plenty, money was not.

Lord Vass was often wandering the world, trying to gather wealth with odd trades. And when he was away, Lady Vass would sort their books and holdings for the collectors. All because she had his name and letter of introduction.

And when he died, Lady Vass took her expertise with numbers and a tight budget off to the town centre. She rented a back room for her trade and put a sign in the shop window. Just to flush out the room, she put out the curios and tools her husband had loved to collect that she now had no use for. It was all about presentation. Like she had plenty to sell.

And it made a difference. Punters came in just to look and see what she had on display. Even if they had nothing to hold or didn’t need money, she often had a few coin from them by the end of their visit.

Lady Vass had the eye for real art and value. But she also had a kind heart. The two traits vied for each other in her dealings. She didn’t always want to buy what they had to offer, but she could see they were in need. She also often saw that what she was keen to keep and sell, they wanted back. It had real meaning to them or their family.

So she didn’t always do well money-wise. But she built a good reputation. And sometimes that has more value than the day’s takings did. Just not always when she could use a few extra coin herself.

But Lady Vass stuck with it. And eventually was able to see to her own needs, have a few clerks for the shop so she could have some fun again. And not much later, she opened another shop in the next town over.

That was the way you did business when you were a lady, a person of good moral fibre and had a kind heart. That was Lady Vass’s thoughts anyways. And apparently the locals agreed.

Dear Anti-Vaxxers – Questions for you to ponder in the 21st C

A) where do you get your water?

• Have you checked how many chemicals your local filtering station puts in it to keep it ‘clean’?
• Do you get spring water in a bottle?
• Have you considered how that plastic bottle leaks into the water over time?

…..

B) where do you get your food?

• Do you have a certified organic farmer on speed dial?

If you don’t….

• What does the store use to make it shiny?
  What do manufacturers add to the recipes?
• What do farmers add to the soil?
• How much e coli and rat whiskers is considered ‘safe’ by inspectors?
• Have you heard of soylent green?

…..

C) what is that you’re breathing?

• How many chemicals are in smog?
• Car exhaust?
• How many gases are considered to be ‘safe’ by home inspectors?

….

D) And ok let’s do drugs too…

• When was the last time there was a recall because something was considered ‘tainted’?

…..

Face it, you may be right about the risk you take in putting a vaxx into your body, but in the greater picture? Yeah that truly is the least concern you should have these days.
IDK bout you…. but I’ve grossed myself out now.

Dear Mrs Gillies (a story)

Dear Mrs Gillies

There was an old lady, down by the waters, that every woman in town knew, by name and by mien, Handy with an herb for lady pain and troubles, and one to call when birth or death knocked.

She cast no spells, she called no gods or demons. But she knew just by looking how a girl fared and what she needed. And when a woman’s time had come.

Mrs Gillies was only called for the ladies. And no man would chase her down. He’d send a child or a neighbour to bring her to his home. And step well away from her skirts when he had the misfortune of meeting her in town.

Mrs Gillies carried her bag of herbs for pain and such wherever she went, in case she was called. She knew just how fast things could turn. And sent a neighbour girl for her shopping and down to the river to do her laundry. Just to be sure it got done. And while she had her attention, she’d show her the story of the herbs, just in case she had need of them one day as payment.

Past the day of marriage and childbirth, she had her bag and experience to fortify her trade. So all the village women trusted her. Not pretty enough either to be a threat. And having heard little gossip, so did the men.

And unlike a witch, the church was open to receive her when she was free on a Sunday. So Mrs Gillies could say her prayers for the women and girls under her care.