AuDN4T

I was reading a summarization on how the records – testimonies collected from residential school survivors will be destroyed in 2027.

In some sense it’s upsetting but also from a different angle understanding that they have confidential information about people. From my understanding, these records were collected for compensation of the survivors of the genocide that they endured.

Since these people have already went through the trouble (and I say trouble loosely as it’s from of a saying than anything) – or rather trauma – of talking about what they endured. What their siblings endured. What their cousins endured. If we want to educate people – these documents should remain and be re-modified in a way where people’s confidentiality and dignity remains. If they want their name on the document (if they are comfortable about it) – they can have it on there – if not they can have their name redacted but keep the abusers name in there. Options should remain for them to choose the outcome of these documents.

These are factual documents – no different from what people had to collect from Holocaust and Holodomor survivors. The circumstances are different but the end result should not be different.

History has been written in a very biased manner where our governments – white, men in power – end up saying what is true. It is time to make the historical truth factual and not by people in power.

It is time for all of us to sit with the uncomfortable truths, learn from them. Learn about our own privileges – these vary in so many ways and in different time zones.

Small tangent: I think about the similarities between Russia and Canada with the mining industry taking advantage of Indigenous People mean while the Moscows, St. Petersburgs; Torontos, Vancouvers end up being the District 1 of Real World Hunger Games.

That is the only way we can build a better world – when we understand the injustices and how we feel about them. If we truly are good people or not…. and are we happy with the type of people we are. If this is the world we see us creating for future generations or do we truly just want these beautiful people of various cultures and skin colours and languages to just go extinct?

Is this is how we proceed as a humanity? With all this knowledge we just end up destroying each other due to ego?

Yes, alliances exist – what are we doing beyond alliances (I’m so tired of toeing these party lines and having people fired because they have different views from a party, I can’t reiterate this enough).

How do we hold people accountable when they are wrong? How do we hold ourselves accountable when we are in the wrong? If we’re not constantly learning and educating ourselves, then what are we actually doing?

Side tangent: How much trauma has the healthcare system caused to women, marginalized people and mental health community because they did not listen to the patient? Because they did not further educate themselves to understand the risks of their decisions?

As always – I say more data is better data. Not that the survivors are data, but a lived experience with information on what people went through. Unfortunately we have people who question the events but when you have a stack of receipts, that is undeniable truth. 38,000 receipts from people who had to relive their traumas.

…I wouldn’t have been able to get the same story from my family about their experiences during Operation Wistula from a history book. We had to speak to my mom’s aunt to know what they went through – my grandfather and his 10(?) siblings… this was 2005 when we spoke my great aunt. Those stories explain the trauma passed down to my mom and onto me.

“Have a peaceful night” is what my mom always said to me because her grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles were at risk of being killed or had to hide out in the forests in order to not be killed. There was this mental image of how they had to bring out their duvets into the forest in the winter time to keep warm and be able to sleep. I couldn’t truly comprehend that as a child…. like camping but not. They had to burn their pictures so that the army wouldn’t know who was who. That constant fear. I see it today – I can’t walk outside at night without my mom getting upset and saying the night has its rules/laws (nich maje swoji prawyla). I can’t cycle on the road without her getting upset (that is likely from her being hit by a car twice in Toronto but she is more sensitive to these slightly more hazardous activities).

The same goes for anyone else reading their family member’s traumatic experiences. They might find details that standout to them and how that trauma has been passed down onto them. I find that it would be profound to consider feedback from their kids, grandkids, great grandkids reading these lived experiences and how this has impacted them. People might see it as just one moment in time that impacted generations and this is such a critical thing to emphasize on. It was not just those kids – it was their kids, grandkids and great grandkids and so on. When you read those experiences – you truly understand how uncomfortable this entire truth is beyond one generation and how we need to do better as a society.

I do hope we can save those documents. I hope justice is done right by these people and their families and that they are heard. Commentary from families impacted reading their family member’s lived experience would emphasize the trauma – but I know not everyone would be comfortable and that is up to them to decide how they see these historical documents. I’m just brainstorming here…

May we be educated, learn and hear the hard truths, continuously keep learning, listen better and do better.

Orange Shirt Day and Red Dress Day are every day.

I will try my best in supporting how I can.

Sending you love 🧡

PS, brain is jumping from topic to topic, sorry about that.