The Children’s Singer, The Indian, and The Lie
The following is based on the opinion and experience of the author. Any terms used in this article are meant to highlight the history and understanding of this subject matter within its context.
I grew up in Northwestern Ontario for sixteen years of my life. My family settled in a small town in an area known as Sunset Country in the Province of Ontario, Canada. We lived 240 km/149 miles from the City of Kenora to the west and the City of Thunder Bay to the east. There were little logging and mining towns scattered north to Hudson’s Bay and south to the Minnesota border that weaved through multiple Cree and Ojibwe Nations in every direction. Many of the kids I attended school with and befriended were from Native families that either lived in remote rural communities and bussed in or boarded with local families, or they lived in town throughout the school year. It was impossible not to be exposed to Indigenous culture as a child, and in fact, it was respectfully built into our school curriculum at a young age.
By eight years old, I knew about the horrifying effects of residential schools, the economic plight of First Nations communities, their values and customs, and how the trauma that they endured affected generations of family members, including some of my closest friends, who were like sisters. I feel nothing short of blessed to have grown up around such a deep and complex culture and community, even when surrounded by the dark realities of the intergenerational destruction of these communities and their families by European settlers and the governmental structures that imposed themselves upon the people of these tribes. It also gifted me a different perspective and profound respect for First Nations people that I do not often witness with other non-indigenous people ignorant of the cultural diversity, customs, and values of these unique communities across North America.
I recently attended a conference held in partnership with a local Indigenous tribe and Early Childhood Educators. This conference is held annually in British Columbia, Canada, and is based on promoting the value of children’s role in society and the shared values of the Early Childhood and Indigenous communities to empower children and their caregivers to create a compassionate and prosperous society through a shared vision. I attended this conference one year prior, which involved various self-care and reflection workshops via Zoom. This year’s conference was held in person at a conference center and hosted three keynote speakers in a dining room setting.
The conference opened with The Young Wolves Dancers, a traditional indigenous group of dancers consisting of two adult male leaders and twelve children from about five to sixteen years of age. The dance group intends to teach the children the traditional ways through movement and dance while demonstrating their knowledge of local indigenous values, namely respect and honor for those within and outside their community.
The dances were welcoming, empowering, and, as always, set to a rhythm that taps into the human heart and soul. You cannot witness such a performance without your eyes welling up and experiencing a profound feeling of gratitude and love for the gift that the First Nations people have offered us. But with all due respect to the dancers and the intentions of their gift, it ends with several children raising a closed fist in the air, a symbol adopted by this local tribe, signifying the power of the community and the plight of the suffering that they must now fight to heal. The symbol they have chosen is one with other connotations that the individuals involved are either innocently ignorant of, choosing to ignore, or have been coerced into believing it is harmless by the very governmental structures that continue to subjugate and abuse their people.
The jolt of one’s fist in the air is a symbol with a long history steeped in political and social upheaval and controversy. Once viewed as a revolutionary symbol of anarchy or resistance to draconian labor laws in the middle 1800s that led to Marxism, this symbol has more recently been adopted by groups such as Black Lives Matter, an organization that publicly claims to promote communist doctrine, and other such cult-like and politically violent organizations.
From my experience, the symbols that have empowered indigenous communities for millennia would suffice for symbols of empowerment and healing. The raised and closed fist symbolizes a dangerous ideology that has left devastation and genocide across the world and is undoubtedly allowing an already devastated and traumatized community to fall into the hands of fascist tyrants like sheep to the slaughter. We must be cautious of the signals we wave and their complex meanings, particularly amid young, innocent minds.
The Warrior
The first speaker was Jared Qwustenuxun Williams. He is an indigenous chef and a well-respected member and leader in his community and throughout Canada. I attended a workshop that he hosted the year prior. Jared is a fantastic storyteller and what I would call a ‘storykeeper’ with a comprehensive knowledge of the land he lives upon, and his Coast Salish traditions and teachings passed down to him by his elders. Jared understands the value of preserving his cultural traditions and values. He appears to be an attentive and strong father figure for his children and a beacon of light in his community and the greater indigenous family he has undertaken the responsibility of upholding. I loved hearing Jared speak about his history, his family, his community, and his values. I believe he possesses the energy and power of a shaman, a gift that he freely gives others no matter culture, class, or creed.
Jared told his story about how he was raised by his grandmother in a home full of other family members’ children, a family dynamic not unusual in indigenous families, both reflective of the “it takes a village to raise a family” values that First Nations communities hold and the reality of the broken family structures that are a result of intergenerational trauma via the residential school system. Jared was kind, insightful, and willing to give of himself with a confident vulnerability. He is proud of his children and a mentor to indigenous men who struggle to come to terms with their self-worth and purpose.
There was one aspect of Jared’s speech that left me unsettled. When speaking about his youngest son, Jared mentioned that he likes to wear dresses. Although accepting of his son’s impulses, in the same breath, he denied any intention of his son wanting to transition while waving his hand at the audience in a defensive action, then alluding that he might “ one day see my son on Drag Race”.
As a mother, early childhood educator, and as an individual, I believe that children’s imaginations and ability to challenge perceptions are essential to their development of self in relation to the outer world. It is a part of their soul development. But the current state of the media and the political propaganda that is creating polarity and pumped into our daily lives must be considered.
Children learn by seeing and emulating. That is how they make sense of their world. We know boys have been wearing dress-like clothing since the dawn of time for practical and social reasons, and men wear skirts, kilts, and other such attire as part of their cultural tradition, including the regalia of indigenous dancers, but when does the line blur into peer pressure to conform to an ideology that sends us down the wrong path to our own destruction.
Values and boundaries maintain a healthy societal balance. Without them, we will descend into chaos. We must take heed and notice what malevolent forces are influencing our children and choose to guide them in a direction that reflects our values as a family and community to create honorable and honest individuals. This is increasingly important as masculine roles and values are being chipped away and attacked to weaken the foundations of our society.
The Fire Dancer
The second speaker was Madelaine McCallum, a multi-talented indigenous dancer, performer, guide, mentor, speaker, and overall inspirational human being. Her candid story about her childhood, which was fraught with violence, neglect, abuse, and hardship was heart-wrenching, and, unfortunately, a shared experience with many First Nations children, including many close friends of mine. She uses her voice to promote forgiveness, resilience, self-love, and personal power. Her life experience reminds us of the degradation of indigenous communities and the realization that we all strive to be loved, understood, and supported on our journey. Madelaine is healing years of pain and trauma by giving her heart to others.
In her speech, Madelaine spoke about First Nations values communicated through her native language and the differences in how it forms her perceptions versus the English language. Like many ancient languages that have been preserved and passed down through generations, there is deep feeling expressed in a single word. These languages connect us to our past, our cultural values, and our belief systems. Through words and expressions, they empower us to see a greater purpose and encourage compassion and empathy.
While she was guiding us through her thoughts on language, Madelaine was comparing her language with English. She pointed out that English expresses itself in the negative by defining words by the negative context they illustrate as opposed to the positive perspective of indigenous languages. Although her claims have a solid foundation of truth, she did not speak of the long history and origins of the English language and the changes that have occurred through the centuries.
Modern English is quite different than Old English, which was immersed in poetic notes of feeling, inspiration, and a deeper understanding of the life of the soul, think Shakespeare. Modern English only began to develop somewhere around the 1600s. If we look back at the origin of English, Latin is a language with central ties to spiritual life and complex meanings built into its word definitions.
All ancient languages have a connection with the spirit of human life and there are scores of books written about this subject accessible to everyone. We must not demonize a language without understanding its history and development. English has transformed more than any other language because it is used universally and, therefore, exposed to the cultural changes of the greater global society. With the onset of the technological age, English has essentially taken on the spirit of the time, and unfortunately, at the expense of our innate understanding of soul life and what it means to be human.
The Children’s Singer
The third speaker was Raffi, the revered singer of children’s music who has created devout fans of Generation X and Millennial parents and early childhood educators. I attended a workshop two years ago that Raffi hosted. He has spent the last several years promoting and discussing Child Honouring, a concept that brings children into the fold of societal growth and prosperity by honoring their innate gifts and value as human beings and discussing the perceptions we have of children and their role in our society. Although this is an important discussion and worthy mission, Raffi’s overuse of the word ‘social justice’ and attaching it to his mission sends sirens blaring in my head. Nonetheless, I sat patiently and listened intently and respectfully to his presentation.
As in Raffi fashion, he opened with a familiar song as he spoke and illustrated with intensity his mission and motivation to place children at the forefront of the global conversation in partnership with the United Nations. Once settled in his position, he unhooked the microphone from its stand and began to pace the stage. He told a story about his father’s ridicule over a C grade he received in school, then proceeded to bolster a war cry to resist the patriarchy as much of the audience, mainly non-indigenous women, let out a wild cheer and applause. I sat and watched as some of the indigenous community members turned their backs in silence or squirmed in their seats while others joined in the accolades. Raffi continued his patriarchal tirade, repeating the term multiple times as he suggested to the audience that they watch the “Barbie” movie, then he praised Taylor Swift for her man-hating musical lyrics — a singer I consider tone-deaf and talentless at best.
The tempo of Raffi’s voice turned from a calm and caring individual with a mission to lift the lives of children up to a cool-aid-drinking evangelist salivating at the trough. What an embarrassment to the local indigenous community that witnessed this public display of hypocrisy. I wondered to myself if Raffi even understood the meaning of ‘patriarchy’ in its true sense instead of this bastardization adopted by the woke mob to convince us that masculinity is evil. Such as divisive distraction from the true evils that plague our society, many influencing the very organizations that support his cause.
Next, Raffi would go on to screech the woke doctrine of climate emergency rhetoric and, you guessed it, social justice. What does this really have to do with children exactly? I mean, most of the climate justice ideals only benefit one group of people while leaving the poor and middle class destitute. Meanwhile, the global elite perpetuating this wildly out-of-touch doctrine continue their gluttonous, greed-driven, and corrupt existence.
Raffi ended his presentation in a tizzy as he walked off the stage only to be called back on for another song. Another resounding applause from the same audience as he exited with his head hung low, disappearing into the back corner of the conference center and then exiting the building.
The conference ended on a high note as several young indigenous boys entered the room and performed various dances that reflected vital male roles in their communities. The best part was when they performed a victory dance and raised their spears up to illustrate a warrior stance. Was this display of masculine power too much patriarchy for Raffi, hence his disappearance?
The boys said their goodbyes and graciously thanked the guests for joining them at the conference. I let out a loud applause for their performance as their community members demonstrated their respect with their arms raised in gratitude, Huy tseep q’u.
Overall, I am blessed to have attended this conference and believe its intentions are pure. I respect Raffi as a singer and performer, but I question his intentions when bringing such divisive politics into the conversation about children and their wellbeing. It is a great responsibility to have such a large public platform in which to speak.
As many institutions, organizations, and educational spaces are further infiltrated by the woke mob and communist ideals, it is pertinent that we speak up when something doesn’t add up.
S. Angell is a published poet, writer, philosopher, and video blogger. She explores various topics, including love, life, death, history, and society from a philosophical perspective. You can find her at https://www.therainydaypoet.com/ or on Instagram @rainydaypoetess
