Our Home IS Native Land
Every time I go on another adventure, and especially every Canada Day, I’m so appreciative of the gift that my elders gave me. Their choice to leave behind everything they loved in Hong Kong to come to Canada, so I get to call this place my home.
As I walk I often think of the space I’m occupying and the people that came before me. Whose footsteps am I treading on? Steps from earlier week and earlier this year? What about within this century, and since the beginning of time? The wider the timeline, the deeper connection I feel…to the ground beneath my feet, the rocks, the trees, and the present moment.
I reside on Coast Salish land. It has been nurtured by the wisdom and teachings of the Coast Salish peoples since time immemorial and I have such deep reverence and curiosity to learn more from Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) wisdom.
I like to think this wisdom is woven into everything I find beautiful about this place. Naturally, the more I seek to understand this beauty, the more I also learn about the the efforts to eradicate its existence. The more I learn about our systemically anti-Indigenous system of oppression, the more strongly I feel the need to participate in building the road for reconciliation.
I was not taken away from my parents as a child,
by a government-backed genocide of people who look like me.
I have never personally known a missing or murdered woman,
and I don’t spend my day worrying about becoming one.
My relatives and I have access to every basic need,
and so much more than they could ever fully utilize.
I never have needed to think about access to clean water,
much less worry that I can’t get it in my community.
All of this is privilege.
Through the people I’ve met from all over the world, some might even say this is a Canadian privilege… But if that’s the case, Indigenous people who have been stewards of this land for centuries before Canada even ever existed, should have first access and priority to all of these Canadian privileges. But that is not the Canada we live in today.
This Canada Day is not a happy one, so I won’t wish Happiness on you today. My wish for you is that we can collectively mourn all the children that never came home. My wish is for the preserving of Indigenous wisdom, teachings, cultural practices, language, and ways of being. And my final wish is that we can all support each other and the burden of the deep, painful, sorrow of this country’s truth. I wish all of this, so that we can hold each other to account that we will build a better way forward.
As a Chinese Canadian, the impacts of Anti-Asian legislation dating back to the 1800’s, still lingers today. Even though I was born in Canada, I still hesitate when I call this is my home. Three decades of existence and I’ve already lost count of the number of times I’ve been told directly or indirectly that I don’t belong or am less valuable simply because of the colour of my skin and the shape of my eyes.
Oppression is experienced differently for everyone so I refuse to compare my pain to anyone else’s. Comparative suffering just makes everyone feel worse and doesn’t help us move closer to doing better.
The truth is I will never know what it’s like to be an Indigenous person in Canada. I also will never know what it’s like to be a settler either. What I do know is that every child matters and though none of us are the ones that committed these atrocities, all of us can be a part of the road forward.
I am a second-generation Chinese Canadian Immigrant on a journey to redefine what being Canadian means. We can be different but still be equals. We can have separate identities and lived experiences, but still live connected as one.
This is my Canada 🇨🇦
