Minister’s Message
I would like to thank the members of the Kamloops United Church Reconciliation Exploration (REC) for arranging this Sundays worship service for National Aboriginal Peoples Sunday. One of the things we were desirous of doing was to let indigenous voices speak in the service and my thanks to those voices.
I found this poem this past week which spoke to me. It is by Tyler Pennock, a Cree author who teaches at Fleming College in Peterborough and at the University of Toronto. I would like to thank Tyler for his permission to use this poem in our KUC newsletter.
It was in a boardroom by Tyler Pennock It was in a boardroom that I witnessed the latest killing A room filled with knowledgeable white people trying to understand what we offer shaking their heads not grasping the method, our language asking - Would that be recognized by others? (Academics, I presume) Not seeing the power their world had over the space It was in this place that I saw the latest casualty it was in the silence of the only Indigenous woman in the room and the anxiety that I could recognize beaten out of us by the assertion that we were free to speak (but not able) and the ignorance that laid itself that day in the room, on the table, and covered the room in shame a shame that white people create but can't see I witnessed a murder here this day when a woman's voice was silenced with a silent hand that we all recognize whether it was in a boardroom a jail cell a distant farm a space between trees and approaching headlights or in the face of an officer, standing tall, holding someone's jacket and shoes something they may never see and it scares me •
Blessings for the coming week, Michael