Author: Alyssa Belanger

We can’t go on together without indigenous minds

We must build our dreams with indigenous minds…

That’s to the tune of Elvis’ song Suspicious Minds, and that was all I could think the entire time I was reading this chapter. It was strange how much the idea of the indigenous mind made sense to me. Within it I could feel a break of a stereotype, that those who do not possess an Indigenous lineage could in no way bear a true connection to the land the way the First People’s of Canada and the rest of the world do.  I found myself reading  Indigenous minds with a different head voice and tone when compared to the rest of the words within this chapter, I believe that to be the work of the italicized letters, but it made the words all the more impactful. For that I am grateful, I do not think I would have noticed as much without that.

It is so…quiet

…serene

…beautiful

…fragile

We are so…loud

…disconnected

…far away

…ugly

But, we are strong.

As we walk I feel so sure of my belonging

And I think of all I’ve read,

Of all I’ve learned, and still though I belong

I feel I shouldn’t feel this way.

I’m no organic farmer; I grow no food, sustain no others, and nourish no Earth

How then do I feel this connection, this growing tether holding me?

I never want to leave.

I don’t want this to change.

But now, I go back to my heated little box, surrounded by the very things that threaten what I’ve just experienced.

And I fear that it will end.