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We cannot hate those we have come to empathize with. My next book project, for which I am seeking public funding through GoGetFunding, will show the reader the very real circumstances Native women experienced in the residential school system, from the moment they and their siblings were kidnapped by agents to the day their own children were kidnapped and on to the present day challenges they face as the recipients of the effects of a multi-generational assault on their families just because they were Native.Please repost or forward the URL for my funding page to anyone you feel may be interested in either following my progress or donating funds.
https://assets.gogetfunding.com/project/our-mothers-voices-%28working-title%29

Just posted the above on my facebook author page -- my first foray into attracting funding.

If you are interested, but unsure about funding this project, please understand that you are contributing to the healing of an ancient wound, one that is still an open sore in Canada. For a cogent discussion of how this plays out in the media and our hallowed halls of power in Ottawa, check out this blog by Montreal lawyer/activist, apihtawikosisan:

http://apihtawikosisan.com/2011/11/30/dealing-with-comments-about-attawapiskat/

If the term "drunken Indian" still resonates for you, ask yourself how well anyone would re-integrate into any society if they had been forcefully taken from their family home at the age of 5 or 6, separated from siblings, denied contact with parents and other relatives, denied their own culture, language and traditions, often violently -- for the next 10 years, only to be cast back into the former family home without preparation, counselling, support or even, in some cases, advance warning.

Now, flip that coin and be the parent whose child was simply taken by a government agent, a parent with no legal recourse to even demand to see your child once a year, a parent who for ten years does not know where their child is or whether their child is even alive and whose every effort to find out is met with stonewalling.

When this happens to one child in one family, it is devastating. It can be the catalyst for anyone from any segment of society to descend into substance abuse to ease the pain. Imagine this has happened to multiple generations of every family you know.

Now, you're getting it...