Last night I went to see the movie ‘Indian Horse’. It is based on Richard Wagamese’ novel by the same name. It is an excellent movie but hard to watch as it brings the viewer face to face with the often brutal and extremely racist treatment of the indigenous peoples of Canada. It tells the story of the young boy, Saul, who is captured and taken to a Residential School. What he experiences there sends him down a road of pain, heartache and self-reproach. Despite the way he excels at hockey he cannot break free of the prejudice of being “Indian”. The way this young boy, and then young man, is treated is shameful; shameful on the part of the church and also on the part of the Canadian government. It is hard to accept that this is part of our history and also that many still don’t want to face up to it. I wager there will be more people going to see the other films which rank higher on the entertainment scale than there will be seeing ‘Indian Horse’. I am recommending it to everyone I see.
I had errands to run this morning, I am in the office now, I have a meeting later today and over all this hangs the cloud of ‘Indian Horse’. It won’t leave me – the tragedy of abuse and bigotry. This seems to be my week of coming face to face with that piece of history. On Sunday night here at BUC we watched the movie ‘Trick or Treaty’. The movie explored the government machinations with our Indigenous people around treaties – especially Treaty #9. Friday night I am going to see a movie being shown in Barrie called ‘Truly and Humbly: Memories of the First Apology’. So while I am feeling enlivened and pressured with the necessity of yard work and gardening I see the frivolousness of such activity when placed against the backdrop of the terror that some people live by. Some days I might say my life has been blessed but really what it is is just fortunate. I have been lucky pure and simple.
I am blessed to have at hand novels and films like ‘Indian Horse’ that take me from superficiality to the depth of the human experience. My friend Janet, also a blog reader, provided me with this great quote from Richard Wagamese (final) book Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations:
Every year, once spring has sprung, my world regains proper proportion because baseball is back. I love the central metaphor of the game – all of us helping each other to make it home. Funny how a game can teach us so much about life . .
Thank you, Richard for reminding me, through your words, that I have a job to do in helping everyone also make it home.
