PEGI EYERS
Driven by notions to fulfill some great “Manifest Destiny” on “Terra Nullius” (lands proclaimed empty by religious decree), tolerance for cultural diversity or peaceful co-existence were never the policies of the Settler Society. Beginning with genocide and the theft of Indigenous lands, whitestream Canada has gone on to enact racism, relocation, residential schools and assimilation on First Nations. An attitude of white supremacy was the driver for this oppression, and the exact same conditions exist in Canada today.
In the process of dismantling colonialism - examining our own “whiteness” and being complicit with the hegemony of Empire - it may be useful to envision other ways of being. What could have been different in the beginning, in our “first contact” interactions with First Nations? With the poem “Settler Song,” my intent is not to simplify, derail, essentialize, romanticize, adore, trivialize, whitewash, move to innocence, make a colonial alibi or perform a Settler Sidestep, but to present a worldview that is less arrogant, less domineering, less paternalistic, more kind, more humble, more heart-focused, and more aware of being a newcomer to a land already inhabited by a magnificent diversity of sophisticated societies.
In the process of dismantling colonialism - examining our own “whiteness” and being complicit with the hegemony of Empire - it may be useful to envision other ways of being. What could have been different in the beginning, in our “first contact” interactions with First Nations? With the poem “Settler Song,” my intent is not to simplify, derail, essentialize, romanticize, adore, trivialize, whitewash, move to innocence, make a colonial alibi or perform a Settler Sidestep, but to present a worldview that is less arrogant, less domineering, less paternalistic, more kind, more humble, more heart-focused, and more aware of being a newcomer to a land already inhabited by a magnificent diversity of sophisticated societies.
Settler Song
We touch the earth through you
You are this land
Your blood, the rivers
Your hands, the rocks we rest upon
Your breath, the sacred flame on distant hills ~
Your life-spark, a warmth the Firekeepers know
Your strawberry heart drums the living earth
Your dance, the survival of us all
Storm-born, new moon, new world rising
We wander west, émigré but free
We swim your sacred waters, woman-blessed
And in the forest, pitiful, we are the “other” you find
Markers of wampum, renewal of life,
Fatherland fades away ~
You teach us respect
How to conquer with love
Your kind voice, our home
Your arms, the circle
Our trees and animals heal each other
Anishnaabe, take us back to common ground
May we find Mino Bimaadiziwin - the Good Life, again
You are this land
Your blood, the rivers
Your hands, the rocks we rest upon
Your breath, the sacred flame on distant hills ~
Your life-spark, a warmth the Firekeepers know
Your strawberry heart drums the living earth
Your dance, the survival of us all
Storm-born, new moon, new world rising
We wander west, émigré but free
We swim your sacred waters, woman-blessed
And in the forest, pitiful, we are the “other” you find
Markers of wampum, renewal of life,
Fatherland fades away ~
You teach us respect
How to conquer with love
Your kind voice, our home
Your arms, the circle
Our trees and animals heal each other
Anishnaabe, take us back to common ground
May we find Mino Bimaadiziwin - the Good Life, again
| Pegi Eyers is the author of "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community. Stone Circle Press |
