By Daniel Franklin Thomas
WINNIPEG – I want to make a call out to our people! We are suffering from the effects of colonization. We think we’re making a self-supporting choice when we drink or take drugs yet it is anything but. It is a command from the colonizer and you are submitting.
Every time one does this it is us giving up our freedom to be Anishinaabeg. We should have learned this lesson long ago. In the 1950’s I remember people riding around drinking.
Partying from house to house while kids cried for love, common sense and food…In the ’70s riding around drinking and smoking up. People still partying and kids still crying. Now almost 2019 people still partying, still driving around drinking…kids still crying and now kids dying at an alarming rate. Both from overdoses and from suicide.
They are casualties of the colonizer’s war on us. And we’re helping them if we continue this behaviour. Enough now! I encourage you to get straight! Break that cycle! Choose to get healthy! Love yourself, your partner, your kids! Learn to look after yourself financially! Put a good roof over your head! Put good food, healthy food in front of your kids so they can grow strong. Love and appreciate every moment with them.
And especially, hold all women in the highest esteem! They are the creators of life! Women are born with a purpose- to create life. Through fasting, she can find a secondary purpose in her life.
Men’s purpose is to be a helper. He can find a personal way to achieve his purpose by fasting and doing what he dreams.
Because Anishinaabe didn’t want to leave his Grandfather he was given many sacred Ways to help him stay in communication with the Creator. He was given a most spiritual road of life to walk. Let’s choose that road! Let’s rebuild our nation!
