Indigenous Peoples Day
They tried to erase you.
Your place. Your story. Your belonging.
You are still here.
They tried to silence you,
your dreams, your songs, your language.
You are still here.
They tried to conquer you,
your faith, your dances, your spirit.
You are still here.
They attempted a world without you,
the ghost people afraid of your bodies,
afraid to be neighbors, siblings, friends.
And so the old whitewashed stories,
the old reason to steal your water, your trees,
to mine your sanctuaries and poison your earth,
the old command to destroy whole villages,
the old, old nightmare trail of tears—
(gas chambers, auction blocks, barbed wire wall,
they are all the same).
And you are still here.
Displaced in place, homeless in your homeland,
yet vibrant, courageous, thriving,
all over the world you are here.
Our failure will multiply until you are welcomed.
For you are still here, and forever will be.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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