Empty Cots

History is told by the victors . In essence, that means the coloniser has the privilege of donning a white cloak and playing hero. The erasure of atrocities and the belittlement of beautiful, thriving empires are embroidered into our history books. Any different to us, portrayed as savages and as lesser than.

Dismembering the vast, luscious, wealthy kingdoms such as Ancient Ghana and Mali. Drowning India under the British Raj and the British East India Company. Dominating global trade in the trafficking of fellow passengers to the grave. I feel constantly ashamed of the troughs in my knowledge concerning my country’s tyrant history. British education falls short in many areas and historical accountability is definitely an item. Of course, such horrors are not only staining the hands of Britain.

The sanctioned robbery of innocent babes from loving arms can be found on a low rung of Canada and America’s history shelf. The “Sixties Scoop”. Unlike the name suggests, the “Scoops” pertained throughout the 50s all the way until the 80s. The government snatched infants from Indigenous families, re-homing them to largely white middle-class families with no knowledge or care for the culture flowing through the baby’s veins. Excluded from their birthright community, and denied access to their heritage. Plucked from the mother who has known them since before their first kick in the womb. An attempt to eradicate indigenous people and ignore their suffering. The Canadian government named the initiative The Indian Act and insisted it was in response to child welfare concerns. Such welfare conditions were the result of poverty and high death rates forced onto them via heinous treatment from said government. Indigenous people were ousted, and placed on reserves. Their children enrolled in schools which focused on assimilation, rife with emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Many children grew sick and perished due to lack of nutrition. Others crumbled into shells of unfulfilled youth.