If violence is what ultimately shapes our world, maybe Canada will need to go the way of the dodo.
But after hearing wellness advocate Shayla Stonechild, who championed the winner of CBC's Canada Reads book contest this year, I hope that maybe what really matters is how good we can be at opening our hearts.
The winning book is A Two-Spirit Journey, by Ma-Nee Chacaby, written with the help of Mary Louisa Plummer. Chacaby wrote it so her grandchildren and others could know "what [she] was about, what [she] was made of, what [she] stood for." She describes how, despite the abuse she suffered as a child and her escape into alcoholism, she was able to leave an abusive marriage, achieve sobriety, become an alcoholism counsellor and raise her children as well as foster many others.
Stonechild spoke of the four-day fast she completed the week before the contest and how she urges other Indigenous people to join her in reclaiming ceremonies and deepening their connection to the Creator. And she urged us all "to open your heart like Ma-Nee's. There's been so many strangers that have helped her along her journey and that's what makes us Canadian and that's what makes us unite as a country and as a nation."
Can we uphold this part of our heritage and make this world a better, healthier place? I hope so.
Jan Slakov is a qathet Regional District resident.
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