5 Poems to Read on Truth and Reconciliation Day
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❔ What is Truth and Reconciliation Day?
Five Poets to Read
1️⃣ Rita Joe
2️⃣ Louise B. Halfe
3️⃣ Wanda John-Kehewin
4️⃣ Dennis Saddleman
5️⃣ Jaye SimpsonAbout the Author 🙋🏽♀️
As of 2021, September 30th is observed as the Truth and Reconciliation Day in Canada. In recent years, I’ve taken September 30th as a day to educate myself on Indigenous history and culture. As I don’t have to work on that day, I have tried to take workshops, watch films (from Indigenous writers and actors) and read books (both nonfiction, fiction, and poetry). There are many events on this day around the country. I am anxious about crowds, but I try to still contribute in some way.
This year, I wanted to write this article to spread awareness of some great poems and poets to read for Truth and Reconciliation Day if you don’t know where to start. As an ally, I want to share what I have learned so that the burden is not always on Indigenous communities to educate the public or go through retraumatization.
What is Truth and Reconciliation Day?
In 2013, September 30th was started as the Orange Shirt Day in order to promote truthful education and awareness around residential schools in Canada. Residential schools in Canada were established in 1867, and the last school closed in 1996. I still remember when that happened in 1996, and how much misinformation was circulating (and still circulates). The name of Orange Shirt Day was inspired by Phyllis Jack Webstad (Stswecem'c Xgat'tem First Nation), who shared her story at a St. Joseph Mission Residential School Commemoration Project. She recounted her first day at a residential school where they stripped her of her clothing, which included a brand new orange shirt from her grandmother. The shirt was never returned, and this comes to represent all that was taken from Indigenous children by the government. This shirt and colour reminds us all that “Every Child Matters.” The colour orange in many Indigenous cultures also signifies sunshine, truth-telling, strength and power, and regeneration.
I have given a very brief introduction to Truth and Reconciliation Day here. I am not Indigenous, but here is a helpful list with more informative books written on this topic by brilliant Indigenous writers.
I also recommend Michelle Good’s Five Little Indians, a novel about five residential school survivors trying to battle their past and futures, and Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada, a book of essays on Indigenous life in Canada. (The links are from Massy Book Store, an Indigenous bookstore).
Five Poems to Read on Truth and Reconciliation Day
The following five poems talk about experience in residential schools; please take care of yourself as you read them. The poets are all from (so-called) Canada.
by Rita Joe (a Mi'kmaq poet and songwriter)
“My greatest wish is that there will be more writing from my people, and that our children will read it. I have said again and again that our history would be different if it had been expressed by us.”
Rita upon the death of her mother spent some time in foster care till she was returned home to her father and siblings. In 1942, her father passed, so she was sent to Shubenacadie Residential School. At the school she was forbidden to speak in her Indigenous language or practice anything from her culture. She would leave the school at age 16, and tried to get back all that she lost of her culture. Her poem “I Lost My Talk” is a short poem that packs a great punch of how important culture and language can be to the self.
“So gently I offer my hand and ask,
Let me find my talk
So I can teach you about me.”
The last three lines of this poem really seal for me the message that Indigenous communities are asking of non-Indigenous, specifically white communities. They ask that they be able to find and practice their language and culture so they can express who they are as individuals and as a community. This poem was published in 1978, when residential schools were still running in some provinces of Canada. Since then, this poem has been turned into a picture book with illustrations by Pauline Young. There was even a “Rita Joe National Song Project” where indigenous youth from 5 First Nation communities were called to write and record a music video for a song. They were played nationwide. I hope you will take some time with this poem and research Rita Joe. She was, and is, and great writer who said:
"When I started the first time writing, I was trying to inspire all minorities with my work. To make others happy with my work is what I wanted to do."
Angels: 215 >, 1820 – 1979 / “The Past is Always Our Present”
by Louise B. Halfe
(Cree poet and social worker; She is also known by her Cree name Sky Dancer)
This poem was written on June 3, 2021 and shared to be circulated to family, friends, and communities.I haven’t yet spoken about the mass graves uncovered in 2021 (and still more coming to light) of remains of Indigenous children. The first site had found 215 children that attended residential school and were never seen again. I recommend this article by CBC to start your own research. This tragedy has brought residential schools back into conversations. This great loss shows the tangible evidence of what residential schools have done. 215 children went missing (obvious now that they were murdered) and no one in power felt like there was something significantly wrong with these schools.
The bones
Will share their stories.“Listen. Act.
These children are ours.
Could be……………………..Yours.”
Halfe was commissioned to write a poem, and instead of focusing on the tragedy of now, this one looks at the children as the sweet souls they were. She compares them to any other child, and asks why these children were treated this way and were seen as less important.
“A mother’s long wail from 1890
Carried in the wind. A grandparent
Pokes embers, a sprinkle of tobacco,
Cedar, sweetgrass, fungus, sage
Swirls upward.”
This stanza sends shivers down my body, if I may be cliché for a quick second. The imagery takes you inside the poem where you can smell and even taste hints of the cedar, tobacco and sage on your tongue. Hearing the wind and the mother’s wail, ooof, that caught my breath. The sensory experiences in this poem also allow non-Indigenous readers to relate with the speaker of the poem.
I think of my own grandmother in the backyard sitting on a small stool while picking whatever fruit or vegetable was in season. The thought that I could have been taken for my brown skin and having a religion and culture not of the norm—and the thought of never seeing her again guts me. Yet that was a reality for many Indigenous families. Even for children that were not taken, there was that threat looming. Halfe’s poem engages her readers to look and acknowledge Canada’s racist history (and that of the USA) and learn from it, share what you’ve learned with others in your world, and recognize that even though we may not be the ones that personally put residential schools in place, we as citizens owe Indigenous communities to be witnesses of the injustice and horror that has occurred.
“It is time to release
This storm
That consumes all this nation.
Awasis, this spirit-light, these angels
Dance in the flame.”
“tO all the children Of residential schOOls …”
by Wanda John-Kehewin
(Cree-Métis Kehewin Cree Nation author and poet)
This poem by Wanda John-Kehewin is a visual one:
tO all the children Of residential schOOls …
(Inspired by Mechelle Pierre)
i hOpe YOur life is filled with lOve
frOM here On earth and frOM abOve.
i hOpe YOu can OvercOMe YOur fears
thrOugh faMilY, friends, and ManY healing tears.
i hOpe YOu can find YOur waY back hOMe
where YOu feel MOst safe, anYwhere YOu chOOse
just as lOng as YOu can be YOurself
tO laugh withOut shaMe and let gO Of pain.
i hOpe YOu can see the creatOr’s plan fOr YOu
because YOu’re still here and learning tO lOve
and sharing YOur knOwledge can bring abOut change
and a chance tO set things right in YOur heart.
i hOpe YOu sMile at the little things and pause
and reflect On hOw Much tiMe was needed tO bring it fOrth
because even a flOwer had tO be planted in Manure
tO blOssOM intO a resilient flOwer whO One daY will reunite
with the earth, but until then share the beautY and wealth Of healing
which is a cOntinuOus cYcle just like the earth and all her creatures.
bring fOrth new sMiles, new lOves, and new lives and reinvent Old waYs
tO give a child the will and strength tO push fOrth intO new territOrY
where it dOesn’t hurt tO be a child and it dOesn’t hurt tO laugh
and there’s nO shaMe in being happY and there’s nO waY tO break their heartsand it’s Ok tO be prOud because YOu have taught theM hOw special theY
are tO YOu and tO the creatOr …i hOpe YOu knOw just hOw strOng YOu are,
just hOw resilient,
just hOw beautiful,
just hOw knOwledgeable,
just hOw aMazing YOu are tO push fOrth
YOur wings tO flY again,
tO see beautY in the ugliness
because withOut the pain Of YesterdaY,
YOu wOuldn’t be whO YOu are tOdaY …
a teacher, a survivOr, a lOver Of life,
and the keeper Of stOries Of awful daYs
gOne bY …
I just discovered Wanda John-Kehewin last month, and she’s fast becoming one of my favourites. I loved her newest collection, Spells, Wishes, and the Talking Dead (2023) and when I was researching her other collections and poems, I found this one, and it sparked the idea for this article.
This poem is meant for all the children who went to residential schools and praises survivors for making it in the way they need to. Reading this poem almost felt like a peek into something that is personal and I shouldn’t be reading. Yet, reading it teaches others who have not gone through this how strong and resilient residential school children are.
by Dennis Saddleman
If you get a chance, please watch the video clip in the link, as hearing Dennis Saddleman read his poem is just another experience. “Monster” is so raw, and I can hear both Saddleman as a child and now as an adult seeing how the child version of him was treated.
“YOU’RE A MONSTER
A HUGE HUNGRY MONSTER
BUILT WITH STEEL BONES
BUILT WITH CEMENT FLESH
YOU’RE A MONSTER
BUILT TO DEVOUR
INNOCENT NATIVE CHILDREN”
I love how the personification of the residential school (or all of them) has the traits of a monster. “Your teeth crunched my language” is an evocative image that gives a picture to a big concept of being forbidden to speak the language of your culture. What most struck me about this poem was that it’s a very accessible poem to any reader. You can understand it right away, and there is so much imagery it brings the poem alive.
by Jaye Simpson (Oji-Cree-Saulteaux writer)
The last poem I will share with you is one that is not directly about residential schools. I wanted to include this poem because one consequence (of many) that keeps getting passed through generations is the trauma of having families split, or assimilation that happens. And it’s not just from residential schools, but the colonization and white supremacy. Colonialization and white supremacy gets entrenched in other cultures from education, society, politics, etc of a country that is ruled by colonizers.
“this woman.
begged for residential school, etched colonization
into
her bones, cracked into marrow to write passages
out of the bible in her right hand in white blood cell matter.”
Much like Saddleman, this poem is evocative with images and raw. I am going to leave this last example..
“i would rather outlive her now than explain my queerness,
knowing how she’d cast me out,
strike my back raw, rip my claim from my mother
tongue,
flay me in front of the land that birthed our people.”
Read “this woman, nokum” here ➡
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I hope as you read these five poems that it leads you to dig further into each poet’s work. This year for Truth and Reconciliation Day, I plan to read more nonfiction and add some poets that aren’t as well known to my list.
This article was published on September 12, 2023. Written by:
