Protect our mother
Idle No More is not just about Indigenous rights, it’s about the rights of the planet
Those damn dirty lazy Indians are at it again! They’re blocking the roads, dancing in public areas, and wanting more and more and more! Don’t they already get free hand outs from the government? Why are they so greedy? Those Wagon Burners, those Chugs, those Squaws, those Thugs…
We’ve all heard these words; whether it was coming from our teachers, parents, friends, or even our selves. This is systemic racism in its truest form, and it’s working. It’s working so much that our own fellow Canadian citizens, even our own fellow classmates, think that Idle No More is about “Indians wanting more and more.” The biggest threat to this Global movement is ignorance.
So let me be completely clear about this: This is not an Aboriginal issue, it’s not even a Canadian issue, it’s a life and death issue! Idle no more means that we cannot be silent anymore! We cannot stand by and let bills such as Bill C-45 pass right through our so-called democratic system of government!
But this is a global grass roots movement, so how can it be only the Canadian Government that we’re talking about? We are talking about our mother! Our mother! Mother Earth! We are talking about all governments on the globe and every person living on it! If you think that you won’t be affected in years, even days, to come, you are sadly mistaken.
In today’s society we value money over our natural resources; over the other species we share this earth with. We take for granted the fact that we can breathe the air every morning. We take for granted the fact that some of us can still drink right from the tap in our kitchen!
So why is it that we see a majority of Aboriginal People at these Idle No More rallies? How come we see Aboriginal Ddnce (the Round dance) at these “peaceful protests”? It’s because this movement started with four Aboriginal women who wanted to be heard, peacefully, and grew greatly within the Aboriginal population because of shared beliefs. This does not mean that non-Aboriginal people can’t participate, it is quite the opposite. This movement has sprung up in places like London, England and New Zealand and is still growing!
We had one of the original organizers come talk at the University of Regina and she herself said she “in no way saw herself as an activist” when all this began. She was just a human being concerned about the future of our children. By saying Idle No More, we are not condemning our past leaders who have tried to make a stand in the past. We are merely saying that by being silent we are being compliant, and so we can no longer be idle.
No man-made laws can protect our Mother Earth. It will have to be the will of the people that will protect her. Along the way Humans forgot the natural law of things. We forgot how to live in harmony with all our brothers and sisters and because of this we will be punished by Mother Earth if we continue to ignore and forget natural law. We already see in the daily news of bigger and worse natural disasters, due to things like Fracking, Global Warming, and mass pollution. She will retaliate; and even if we (humans) become extinct, the world will regenerate. New life will form and we will be forgotten just as we have forgotten Mother Earth. We haven’t inherited the Earth from our parents; we borrowed it from our children. And it will be our children who will pay. It will be our children who cannot play outside because of the toxins in the airs. It will be our children who will hate us, for taking their lives.
The biggest threat to our goal of peace is ignorance! The government bodies and officials and media will do as they were taught to do: to cover up our mistakes, to take bribes in place of morals, to twist the story, to lean heavily on stereotypes, to put up that mask to the rest of the world and say “nothing is wrong here” but we will know different! And because we know different it is up to us to teach others who don’t! It is up to us to inform our fellow misinformed brothers and sisters, citizens, elected officials, journalists, and human beings! The biggest threat is ignorance, but we can fight it!
So the choice is yours. We can use everything the world literally has to offer to maintain our way of living today, but then plague tomorrow. OR we can take the steps necessary today to be alive tomorrow. IDLE NO MORE!
Daphne Kay
Contributor
Photo courtesy of blog.cellep.com
