I’m getting ready for Wab Kinew’s visit organized by Vancouver Kidsbooks this Wednesday. I finally read his book The Reason You Walk (2017 edition) from the stack beside my bed. This book brings to life the negative impact of residential schools on the parenting of the children who attended. It is a very personal story of Wab’s relationship with a father suffering from his years in residential school. I will never understand what overtakes people that allow themselves to treat human beings with such cruelty, let alone the most vulnerable. Repeatedly. This is one of the dark stains on Canada’s reputation as a country that champions human rights.
Many of us have witnessed the apology for residential schools to Indigenous People in Canada by Stephen Harper when he was Prime Minister in 2008. The question that lingered was “What now?” Certainly the first step was acknowledging what had happened and why it happened. The attempt to “Kill the Indian in the Child” can only be understood in the context of cultural genocide. As a country, we have a long way to come back from decisions that were made in our infancy as a country but sustained for way too many years after.
Wab Kinew has written a book that is truly a book about acknowledging what has happened but also moving beyond the atrocity of residential schools. Wab Kinew (pg 211) tells us: “Reconciliation is realized when two people come together and understand that what they share unites them and that what is different about them needs to be respected.” That is an achievable goal to strive towards. And I am inspired.
The title of the book, The reason you walk or “Ningosha anishaa wenjii-bimoseyan” comes from the lyrics of an Anishinaabe travelling song. Wab Kinew’s dad, Ndedeiban, passed on the teaching to him: The words are interpreted as a direct message from the Creator aka God (The Reason You Walk, pg. 252):
- “I am the reason you walk. I created you so that you might walk on this earth.
- I am the reason you walk. I gave you motivation so you would continue to walk even when the path became difficult, even seemingly impossible.
- I am the reason you walk. I animate you with that driving force called love, which compelled you to help others who had forgotten they were brothers and sisters to take steps back toward one another.
- And, now my son, as that journey comes to an end, I am the reason you walk, for I am calling you home. Walk to me on that everlasting road.”
This book is as much about a father-son relationship as it is about larger political issues. It helped me to better understand my own mother’s long lingering journey towards death. And the all too soon deaths of my aunt and brother. This book is testament to the fact that different faith traditions can speak universal truths that cross religion denominations. As human beings, we are all on the same journey of joys, defeats, celebrations and sorrows. The end goal is to allow people to define their own journey and support each other along the way.
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