Elegy by A Cree Sojourner (poem)

I am not afraid of being poor, being homeless…I’ve done that…

I am not afraid of breaking ribs (twice), my neck, my ankle, my skull…

been there done that…and feeling much better now

I am not afraid of having a gun pointed at me (3 times)

cause only one ever actually pulled the trigger…and he missed

I am not afraid of my mother going away, or my father or all my grandparents…

for those things happened a long time ago

I cannot say if in his lifetime, my father ever knew freedom

but in mine…he is free

It could be true that like history, it is by now well-established

that I am, as they say: an open book

and thankfully subject to revision

brother can you spare a dime?

hey man, change comes from within!

There is no longer fear of a broken heart or abandoned love

I know what those things are

I confess to the mercenary intentions

of having her soft lips on mine

there, I said it

what am I but one among this rogue species

like the mountains I have been shaped by time

in fact, I am here because of those long-gone, graceful ones

who somehow walk beside me still

in memory, in spirit

guiding me safely

through the no man’s land of my own good intentions,

to yet more meaningful ways of being

helping locate a measure of grace

during damp arthritic coastal mornings

learning to care for this temple bruised and battered through 43 winters,

grasping that there are surely now more sunsets

in the rear-view mirror than lie before me…

(but you never know)

yes, their presence comforts me

as I experience these fearsome markers of time

most days I have transcended my ancient wounds

free of that kind of pain

though the psychic tissue of scars will always remain,

just out of sight

clung to and kept in my own place of sacred things

summoned when needed to inform, to illuminate,

to be together during your own long dark night of the soul

for why else are we here?

and I stand shoulder to shoulder with front-line helpers and healers

who do the heavy lifting,

who understand that we will only heal together or die one by one

alone as individuals

as a man of the plains it is ironic that I am once again at the frontier

only this time at the borderline of the imagination

standing opposed to ones who elevate human constructs above the natural world

people unable or unwilling to understand

that the way you think about something changes the way it works –

I oppose worshipers at the altar of the holy market

with their inflationary interest in histories’ latest empire

they seem induced by some archaic voice stranded in time

a voice spouting authoritative versions of events

tenure-tracked versions of events

second-hand, borrowed and stolen knowledge

with concerns somehow vested

in salacious accounts of quote-unquote history

ideas are the currency in my trade

in this most crucial reclamation project

for some reason

the challenge seems to be to respect the ancestors and celebrate the living

do you see that it is the very rugged and elemental nature of this hard land

that makes the Indian heart and spirit so pliable?

It’s tough love from our first mother

I have no illusions of permanence and little time for regret,

despair is a sin against the imagination in places like this

my destiny is no longer shaped by others without shame

or without reverence for the things I am…I am the elements…

my life is a subterranean call, no – it is a demand for justice

I am not…but the way? -

the way is righteous

the truth is righteous

even in the city

I know places where can I sit alone among stones polished by mild-mannered rain

I can always locate a vantage point to watch the crows

and be moved by their nightly, spectral pilgrimage

through the great nation that is the sky

even in the city

I hear creator

in my daughter tapping keys on a piano in the next room

there are stations, thresholds and bridges

constructed by others before me that I cross

to arrive in places I could not possibly have gotten to on my own

I keep frequent company with other ways of thinking

road men and matriarchs who have all walked the long road

when necessary developed other modes of orienting themselves in

social and spiritual space

I seek counsel with those happily immersed in old-growth forests of the mind

who may yet teach me other ways

of interacting at all times with the earth itself

I am touched by these warriors of the heart and road

in this company there is space for you

in this company may you find watershed thoughts

of the sacred heart of the world –

come know what love is really like

and dream of worlds to come

© 2013 Champsteen Publishing

...But For The Grace Of God...(editorial)...

*(sigh)…yet another native person dies while in the custody of agents of the state…I internalize my immediate reaction (I process) and then externalize through this media and other means…I very carefully think about my personal feelings (or lack of certain ones)…Am I shocked? (no) - Am I surprised? (no)…Am I angry? (aren't you?)…Is this justice?...Why am I not surprised? Why does this incident seem so commonplace? Why is there no larger public outcry? – It’s because this story has been played out time and time (and time) again for over 500 years.

I’ve just viewed the latest footage of an aboriginal man being brutally restrained by state police (RCMP in this case) – the footage is graphic, disturbing and one can only imagine how difficult (if not impossible) it is for the family of this man to watch the video. Not surprisingly police were found to have played NO ROLE in the man’s death. The man clearly had been beaten about the head, which police denied, they claimed “if” he received blows to the head, they were inadvertent (accidental) and glanced off the body blows they delivered with metal batons. The coroner claims the man died from “acute ecstasy intoxication,” which as a medical condition has yet to be proven one way or the other (i.e. it’s debatable as to whether one even can overdose on ecstasy), there are, no doubt, experts who would testify one cannot. The footage shows clearly a man being pinned face down in a growing pool of blood while his hands are cuffed behind his back. He has been hit with a taser-gun at least 6 times by this point and is howling in pain. Eventually he is placed on a moveable stretcher, strapped-down (while still face down) and still cuffed behind his back. Sometime shortly after the camera was turned off the man went into cardiac arrest, never regained consciousness and died 5 days later. It's not apparent why during the 15 minutes of footage, no one moves to assist the man. The 5 - 6 people on the scene simply sit on the man and it's sickening to hear the man's cries while he is completely immobilized in what has to be a painful position: imagine, one officer holding your head so that your are face down to the cement floor (in a pool of your own blood), one cinching your arms up higher and higher behind your back (while your wrists are cuffed behind your back) and his knee pressed between your shoulder blades another officer holding one of your arms pressed to the floor, 2 other officers kneeling on the back of your legs - let's try this to any one of those cops and then suggest that they "calm down" as they are tortured like the officers taunt in the video...

At this stage in my life when I consider an issue that is personal or I that am involved in or that I become aware of I ask myself a basic question: WHAT IS REASONABLE?...

…as such, I've become deaf to rationalizations and justifications…the official ruling indicates the death was “accidental” if one views the footage of the man following the police “takedown,” no reasonable person could think police actions were not a contributing factor. There is nothing accidental about the number of police officers involved, the weapons at their disposal and their posturing and body language during this arrest. I prefer not to get into specifics as to the identity of the victim and the reason for his arrest. I’m more concerned with patterns of behavior on the part of law enforcement officers and agencies. Someone dies and police, rather than showing leadership, become devious, arrogant, blame the victim and attempt to play the role of victim themselves, forwarding claims of being placed in life-threatening situations. Other times when police have been found to lie about their involvement in a death and when evidence surfaces irrefutably showing involvement then the “I feared for my life” argument is trotted out. Police have frequently been proven to lie and when caught offer contrived apologies that are political and are carefully constructed so as never to directly state involvement or culpability at all. This then protects them when undoubtedly they are called to task in future court proceedings and they are still able to deny involvement or guilt - perhaps readers will understand better what an “official” apology then really means when, say, the federal government offers an apology to residential school survivors, and a token monetary gesture – better to say “sorry” rather than take responsibility, leadership an apology looks good, politically (though to me they are clearly sleazy distraction techniques) - but mean nothing in terms of real empathy or authentic restitution. The official process usually ends with inquiries or inquests which allow for recommendations but have no real teeth and institutions and organizations are not obligated to actually implement any of the findings. In short, it’s a big show and at the opposite end of this tragedy are real people paying the ultimate price for having the misfortune to become involved with police and the "system". Various other players in the whole process show disdain and outright contempt for the public in trying to put in place the most meager checks and balances that would ensure accountability and transparency in how the police themselves are policed. Last year the BC government was asked to answer why 5 separate criminal assessments (investigations) were completed without formal charges brought against 2 police officers - THIS IS CRUCIAL: AN INQUIRY FOUND EVIDENCE THAT 2 COPS COMMITTED A CRIME BUT POLICE (INVESTIGATING THEMSELVES) DURING 5 PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS OVER SEVERAL YEARS LAID NO CRIMINAL CHARGES. The question was asked during a public inquiry that came ten long years after this particular high profile death-while-in-custody case. The government stated its position that the public did not have a right to hear sensitive government testimony and therefore should not be compelled to answer. That was, the public did not have the right to know the truth.

If you in your heart believe native people as a race are more criminal and more often than not deserving of strong-arm police engagement - if you think that we as a race are simply unruly, don't know how to behave and are solely responsible for our over-representation in the criminal justice system, that there is not a larger subtext and ongoing series of historical circumstances that have led to present ones...then I cannot talk to you and it is a waste of energy to try...I will go around you and hope that I don’t find you on the opposite side of a dispute because I will know your mind is already made up about me and my people…there is term for this type of thinking…

A reasonable person will see clearly that “systemically,” this society is flawed. The more time goes that goes by, the less inclined I am to use statistics – anyone with a certain level of literacy can create whatever meaning they choose out of any statistic – INDISPUTABLE FACT: WAY MORE Indians are incarcerated WAY more often than non-native people – proportionately, WAY WAY MORE Indians die while in police custody than non-native people – Indians make up WAY WAY LESS of the total population of this idea referred to as Canada…If non-native people died with the frequency that Indians do there would rapid and wholesale change in the structures and institutions that operate in dominant society (that’s another way of saying shit would change in a hurry) but because the victims here are Indians the wheels of justice have a Texas Bootjack on them (ie. Nothing changes, more of our people die way more often).

“It’s a tough job being a cop.” – This is unquestionably true. It is a job I would not want and it is a duty I am not charged with carrying out. Dominant society has provided these people with the power, authority and firepower the rest do not have. They took an oath. They took the job.

As an Indian with 2 young daughters I am fully and painfully aware of how expendable and unimportant the lives of Aboriginal women are to dominant society. They experience every conceivable disadvantage, hardship, social ill and human against human crime there is and clearly cannot rely on institutions for help or protection. INDISPUTABLE FACT: Aboriginal women are WAY WAY WAY WAY MORE MORE likely to be murdered or disappear than anybody else. In my heart do I reasonably believe its good advice to tell my daughters that their place in society is secure (this is philosophical in one sense of course but quite literal in another)? Are they to believe the police are here to help them – that police are here for their protection?

I spare a thought for this man’s family and all other families who have had loved ones taken well before their time in such tragic and senseless circumstances. These days I pray for those who cannot (for whatever reason) and for those who will not. I pray for police throughout the land that they receive the grace, the courage and wisdom to perform their sacred duty to protect all people in society from harm...not bring it.

My spiritual self allows me to believe that a person who is "well" will do the right thing. And thus I don’t seek retribution, vengeance or to even-up a score or two, rather, I look to examples set by those who came before me, those who were brutalized by the system or agents therein, lost loved ones and lost their liberty and yet still found the grace to forgive and remain active in their own and their people’s lives. People like Nelson Mandela or Chief Big Bear each of whom had reasons to hate their oppressors but used (or are using) their remaining time to create legacies that will live long after our time.

Consider this perspective: if this is how police deal with blatant abuses of power, cover-ups and incompetence in this day and age with portable video, internet and in a media-saturated society. I shudder just thinking of all the things that took place less recently out of camera range, away from prying eyes or removed from the public eye, in isolated jail cells across the land, in back alleys and on back roads and in situations where police knew no one was watching and where they couldn’t be witnessed meting out their brand of justice. It does not seem likely at all that these most recent events are isolated and are not part of larger and deeply entrenched attitude of violence and abuse of power in a grand-scaled, fatally flawed power structure.

Is it reasonable to expect more from a society that claims to promote and provide freedom and equality for all its people? Is it reasonable to expect better policing and demand that better people will step up if those currently doing the job don’t have the moral character it demands?

I say..it is.

© Champsteen Publishing 2009