OWNING IT: ENCOUNTER WITH COLONIAL ATROCITY by Peter Shepherd - Republished

We are reposting this poem by Peter Shepherd. There were two errors in the editing process regarding the Introduction that sneaked by so we are now republishing the work. Apologies to Peter and the readers. - The Editor.

"This is heavy truth," Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir said on July 15, 2021.

When I wrote the poem below in early July, it was days after the Tk'emlups revelation. I immediately thought 'this is just the tip of the iceberg’ and I was clear that we would hear about more, and more. I was 100% convinced that 'thousands of small voices' were yet to be heard.

This horror resonates with the killing fields of Cambodia, the genocide of the Armenians, the holocaust of the Jews, the genocide of the Tutsis (perhaps I sense more the anguish of General Romeo Dallaire), the eradication of the Beothuk in Newfoundland, and on and on.

As a person with white privilege, I know I am pretty blind to how my status has blinded me. But this is where my consciousness, a developing one I hope, is today, so this is how I can speak.

Peter Shepherd

OWNING IT

small voices

under our feet (yes yours and mine)

who worm through our hearts'

reluctance to

hear those

small voices

vibrate for us (yes you and me)

from the earth

to amplify and cry and cry

led by those

small voices

murdered (yes you and me)

by our uniformed and frocked proxies

by negligence and righteousness

stilled those

small voices

by the hands of the worst (yes you and me)

who don't repent,

but obfuscate and perpetuate

penetrate and eliminate

small voices

thousands of

small voices.

Peter Shepherd is a Toronto photographer, sculptor and writer with works occasionally purchased and published. Retired for over 10 years from the Ontario public service and various other careers, he continues his history of volunteering in accessibility, affordable housing and community arts. This is his first publication in CP&R