Cry of The Indigenous Child

Cry of The Indigenous Child

written by: Saher Lalani

 

for the Indigenous children stolen
by the residential school system

 

I was an Indigenous child
born on my ancestral land.
Colonial settlers took that
land they now call Canada.

I was an Indigenous child,
after I began to walk and talk
I was forcibly sent to school
many miles away from home.

I was an Indigenous child
chastised for speaking Ojibwe.
They shackled me to the bed
and put needles on my tongue.

I was an Indigenous child
locked up by my caregivers
in a dark closet without food.
Why did they torture me?

I was an Indigenous child
assaulted by the priests.
They crushed my small body
in the middle of the night.

I was an Indigenous child
whipped by the nuns at school
for writing my traditional name.
Why did they humiliate me?

Echoes from my past can be
heard today. Even though
my death is not recorded,
my spirit reigns.