Being an Indigenous Women in 2019 #IWD
It’s International Women’s Day today and some are calling our PM a #fakefeminist. I don’t know enough about feminism to comment, but I am a woman and an indigenous woman and today is a day that we are to be celebrated.
I’m not celebrating though.
I actually feel stunned. Almost immobilized. I too have been to law school like the Honourable Jody Wilson Rabould and I too am a Member of a Law Society, which in my case is the Manitoba Bar. However, as time has passed, having finished law school in 1991 and been a member of the Manitoba Bar for some 24 years, I can say that it hasn’t been easy as a woman to build a legal career. So what!
The way that Jody is being and has been treated has been traumatizing for me. Traumatizing for me both as a woman and particularly as an indigenous woman. It seems that for us, as indigenous women in particular, it doesn’t matter how much education and privilege we are able to earn, we remain expendable.
So, on this day that we are to be celebrating our place in the world as women, instead I feel like I’m visiting my sister at a Woman’s Shelter because she’s been violated by a man or men. I wonder how she is doing? Is she ok? I’m praying for her. I can’t imagine the pressure she is experiencing and I offer my spiritual support and voice to stand with her so she knows and sees that she is not alone.
So what is the message? It’s depressing. Whether you are an indigenous woman without an education and status or an indigenous woman who has risen to the highest office in the land, you are expendable? Is that the message?
Clearly, I’ve been traumatized. I know I’ve been traumatized by seeing our Prime Minister throw Jody under the bus to save himself because all I want to do is hide and eat chips or get on my Harley and just f*ck off!
I feel so angry.
So, where do we go from here? What do I tell my daughters and sons? I think that’s what I’ll do. I will write a letter to my children.
Kids:
This is your mom. I know it hasn’t been easy for you having a mom who is intelligent, ambitious and opinionated. I know I haven’t been at every one of your birthdays. But, it is my belief and hope that I have taught you to live by and stand for your principles. Be kind. Be honest. Be forgiving. Be strong. Be brave. Be free.
Living in accordance with these principles does not come without cost. You will often find yourself standing alone as most people are not taught to be prepared to sacrifice for what they believe. So, when you step up to defend your principles, many around you will run for the hills as they don’t want to lose what they have and they see you as a threat; and still others will undermine what you are doing.
What I can tell you is that while living with passion and principles may be lonely most of the time, there will be those who will love you and support you and respect you. Those are your people. To hell with the others, they were not your friends anyway.
And, most of all, going to bed each night knowing you have not compromised your integrity is a feeling of peace, joy and freedom. And, when there are times that you realize that you are compromising or have compromised your integrity by acting only out of self-interest, and there will be, at those times, you must ask yourself “what is it that I have to learn from this moment?”. Learn your lessons, make your apologizes and move on.
Change your behaviour and grow.
Life is a one way trip!