An exercise in trust

Page 4

Talk to the Feather

There are many who wander in this world searching for the rightful place and the truth of who we are as Aboriginal people. It is these people that are spoken to by the Chief and the psuedo warriors of the people when they point to the hundreds of lives destroyed by the hungry diseases that took lives and swallowed up families. Our families, even though they were sick and thrown off the path of their own people, are still our families and our link to survival here.

The burden Native people carry is, by far, too heavy. They look like they have a light load, but they carry a load that is as heavy as the mountains that carry the knowledge of the ancestors. The wandering of the people is causing confusion and isolation that comes and stays for many of the Native people of this land.

That is a result of transition - a transition from any old way of life. The Native people stuck in that transitional place will move, but only when the ones who are moving from the transitional place start to create a space in the future for them. Sometimes it might be easy to forget that they are looking at their own people from their place. There seems to be an understanding that there are some who are from different worlds, but we live in the same space.

It seems sad and ironic that the only time we feel alive is when we have the chance to touch each other, even if it's only for a short time. Yet, trust in each other must be earned once again amongst Native people.

We have almost stopped earning the respect of our Elders. Trust is like a feeling of someone finally touching the life force in a soul. The heart is awake.

All the colors in the world seemed to come alive and sing their medicine songs. Then, as suddenly as that world can open up for Native people, the door closes when we remove our touch from each other. It can drop someone down into the depths of that disconnected world again like the force of a star rock falling from the sky.

It may take a period of darkness to realize that some of our people have found a way to use the people who are stuck in transition, for their own needs. Some say it is a weakness, a doorway for those who choose to do so, use this transition to gain power. Some say it is the human's way of touching the desperate to remind them of the brilliant human life they might attain. The answer may lie somewhere in between. They must find a way into the future world.We are no longer the people who are set to carry the burdens of those destined to lead the nation.

And to make the transition easier means building trust amongst ourselves once again.