A plains Ojibwa and a woman of Polish origin discover their common values while protesting the Ukraine invasion. May we all encourage peace, understanding and human rights.
When I arrived at the Russian Embassy one recent day with my little Ukrainian flag, I noticed a man with two big flags, one Ukrainian and one I didn’t recognize.
“It’s a First Nations flag,” he said. “I passed by on my bike one day, saw the protesters, and decided I should join them.”
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Daryle Evan Kent is Plains Ojibwa, who are also Anishinaabe, one of many Algonquian-speaking peoples in North America. I am originally Polish. Daryle does not speak his native language because it was forbidden at the reservation school, and very few people spoke it at home. The presence of the RCMP and the church was intimidating; challenging their policies could result in a loss of social services.
But he got to know Ukrainian people in the area. Mostly farmers. He heard about Russia’s role in Ukraine during the Second World War and about the famine before that. He had a natural affinity for a people attacked, dispossessed and killed.
“What is that symbol on the First Nations flag?” I asked. “The large black bird?”
It is not a real bird, not an eagle, Daryle explained. “It represents the Thunderbird, the Universal Spirit. This symbol is carved in stone in many places among the First Nations in Canada and parts of the United States.”
As we spoke, I wondered how much immigrants, whether recent or generations ago, knew about the First Nations, how many understood their struggle. From my own experience, I would say not many.
Do Canadians understand that their safe haven was once the home of an independent people, defeated and colonized by an imperial power, then systematically oppressed by the colonists?
This is what so many of us were escaping when we came to Canada — whether the clearances in Scotland, the Irish famine, war, dispossession and deportations, colonialism in many parts of the world, oppression, persecution.
Daryle and I met because we both wanted to protest Russia’s attack on a peaceful, sovereign nation. What struck me about his presence was his generosity of spirit. His own people have endured generations of displacement and discrimination, with families and communities destroyed. It took a long time for Canada to acknowledge this, and even then, grudgingly.
In our multicultural society, we have grown accustomed to recognizing the painful history of our many immigrant communities with special events, or with dedicated “heritage months.” How ironic that a country such as ours for so long dismissed the harsh reality of the conquest and colonization that the First Nations were subjected to.
Truth and Reconciliation Week is coming up. I hope that, along with official events, the week will be marked by a generosity of spirit on the part of all of us.
Imagine a country of immigrants respectfully acknowledging the injustice that their new country was founded upon. Imagine the many diasporas using their peaceful country as a platform to encourage peace and understanding, conflict resolution and human rights, in their original homelands and — most of all — here.
I hope that when Daryle and I will meet again at a protest, the Thunder Bird flag will be there, and the Anishinaabe Universal Spirit will inspire all of us to look beyond our own communities.
Irene Tomaszewski, former editor of cosmopolitanreview.com, lives in Ottawa. Daryle Evan Kent is Plains Ojibwa.
