My reconciliation is when pictures of the cigar store Indian is not the image that greets ignorance, when war bonnets of big chief are not misused for profit, when head shops are not referred to as “peace pipe”...
Read Karissa Martin's (Re)-Conciliation
Hagersville, ON
Six Nations of the Grand River
Age 20
She:kon, sken:nen. Nikaronhya’a yon’kyats. Kanienkeha’ka ne I:I, wakskaré:wake, ta:non Ohswekenron:on.
Hello, greeting/ peace/ well-being/ tranquility. My name is Nikaronhya’a which translates into something like “Little Blue Sky.” Mohawk is my nation, I am Bear Clan, and I am from Ohsweken or Six Nations of the Grand River.
The poem that I have wrote is entitled “(Re)-Conciliation.” Over the past couple years, the relationship between Indigenous nations and the Canadian government has been affected by a number of different occurrences in mainstream society. The apology given by Stephen Harper June 2008 was viewed differently among certain Indigenous groups. Myself, I felt like the apology amounted to very little in my eyes. Actions speak louder than words and this is the exact notion I am portraying in my writing piece.
After June 2008, Idle No More and other resistance movements were established widely across Canada. This goes to show that there is a lot more work to be done in our Indigenous communities and our relationship with the colonial state still needs to addressed and readdressed.
I chose to title this poem (Re)conciliation to get at the notion of our relationships actually staring with true conciliation and the need for working and reworking this relationship between these two parties. It is an ongoing process that takes more than just words and one-time discussions.
(RE) conciliation
In the depths of summer
When the plant life is at is fullest
When the birds sing their songs every sunrise
When Skies stay calm and blue
In the depths of summer; we danced
We sang
We celebrated
In the depths of summer,
New beginnings are in full bloom
Our stories were told and heard
Some of pain,
Some of hurt
Some of lives being taken too young
Wounds being open and reopened
Traumas being lived and relived
Tales heard after years of repression
Poison finally leaving the body
As silence is deafened
Word after word,
tales spilling out of mouths,
Burning the throat-
as these harsh histories are brought forward
With each past being told-
we restore
this is the struggle we go through
to heal our nations
Resistance is a form of fight,
of battle,
of conflicts being addressed
Resistance-also has no days of off
Our bodies
Our lands-
are tired and weak
Constantly rebelling against
challenges you set in our paths
Resistance needs to turn into something
other than struggle
If reconciliation were to happen,
We need you to know- we are sick of words
These meaningless verses that hold no weight
These words you speak of “sorry”
Slipping through mouths
From the people who don’t know our trials or tribulations
My reconciliation includes a revolution
A transformation of sorts
My reconciliation is
Hundreds and thousands of
Resolutions adding up to
The greater of dialogue
My reconciliation is
When pictures of the cigar store Indian
Is not the image that greets ignorance
When war bonnets of big chief
Are not misused for profit
When head shops are not referred to as “peace pipe”
We’re not your f*cking mascots
My reconciliation is
When the dispossession of the lands
where my culture and ceremonies
come from are given back to my people
When government boarders
do not define my existence
When my mother’s lands
are not abused, misused or exploited
When there is no pipeline that runs across her body
Blocking the veins that hold life
My reconciliation is
When my language, Kanien:keha,
Is not seen as foreign in its own homelands
When I can voice the words of my ancestors
And they are understood
When I can speak to my brothers and sisters
In the tongue that connects me to the
Places our mothers have walked
When the ability to choose what language
I converse in is not something forced down my throat
My reconciliation is
When traditionalism is
not seen as something of the past
When intergeneration traumas are addressed
When colonial violence is confronted in our life histories
My reconciliation is
When the idea of the sacred feminine is returned
How they tried to keep us
too weak to speak
too weak to spark
When women are not seen as squaw or savage
When their lives are honoured
Reclaiming the power that life givers hold
My reconciliation is
When our men are not scrutinized for their unknowing
When they are not harmed by colonial patriarchy
When the tears that fall from their faces are validated and respected
My reconciliation is
When false labels do not restraint us
Because Indian, native, aboriginal
Do not give full voice to who we are as people
Try onkwehonweh- the original peoples of turtle island
My reconciliation is
When 1181 is not just a number rising
When MMIWG is not just a hashtag
When our sisters who have gone and left are put on the radar
My reconciliation is
When equality is met
In the educational system
in health standards
and for living conditions
My reconciliation is
When suicide rates are not at an epidemic level
When the lives of the hurt
Are healed with love
And not damaged with pain
My reconciliation is
When the indigenous family dynamic is returned
When we know what it means again
To belong to family
To belong to community
To belong to nation
My reconciliation is
When our questions are answered
Because I don’t know why it’s so easy for dad to crack that bottle
Than to crack a smile
Or why I hardly heard laughter leave his breath
Or how he couldn’t lend me life
Because he was searching for his own
Adding fire to the fuel
Making flames burst with anger and sadness
Because I don’t know why mom cries
Every time she is reminded of the nights she was violated
When her power was taken with force
why she cannot give my family true love
To ground ourselves in
Because I’ll never know why
Brother took his life too young
I’ll never know why we had to bury him
When I was the age of seven
I’ll know why that piece of our family
Will be gone for this lifetime
Because I just don’t know why
So many don’t know why
My reconciliation is
When you know,
Canada knows
The worlds knows
We are not quite what you said we were
My reconciliation is
When the purposeful forgetting
Of our histories is not left out of curriculum
When unawareness is addressed in society
My reconciliation is
Letting the children in those schools
Know it is not the fault
That their spirits were damaged and abused
It’s not their fault that they carry this burden
My reconciliation is
Tapping into the hope
I know is living among our people
Know that you matter
Know that you have purpose
My reconciliation includes
Creating and recreating
Our own histories
We are the people of this red earth
We are the people that have been living
With creation before ships sailed the ocean blue
We are the people who want meaningful action put forward
And I’m not going to be apologetic for these truths
it is something you need to hear