By what right do they stay

Page 7

Dear Editor:

I found a baby bird yesterday. It had fallen from its nest, hopping around, unable to fly. Its beak large and yellow. The mother had built its nest between two tightly fitted pieces of plywood on the roof of our back porch. We all commented on how it was a terrible place to put a nest.

My first reaction when finding the baby Starling, was what to do next. It was impossible to stuff the bird back into the nest. Besides it would only get out again. Since it was late, I took some dried grass and put it into a box. The bird was crying away, so I dug up some worms and fed it. I covered the box and left it for the night.

I had seen starlings around the city for years, had never really known anything about them. Until a couple weeks ago when a friend commented to me that he pulls out his pellet gun every time he see one and kills them. He told me that Starlings eat Robin's eggs and Blue Jay eggs; that they are European in origin; are not Indigenous to North America and therefore have no natural predators to keep their population in check.

Ever since then, I had begun to view Starlings with disdain. Much like I view Purple Loostrife, that tall purple/pink plant you see on the sides of roads which is choking Ontario wetlands and fields because it also has no natural predator in North America. I saw Starlings as some unnatural creatures with no right to be on this continent, and probably it was better if every last one of them was dead.

I contemplated killing the baby bird. One less to deal with, and good for them anyway! Stupid Europeans, bringing over their stupid birds and plants, upsetting the natural ecological balance of this part of the world. Never thinking about the consequences! Typical, I thought. Europeans, and their descendants, - ruining our land with their lack of foresight for anything but their own damned greed. And in fact, what right do they have to be here?

"What right do they have to be here?" I stopped and thought about what just popped in my head. "What right do they have to be here?"....hm. But then, where would I have them go, I asked myself? The birds I mean. Where would they go? Could I justify killing them all off? Its all or none you realize. Do we cage them and send them home? Where is their home?

And for that matter, what do we do with the Europeans who have been here for generations? Is it realistic to "cage 'em and send 'em home"? Obviously not. So then, is there a point when they will stop upsetting the ecological balance of this continent? Not Sure. They will never be Indigenous to this continent, but is there a point when we as Aboriginal people will agree they belong here?

As I opened the lid off the box, I saw a weak and helpless creature. A creature that was born here, in North America. Its ancestors came here several generations ago. It knows nothing else. And I felt compassion for it.

Now I know a few of my friends would have not had sympathy and would have willingly killed it for me, perhaps as some sort of gut reaction against the assault on our way of life, our languages, and our land. And perhaps its the "Metis" in me that makes me more sympathetic to White people and their birds. Just kidding here of course, but I don't know what it was. All I know is that for those moments of holding that frail creature in my hand, I loved it with all my heart, and wanted it to live.

Christi Belcourt