[Shaahayda Rizvi]

Hello James,

Thank you  for another powerful post which touches on many topics especially the Jung lecture series in which Dennis, Hollis and others participated as well. Through you, James, I learned of the lectures and heard them with much attention and enthusiasm.  The section of your post that caught most of my attention was the matter of ‘being heard’. You wrote:

“Meade said that there is an inner desire to not only “Witness” our inner self; but also it is just as important – “to be Heard”! I think here is one of the greatest gifts humanity has to offer itself; because by entering into a dialogue with our inner personhood and sharing it with both with oneself as well as others we allow others to also become vehicles of healing and wholeness; and the raising of consciousness” itself.”

I’ll  expand on why it caught me so, and in doing so,  I’ll give a brief outline of the events here in Canada.

Background

A sad, cruel and macabre part of Canada’s hidden history made headlines during the first week in June after ground-penetrating radar located the remains of 215 First Nations children in a mass unmarked grave on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS).  The discovery of Indigenous children found in KIRS shook  Canada to its core. Calls for a public apology  from the federal government and the Catholic Church came pouring in.  But first, what is KIRS?

Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS)

“The term residential schools refers to an extensive school system set up by the Canadian government and administered by churches that had the nominal objective of educating Indigenous children but also the more damaging and equally explicit objectives of indoctrinating them into Euro-Canadian and Christian ways of living and assimilating them into mainstream white Canadian society. The residential school system officially operated from the 1880s into the closing decades of the 20th century. The system forcibly separated children from their families for extended periods of time and forbade them to acknowledge their Indigenous heritage and culture or to speak their own languages. Children were severely punished if these, among other, strict rules were broken. Former students of residential schools have spoken of horrendous abuse at the hands of residential school staff: physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological.

The Kamloops Indian Residential school was Canada’s largest such facility and was operated by the Roman Catholic church between 1890 and 1969 before the federal government took it over as a day school until 1978, when it was closed. Nearly three-quarters of the 130 schools were run by Catholic missionary congregations.”

PRESENT DAY

For almost a decade, the indigenous groups led by their  Elders had been requesting the federal government to investigate and address  the disappearance of their children and the abuse of those that attended and survived. Those million prayers and requests were heard last month in May 2021, with the discovery of the bones, and the reports made headlines in June 2021.

“The discovery sent shock waves through the nation, prompting communities from coast to coast to lower their flags to half-staff and hold moments of silence in honor of the children. From Vancouver to Ottawa, children’s shoes, toys and candles have been left at makeshift memorials.”  (Source: NBC news)

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Canada’s government called on Pope Francis to issue a formal apology for the role that the Catholic church played in Canada’s residential school system. The government also offered compensation. Flags were lowered, prayers said, shoes and toys left on the steps of KIRS.

Justin Trudeau’s government also pledged to support efforts to find more unmarked graves at the former residential schools which held Indigenous children taken from families across the nation.

“The U.N. Human Rights Office said in an email that Canadian authorities should ensure “prompt and exhaustive investigations” into the deaths of Indigenous children and “redouble efforts” to find their bodies, including by searching unmarked graves.” Source: CBC News

One Example of what the First Nation’s request –

“Stop asking how you can help — and listen, says B.C. residential school survivor. Eddy Charlie, a survivor of the Kuper Island Residential School, doesn’t want people to ask how they can help. Instead, he would like them to just listen to the stories of survivors like himself.”

(It’s been 50 years since Eddy Charlie left the Kuper Island Residential School, just off the east coast of Vancouver Island, and the pain he experienced while forced to attend, he says, has stayed with him throughout his life.

He turned to alcohol as a way of coping, which led to anger and damaged relationships — with his community and his family.

As the discovery of the remains of 215 children buried at the Kamloops Indian Residential School makes headlines around the world, political leaders, activists and allies have taken to social media to offer support and ask how non-Indigenous people can help.

But Charlie says he would rather people just listen.

“I just want people to sit, hear the story about residential school, don’t try to respond,” he said during an interview with All Points West host Kathryn Marlow.

“Don’t try to see what can [you] do. We want people to hear this story for us. It’s not a fairy tale. It’s not something from one of the Stephen King novels. This truly, really happened to 150,000 children.”

“Finding these 215 children buried at Kamloops residential school is one of the biggest wake-up calls in all of Canada,” Charlie said. “It’s time for [people] to take their turn, to listen and hear the stories of residential school survivors.”

Charlie said survivors often carry so much shame and anger that it makes it impossible to talk about their experiences. And if they do talk about it, Charlie said, they’re worried how others will react.) Source: CBC News

“Stop asking how you can help — and listen, says B.C. residential school survivor. Eddy Charlie, a survivor of the Kuper Island Residential School, doesn’t want people to ask how they can help. Instead, he would like them to just listen to the stories of survivors like himself.”

 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/eddy-charlie-residential-school-survivor-1.6049423

“Yet, soul often awakens in the darkest hours as something deeper and wiser stirs within us. “

Shaheda