June is graduation month

Page 5

My wife, Trisha, has been in a bit of a twist for a few days now. Tonight, she is speaking in Saskatoon at the first annual Aboriginal Commerce Graduation. Several of the graduating students have been teasing her about how emotional she can get. She's always telling me that those tears are her strength, but she's worried enough about getting too emotional tonight that she has sat and written down her words. After reading them, I asked to borrow them for my column. These are her words:

I have thought for a long time about what I wish to share with you tonight. It took me awhile to figure out, but then I remembered what I had been taught: the only thing I have to share is myself. And I am guessing many of you have similar stories.

Going back to school was a dream for me, a dream that things could be different for my people. I guess you call the dream a "quest for justice" for my people. I believed that things could and should be different. At the time I did not understand that I was joining the war against colonization and its consequences on our citizens and nations. At this time of my life, I was very angry. And that's probably a good thing because it is that anger that gave the energy to me to go to school for so many years. An old Ojibwe man who has now passed to the other side said that it was not the anger that was bad. There are two ways to use anger. Sometimes we turn anger back at ourselves and if we do this it will eat us alive. But we can also use anger as an energy to propel us forward. I now understand that for Indian people anger is one of the logical consequences of that colonialism, personal and collective.

Dreaming and the anger led me back to school in 1979. I started law school in 1984 in Kingston and started going to prison to the Brotherhoods and Sisterhood largely because behind the wall was the only place in Kingston that there were Indians, a sad fact, but also a true fact. This is how my career turned out to focus on both the Canadian criminal justice system and a desire to work toward reclaiming Aboriginal methods of dispute resolution.

I am not sure that I can give guidance or inspiration. But this is what I have learned from my life. Pick one thing for your people and just do it. There is so much commotion in our lives resulting from colonial imposition, we are not short of choices. Remember that colonialism destroys first and foremost our ability to trust each other. Whether you choose to work through education, commerce, economic development, developing sustainable land bases, justice, politics, tribal governance, it does not matter much. We must rebuild our knowledge of who we are and where we fit. Each of us came with a gift from the Creator. It is our duty to live that gift.

And if my words have moved you, remember our ways. Remember to give that kindness, comfort and inspiration back every chance you get. This will create a revolution in Indian country.

I share the spirit of my wife's words, Patricia Monture Angus. As a member of the Education Committee here at the Thunderchild First Nation, I wish to congratulate, not only our graduates, but all the students from nursery on up for a great year. I am proud of each and every one of you. And to each of you who graduate this month, we are proud of you and honor your families, your communities, because we know without their love and support, each of us alone is nothing.