Sandi's Blog

Armour

 
I am awake, I am alive, and this morning my thoughts are on armour, specifically “academic armour”. Brené Brown spoke of it in her Netflix special but hearing the term caused me to pause her presentation, to take a moment to think of so many Indigenous men and women, working their tushes off for degrees of various types at academic institutions near and abroad.

The ones I value and love the most – the ones who speak as if the only degree they ever achieved is at the feet of their Kokum. I smile as I think of them, certain that they could do academic speak at the drop of a hat, to fit the surroundings or audience they are speaking to, yet they still speak like a Gramma or Auntie or Niece or Daughter, like a Grampa or Uncle or Nephew or Son in everyday conversation. I admire them because to me they have learned without assimilating.

It is the ones lost in academic speak that worry me. Our children so desperate for explanation of what the heck happened, so desperate to break free, so desperate to fit in that they don’t see how education has once again robbed them of a relationship with those that love them – their family. They wear their education like armour as if to say to the world, “See, you can’t look down on me anymore!” only to discover that education did not change their skin colour nor did every previously unattainable door fly open upon their graduation.

I have met many such people in my travels, people whose words I simply do not understand. I used to wear shame in response to their $15 words, unable to understand what I was certain was an important message. Nowadays, I let them carry the burden as I have come to understand the simple truth – I didn’t learn a new language so how can I possibly be expected to understand one when I hear it?

Education can be a blessing for so many, but time and time again it has been the great divider. Families no longer able to converse. Educated looking down on those who have not attained such accolades. Graduates feeling just as much shame about their origins as the students of the residential schools did years ago.

But then we have our modern warriors, the ones who wear suits and regalia. The ones who laugh with Kokums and speak from podiums with equal ease. The ones who wield their degrees as talking feathers as opposed to armour, delivering messages from heart with words for all, rather than simply the educated. The ones who remember that there is wisdom in this world and there is education, and that both are needed. Then as now, they embrace the circle that is our people, turning from imposed hierarchy, allowing for many a beautiful solution to be born in academia while holding space for solutions birthed over tea at an elder’s table.

Today, as the sun awakens to show us a new day, I give thanks for all whose path I cross – those educated in a wide variety of ways in a wide variety of places. All are needed, all are valuable, but I give special thanks for our modern warriors, the men and women who dance proudly in two worlds with grace and care. They understand we don’t need armour. We need connection – to community, to family, to land, to the past, and to the future. We always have.

The advice rings as true now as when my Mother said it – Learn, grow, live. Just don’t ever forget how to talk to your Kokum.
 

I love you!
HUGSSSSSSSS

Sandi
 

***This is an excerpt from Sandi’s most recent book, “I am Awake …”. available for purchase on her website or on Amazon.ca.***