What are we doing?

My peoples are proud, they are strong, they are shamed and they are broken.

Each aspect of my heritage is divided into hemispheres. One side: The proud, the strong, the willing warriors who battle everyday.
The other: the broken, the bullied, the afraid and beaten warrior.

I'm unsure of how we battle out of it. But, I was asked the other day to donate to a charity for a sports organization. I never do. Not because I am a gigantic asshole. But, I want a charity that helps the 3rd world conditions of the aboriginals around Canada. The water systems that pump to these lands are decrepit water stations rich in radioactive and insoluble materials. Materials that stay in water. Materials that when ingested slowly increase cells to procreate and mutate. Causing rare cancers, bone and muscle diseases. "Stores" around these areas carry extremely expensive goods. The money that people claim is "handed" to these people barely cover the cost of living and drinking clean bottled water if you are afforded that.

I am aboriginal. I look white, I wish I didn't. I am the warrior on the inside that is recognized with the Cree, The Sioux, and all the other tribes. I battle against discrimination because of the way I look and the race I identify with.

I said that to say this. These reserves are full of people who are angry and defensive. They have been pushed into inhabitable lands and told to live. They are told by media, news, and society that they are the people who bring down society. They are the ones who commit crimes. They are the ones who will not make it out and do something with their lives. Eventually, if you are told something enough. You will begin to believe it. My cousins, my brothers and sisters I've never met who do live on reserves battle something I may never have to. Something that is more than body, more than media, more than mind: Spirit.

Aboriginal spiritual life is the strongest thing they have. It is what I cling to at my lowest. It is what everyone should cling to at their lowest. The warrior comes from the spirit.

I've lost many relatives. Many brothers, sisters, and elders I have never gotten to meet. Some of that via the poisoning of the water that feeds the spirit. Some of that because their spirit was broken and they had nothing left. They decided life under duress was not worth living.

Someone close to the ones I loved had taken their life yesterday. Remembered by those closest, but nothing more than that small community. Sadly, that is what bothers me most. Stories of murder, stories of suicide. Media leads you to believe it is aboriginals. People watching it scoff, think everything is handed to them and they are still not happy. Never understanding what is exactly paid by aboriginals.

Aboriginals will never be equal to those around them. The world "Progresses" without them. Aboriginal youth is left to.... Well, do whatever they want. Limiting options of try to make it in the city or do work in rural areas to make end meet. No one tells them that they can go to school. They can be a doctor, a nurse, an EMS worker.

Broken spirits, broken land, broken minds and broken bodies. Aboriginals are proud and resilient. We will continue to fight for change. We do not want to be equal. We just want to be treated as human beings and have a fighting chance to do good.

Regards,

Devon