children of her people (Anne Cameron)

 Children of her people

By Anne Cameron

     For a story to be told, it must be told properly, and to tell a story properly, it must be told with respect. A story properly told will contain an old story, a new story, a message, and an example from the past for those who will come in the future.

     This does not mean a properly told story will contain what the European dominant ideology would refer to as a moral!

     The history of this continent has not been told properly, and what has been told improperly has been told without respect, and without truth. The history of this continent, improperly and untruthfully told, has become a lie, and on that lie a society has been based which yearns for something most of us have never known in our lifetimes.

     We like to convince ourselves our society is peaceful, built of principles of liberty and justice and kindhearted liberal concern for our neighbours. We like to convince ourselves and our children we are a peace-loving people who have never oppressed or invaded any other nation--and yet how else did we get here if not by invading, oppressing, and exterminating our indigenous cousins?

     "Oh," we say, "why bring up all those mistakes of the past? What's done is done and can't be undone, so let us move forward and put behind us all the sorrow." Easy to say when it isn't your sorrow. Easy to say when it wasn't your great grandmother who became the last of what had once been a numerous, healthy, and happy family! A society which does not remember and learn from the mistakes of the past is a society which takes no responsibility and thus will repeat those mistakes of the past.

     History, as it has been taught to us, is the lie the conquerors force down the throats of the children of the disposessed. So if lies must be told, let them at least be told with love, let them at least contain some magic. After all, what is a story but a magic lie?

copyright © 1987 Anne Cameron

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πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ,ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ,ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα