Reacting to the Belcourt and Deerchild poems by

The exhaustion of trauma - Sharon Chavez

2023-10-10 00:13:35 UTC

In my opinion, Billy-Ray Belcourt explains generational trauma by analyzing the powerful link between history and physical places. For example, I interpret the line "love keeps us busy while the smoke clears" as the author showing the reader that while individuals, families and communities are still existing, living regular lives and loving each other, the consequences of the trauma children went through in residential schools is still felt. The lines everyone worships feelings they don’t have names for but no one is talking about it" and "history screams into the night but it sounds too much like the wind" alludes to the inability or immense difficulty of talking about traumatic experiences. The poem "Ode to North Alberta" gives me a feeling of an exhausted person, tired of fighting the inner turmoil of trauma passed down between generations.

Next, Rosanna Deerchild's poem feels righteously angry. Hearing politicians talk about issues they have no personal or familial connection to can be aggravating as they don't deal with the consequences, but in many ways benefit from what brings others suffering. I see the last line "anyway it was a long time ago" as the author portraying someone who wants to let the topic go, because they have experience the same event time and time again.

Both poems seem to portray being tired of feeling certain emotions and experiencing things, but in different ways. I appreciate reading both perspectives.

Poems of Belcourt and Deerchild

2023-10-11 02:24:48 UTC

The two poems are clearly deep thoughts of trauma and dreadful past. Both authors share a very dark and tragic memory. I can feel the pain, anguish and at the same time frustration and disappointment that despite the initiation of Truth and Reconciliation Commission, not much has been done because not all people are looking, or not many people care to listen. I was struck by the lines from Billy-Ray Belcourt’s poem that says, “history lays itself bare at the side of the road but no one is looking”. It feels like the truth is still hidden even though it is already out there in the open. There is also a line in Rosanna Deerchild’s poem that struck me that states, “to speak it is to become torn from the choking”, which for me is very powerful because it means the story is obviously unspeakable and painful yet not many people understand the impact and irreparable damage residential schools brought to Indigenous peoples. The poems cry out for true justice. - Everett

Echoes from the past by poems - (Nuket)

2023-10-13 17:55:57 UTC

After reading these two poems, which touch on the truth of residential schools in Canada, I felt a mix of emotions - sorrow, helplessness and empathy and I realized more about the residential schools' dark history and the trauma inflicted upon indigenous communities.
Both poems address the pain and trauma stemming from residential schools and show the idea that real history has been overlooked and misunderstood. While "Mama’s Testament" is direct and confrontational, in the "Ode to Northern Alberta" is used metaphors and indirect references.
The titles of the poems are telling in their own right. "Ode to Northern Alberta" alludes to a tribute, but as one delves into the poem, I understand that it's an ode to resilience, pain, history, and survival. On the other hand, "Mama’s Testament: Truth and Reconciliation" uses the phrase 'truth and reconciliation' - a reference to efforts in Canada to address the abuses of the residential school system and demonstrates us the true understanding and reconciliation may be more complex than words.

Reaction to the Poems - Lysandra Mahendran

2023-10-15 00:05:31 UTC

My initial feelings after reading both of these poems and after knowing the history of residential schools are feeling a sense of a heavy heart and anger. It hurts to read these first accounts of either living through these experiences and knowing family who have been through them. Although both of their perspectives are different, both poems scream trauma that will never fade. The similarities are the feeling of being tired and how the survivors feel a sense of loneliness in their pain. I love the similarities in the title; it seems like Rosanna’s poem really emphasizes “Mama’s testament” or the evidence and specifics that everyone “needs” to read to relate. Billy-Ray’s title also is a poem directed to everyone, to listen and to realize the truth.

Week 6 Reaction To These Two Poems Aarish Saleem

2023-10-17 19:54:37 UTC

My feelings after reading these two poems is just very sad and almost going into tears because from the message sending of these two poems, it sounds like these two have had family including themselves and/or whether that's kids, uncles, relatives...etc. be in these residential schools which after the readings I know are learning institutions that are the complete opposite of sunshine and rainbows. Yes to me there weren't really any similarities but more differences aside from both poems being about residential schools. The " Mama's Testament: Truth and Reconciliation" made it sound like this person has had one too many negative experiences with residential schools while the other poem is just saying the past was negative but lets only worry about what lies ahead of us now. The title of " Mama's Testament: Truth and Reconciliation" is key because it just talks about exactly what and how bad residential schools were and people who havent experienced them have no idea what its like. The "Ode to Northern Alberta" title is good as it gives a light tone about the tragedies of past life but to be proud of where we are today in the future.

Aarish Saleem

Reacting to the Belcourt and Deerchild poems

2023-10-18 01:40:29 UTC

When I started reading the poems I felt pain, sadness emotion, how the situation described that went through hard times and how much this pain still has impacted on Indigenous community over years. The fear and terror that kids had led to dominate children's lives, made them wake up with horror dreams and can't sleep peacefully. These kids weren't treated as human beings, they were treated like animals suffering from physical abuse, violence and they had forced them to cut their hair. I feel with a broken heart because there are not enough words to describe injustice and the monster where kids saw in residential schools.

There are some differences between these two poems. In the "Mama's Testament: Truth and Reconciliation" it feels like this person has had more negative emotion and experience with residential school. For example, “ I’m almost seventy and you want me to share my story then here it is here in the unwritten here in the broken lines of my body that can never forget” while the second poem "Ode to Northern Alberta" says the past was painful but let’s focus foreword about our new generation in future.

I think the title of "Mama's Testament: Truth and Reconciliation" is trying to tell us how the residential school was bad and those children were treated in a very aggressive way. However, The title for "Ode to Northern Alberta" talks on past life and how we survived, but we should be thankful for what we have today which can raise awareness in our community in the future.

Arda Yaghobian

Reacting to the Belcourt and Deerchild poems - Daniella Nuevos

2023-10-21 02:04:20 UTC

Reading "Ode to Northern Alberta" and "Mama's Testament: Truth and Reconciliation" has been deeply moving. The disturbing past of residential schools and their significant effects on Indigenous communities were exposed in these poems. "Mama's Testament" makes a direct, heartfelt call for truth and forgiveness, while "Ode to Northern Alberta" beautifully examines identity and longing. The titles have significance since the former hinted to a complicated relationship with the region, while the latter emphasized the pressing need for understanding and healing. The two poems, despite their different styles, are similar in that they confront and acknowledge the terrible legacy of Canada's past, a theme that connects with my journey of learning about this country.

Poems-Gursimran Samra

2023-10-21 03:47:01 UTC

Ode to Northern Alberta:

While reading the poem Ode to Northern Alberta, I felt such a negative and positive relationship throughout the poem. The author showed pain and strength in each sentence. I felt how moving the poem was, so symbolic, the Indigenous people are so resilient, they are thrown so much hatred and maltreatment and they carry on with pride and strength to carry on. “Love keeps us busy while the smoke clears.” was a quote that I felt so much warmth in, the Indigenous people have such good and heartfelt connections with their communities and families. When the author mentions his not yet “mooshum” running from a residential school and going back over again it was another example of overcoming. The past and present are so important, but yet we never hear of it, it's all lost with our general population, “history screams into the night but it sounds too much like the wind”. The title was direct to who and where the author was talking to and about.

Mama’s Testament: Truth and Reconciliation:

When I read Mama’s Testament I immediately felt sadness and anger, I was moved to tears. When we learned the history of residential schools in class I was quite literally in disbelief. I could not believe that in a country like Canada, there was such a horrific history, with so many privileged people living here, how was there no one to object? It's unbelievable that this was supported, this type of conversion, cruelty and murder. In our current day, Indigenous people have received apologies from our government and to us it seems great, but after reading this, is a sorry all they need for hundreds of years of mistreatment and unfairness “ever since that white guy nete in Ottawa said he was sorry as if he knows anything about those places…you can’t say sorry for those things for what happened there he’s got no right”? The title of the poem caught my eye, it made it feel so personal to me as if it was my mother, any mother is a mother and any mother could be mine. The author made the title so personal and powerful. Truth and reconciliation are other parts of it, something we all need to incorporate and both poems definitely show this.

Both poems mention residential schools, one is symbolic and one is direct and harsh. The authors mention people and places responsible, they both give the credit and blame to who they mean. The poems are an expression of each of the author's experiences, I appreciate them both so much in their respective ways.

Throughout the week while working on this course I find myself coming back to this poem, it is the most moving poetry I have seen.

Reaction to the Poems of Belcourt and Dearchild

2023-10-22 21:40:08 UTC

Because of the hurt, suffering, and devastation caused by residential schools in Canada, reading the poems "Ode to Northern Alberta" and "Mama's testament: truth and reconciliation" made me feel sorrowful. Despite the passage of many years, the trauma and its aftereffects continue to haunt and have an impact on the lives of victims, their families, and communities. I understand how difficult it must be to move on from a painful past filled with undesirable experiences and abuses and to rebuild or regain what has been lost: identity, freedom, connection, happiness, and a sense of belonging. Although "Mama's testament: truth and reconciliation" addresses the painful personal experience of a victim of the Residential School and "Ode to Northern Alberta" gives the idea of how challenging for the Indigenous individual to build a community after losing identity and being disconnected from the land or community, I think both poems convey a powerful message to the reader to learn and understand the truth of Canada’s history, particularly the negative impact of the painful experience of Residential School which is surprisingly mentioned on both poems.

The significance of the poem’s title is to reflect the overall content, idea and message of the poem to the reader. By simply reading the title, the reader will immediately recognize that "Mama's testament: truth and reconciliation" was based on a personal experience while "Ode to Northern Alberta" tells us the general experiences or stories that relate to the region. With the title of the poems, I can tell that Canada’s history has an unknown story and experiences that affect not only Indigenous individuals but also the community that need to be shared and honoured to support the healing and reconciliation process.

Ma. Mercedes Palomo

Responding to and reflecting on poetry

2023-10-22 22:05:02 UTC

My true feelings about them moved me to tears and made me cry. I had the impression that I could actually sense their anguish and helplessness. The feeling was one of helplessness and hopelessness. The traumas that history has brought them have affected them. Long-term abusers are more likely to harbour animosity toward all facets of society as adults and behave in ways that are detrimental to society. This damaging influence can spread from one generation to the next. The scars left by such pervasive repercussions of historical errors take a very long time to heal. people's self-esteem and sense of identity have been destroyed by the residential school system, which also deprived them of their own language and culture and instilled in them the stigma that "you're not as good as the white " for generations. It will take many generations to reverse this detrimental effect. I believe that we should use our new historical ability to repair the harm that has already been done to them. While we can do well, we cannot forget this history, and we should constantly be reminded of our mistakes.
chunyun liu

The Hurtful Truth- Martina Hunter

2023-10-23 02:39:54 UTC

As I read the two poems I felt a wave of emotions. Such powerful words, deep with sorrow and pain. Ode to Northern Alberta takes you thorough the thoughts of Billy-Ray Belcourt as he/she grieves the loss of family and friends who lost their lives in residential schools. The feeling of undeniable grief, with no one to take accountability. In the poem it was stated "history lays itself bare
at the side of the road but no one is looking. History screams into the night
but it sounds too much like the wind". When I read those lines over again it made me think, history is truly all around us, the happy moments and the sad but it becomes buried as time passes and only those with true connection and appreciation keep the stories , testimonies and honor alive. Mama’s testament by Rosanna Deerchild had a personal connection, the poem spoke about her feelings as a survivor of residential schools. When you read the poem her words feel like she's speaking to your personally and venting her frustration. Her life was taken from such a young age with no support, no family and no love, all those happy emotion's and things she held dear, were taken from her and replaced with fear, anger, hurt and loneliness. A similarity I noticed between the two poems were the lines "in the 1950s, my not-yet Mooshum ran away from a residential school in Joussard, Alberta. As an adult he kept coming back despite knowing heaven is nowhere near here" in Ode to Northern Alberta then similarly in Mama’s testament by Rosanna Deerchild "you just tried to forget about it leave it behind some of us did some of us are still trying it always finds you though drags you back" these two are similar in the sense that both have known someone who felt or personally had the feeling that the trauma never leaves you, even after you die or are released it is engraved in your mind body and heart. One line that really struck me was when Rosanna Deerchild said "when we went back home told them what was going on in those schools 3 still got sent back every year less of us came home still they said nothing until we were nothing just empty skins" the fact that the parents affected by residential schools could not save their children and were forced to send them back, makes your heart break because most of those children probably felt betrayed and hurt wondering why their parent's would send them to such and awful place knowing their not safe or being treated well. I feel the titles really align with the poems because they are personalized
and say exactly what the poems are or are specifically about.

Reflection on Residential Schools

2023-10-23 19:40:05 UTC

Reflection on Residential Schools

After watching the video and reading the journals related to the residential schools in Canada, I am deeply overwhelmed by the sorrows faced by the indigenous people. The indigenous people or the Aboriginals who are regarded as the first native of the land face so much pain and distress. Throughout their lives, they face a lot of humiliation starting from the very beginning of the cycle, that is when they are very young and sent to residential schools. In schools they face a lot of ignorance and isolation. They are forced to forget their history and identity. They are secluded and often punished if they want to socialize with other kids in school. They are mistreated by nuns who grab them by their throat and punish brutally. They are treated so badly that they are forced to forget the incident as soon as it happens. They are not even allowed to discuss the incident with their fellow classmates. The indigenous children are deprived from proper food and clothing. Many a times it is seen that in the far future, the children develop diabetes, arthritis, etc due to negligence. They suffer from depression due to prolonged period of torture.

Previously, I did not know so profoundly the politics that goes on regarding the indigenous people. After taking this course and reading a lot of materials related to this topic it made me aware of the brutal consequences faced by the indigenous people. Besides feeling very sorry for them, I am also happy to know that Canada has The Truth and Reconciliation Centre that acknowledged the brutal mistreatments faced by the indigenous people. It gave justice to these people by acknowledging their hardships and had shut down these kinds of schools. However, mistreatments and deprivation of right of indigenous people still goes on, although in a lower scale compared to what had happened 100 years back.

In order to create awareness amongst the young generations, we can carry out campaigns and programs that will invite people to stand beside the aboriginal people. We can share leaflets amongst people, where they will get to know about the troubles of the indigenous people and how they could be solved by being united as a whole body. I hope that a little initiative by every individual, might help to bring a great change in the present and future of these thriving indigenous people.

Padlet

ravi2213rk — 2023-10-25 20:24:03 UTC

It has been quite poignant to read "Ode to Northern Alberta" and "Mama's Testament: Truth and Reconciliation". These poems revealed the troubling history of residential schools and their profound impact on Indigenous communities. While "Ode to Northern Alberta" masterfully explores identity and longing, "Mama's Testament" makes a clear and genuine plea for forgiveness and the truth. The titles are important since the former alluded to a complex relationship with the area, while the latter stressed the urgency of mending and understanding. Despite having different styles, the two poems have one thing in common: they both address and acknowledge the horrific legacy of Canada's past, which is a theme that resonates with my research of this nation.

Considering Residential Schools

2023-10-28 00:36:59 UTC

I started crying because of how I really felt about them. It seemed as though I could literally feel their pain and helplessness. It was an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and powerlessness. They have been impacted by the tragedies that history has brought upon them. Adults who have been abused for an extended period of time are more likely to harbor resentment toward all members of society and act in ways that are harmful to it. It is possible for this harmful impact to pass from one generation to the next. It takes a very long time for the wounds caused by such widespread consequences of historical mistakes to heal. The residential school system removed people's sense of identity and self-worth, stripped them of their own language and culture, and implanted in them the stigma for decades that "you're not as good as the White." It will take more generations to undo this harmful influence. I think we ought to make advantage of our newfound historical capacity to make amends for the damage that has already been done to them. Even if we are capable of doing good, we must always be reminded of our faults and this past.

Rishi Patel