Write
on, young native writers, write on....Write on. Write on, the man said, it is the only way to become truly proficient in your chosen profession. Read and write. Read everything you can get your hands on, from Tolstoy's War and Peace to matchbox covers in bars. Write on about everything. Keep a daily journal documenting your adventures and experiences, your rousing victories and your chilling defeats. It is all grist for the mill writers call Life.
Bring the language alive... breath it... feel it... make it sing for you and your readership. It is truly a magnificent tool, an awesome samurai-like device that can carve dainty rosebuds - or lay waste to your enemies.
A former Prime Minister of the country - Pierre Eliot Trudeau - has just passed away. It is an excellent opportunity to wax poetic on the life and times of this great and complex Canadian. Love him or hate him, just don't be indifferent to him. The Olympics are on again in Australia, another opportunity to glorify the earthly ambitions of humankind, the ecstacy of winning and the agony of defeat. See both sides. Share the glory of aborigine Cathy Freeman winning the gold for the 400 meter run but try to understand the despair of her people who have yet to even leave the starting block in their sacred and wondrous land down under.
Just heard from a lady friend in Vancouver. She works with street kids. One of them, a talented young aboriginal writer, died before she could see her name in print - in a national native anthology of native writing. Mourn her death but celebrate her youthful efforts and the goals she met before walking out onto the Wind to be with the Grandfathers.
In the so-called Holy Land the Jews and the Palestinians are back to killing one another in the streets. Feel their passion, sense their mindless rage, weep for them in print. Shed a few tears for those who are beyond tears. Get angry, get involved. Even the Lord Jesus became angry at sleazy merchants desecrating the Temple. Each and every one of us is directly or indirectly responsible for the world we live in. Be a part of the solution and not a part of the problems that are tearing our world apart.
The world is born anew every morning and with it comes the promise of a new day and new experiences...new beginnings...a fresh start. Leave yesterday's garbage behind with yesterday and move on. Abandon antiquated mainline religions and move on. Even a bout with agnosticism can open you up to a new and greater vision of the Creator. Who knows what greater visions the struggles of the Burnt Church people will bring. No one knows the way of the Wind or the will of the Creator. It is for us human beings to move on and find out for ourselves.
Write on, young aboriginal person, write on and find new ways for the rest of us to follow. The oral traditions of out fathers and grandfathers are dead and gone to the spirit world with them. Oral traditions only work if you have a kindly parent or grandparent to learn from. Ojibway prophecy say the elders will be all "asleep" (unaware) at this time. The adopted political systems of today are at best pale reflections of another race's mistakes. Chiefs and Councils in Indian Country are piss-poor comical shadows of their own white mentors. They are dead to our People. They sold out for the almighty buck and their own personal greed a long time ago. Understand that it is our people's own lives on the line that will change unpleasant political situations, not the blustering and flatulent oratory and mindless windbaggery of inherently "dead" politicians - white or red. Don't vote in on-reserve elections. It only encourages the buggers. Write on, young aboriginal writer, write on....
Learn from history or be doomed to repeat it - endlessly. Look at freedom and equality in South Africa. At what price were these precious things "gifts" achieved? Is the struggle over or does it go on? Look to South and Central America. At what price and in what coin were their freedoms bought. Do you think that we here in Indian Country can achieve the same with any less the sacrifice? Do you think we can achieve our goals and aspirations through the mewling and puking of so-called "chiefs" who can only employ empty threats of "another summer of violence" to have their way with white politicians? Will our dreams come through the mindless saber-rattling and hollow rhetoric of anonymous and terrified assholes on the World Wide Web?
Isn't it about time we took it up to another level? Or do we sit back satisfied, warm and secure in the knowledge that our generation has done the very best that it could? Wake up and smell the coffee, kid. It's a brand new day...new beginnings....